Did Orwell know, or just coincidence?

[Kevslatvin]

With the current talk by AOC of "de-radicalizing extremists" or "de-programing white supremacists" or talk of re education Trump supporters or the PBS lawyer talking of sending Trump supporters kids to re-education camps. Also the talk of funding for a secret agency to monitor American citizens or the attempts to rewrite history aka. "the 1619 project". Sounds so Orwellian. IIRC he meant 1984 as a warning but do you think he had any clue how prophetic 1984 would be or is it just coincidence?

P.S. Don't get me wrong I don't support white Supremacy at all but how does she define who is a white supremacist. Is it as simple as " voted for Trump" or "attended a Trump rally" or actually looking for real evidence of one's involvement in a real white supremacist organization. Seems like a very slippery slope.

[chuckman]

1984 was Orwell's last novel, and he wrote it as an indictment about Stalin and the USSR. I do not think he had a clue what the US would look like 70-something years later. Who could??

[SteyrAUG]

1984 was Orwell's last novel, and he wrote it as an indictment about Stalin and the USSR. I do not think he had a clue what the US would look like 70-something years later. Who could??

Add to that it was a pretty easy thought experiment to realize the inevitable result of communism / socialism. Any kind of "statism" either founded on right wing or left wing politics, where the rights of the individual are secondary to the power of the state, you will end up with more or less the same result.

Monarchies, theocracies, fascism, socialism, communism, etc. none of them go anyplace good. But the real problem is truly free societies such as the early democracies of Greece and Roman Republics can probably never exist again because without obliging the citizenry to support for national defense either through taxes, service or both...such a state would never be powerful enough to defend itself from other super power states that engage in such practices.

The only thing that has prevented a true world war III is our early nuclear monopoly and our demonstrated willingness to use it. And the day we no longer support our military capacity as a super power, that will be the first day of the end of this nation.

Currently we are still "mostly" fighting enemies from within. While terrorists states still strike at us whenever they are able and Russian and China weaken us to the best of their ability with mostly deniable actions it's still a lot better than it might be. If anyone of us actually goes "weapons hot" everybody is going to lose pretty hard. I do not believe any country on Earth is capable of engaging in a "limited" nuclear exchange.

And while Berlin might not be the cold war flashpoint it once was, they better realize that we are going to hit satellite / client states first in any exchange so like it or not they have skin and real estate in this game. They can cry for nuclear disarmament all they wish, the US, Russian Federation and China are only going to disarm to their emergency SHTF stockpile and no further.

North Korea, Pakistan and Iran (if they ever join the club) think they are players but really they will be the first places scratched off the list and then it will be the US, Russia and China seeing if anyone wants to blink.

[Jellybean]

Uh. Apology redacted. Apparently I didn't realize I was a WS.

No white people ever do, that's why we need our moral betters in the media and society to point out our hidden faults so we may abase ourselves properly.
It's amazing how good these people are at finding things out about you that you didn't know...

I’m not white or even close to it but maybe I will just start saying I’m a white supremacist everywhere I go ha ha.

I mean, the leader of the PB is black, as are many of their members (or various 'other than white' races) and apparently they are a WS org, so yeah, I think you fit right in.

[morbidbattlecry]

How many people here have actually read and thought about the Book 1984?

[chuckman]

How many people here have actually read and thought about the Book 1984?

I had to write a 30-some-odd-page paper on it in college circa 1988. Not just the book but all sorts of literary critiques.

[Kevslatvin]

How many people here have actually read and thought about the Book 1984?

I read it but it's been a few years. Kept seeing it referenced on forums so I picked it up.

[SpecWired]

How many people here have actually read and thought about the Book 1984?

My copy is at least 30 years old at this point. First read it in high school, and read it periodically every couple of years. The Orwell essays are also incredibly interesting.

[Lowdown3]

1984 was Orwell's last novel, and he wrote it as an indictment about Stalin and the USSR. I do not think he had a clue what the US would look like 70-something years later. Who could??

1984 depicted three separate world powers, all socialist. Oceania which I believe was meant to represent the UK and USA, East Asia and Eurasia. If I had a guess that was China and Russia respectively.

Orwell states in the book that no one party ever seemed to get to a victory and parties would occasionally switch sides in an attempt to gain some victories. Hence the part where the phrase "Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with East Asia."

In a way, this is a macro view of how global politics have worked since Orwell wrote it. First it was China (East Asia) and Russia (Eurasia) teamed up against the US and UK (Oceania). Then when supposedly Mao had his falling out with USSR then it was claimed that China (East Asia) was siding with the US (Oceania). This would be the Nixon reset up till maybe a little before the turn of the century when Putin became BFF with China.

"How many fingers am I holding up Winston?"

"I see four but I want to see five....."

So yes 1984 was about the horrors of socialism, but it wasn't just the USSR he was warning about.

Animal Farm could be directly related to the USSR, down to the characters.

[okie]

1984 depicted three separate world powers, all socialist. Oceania which I believe was meant to represent the UK and USA, East Asia and Eurasia. If I had a guess that was China and Russia respectively.

Orwell states in the book that no one party ever seemed to get to a victory and parties would occasionally switch sides in an attempt to gain some victories. Hence the part where the phrase "Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with East Asia."

In a way, this is a macro view of how global politics have worked since Orwell wrote it. First it was China (East Asia) and Russia (Eurasia) teamed up against the US and UK (Oceania). Then when supposedly Mao had his falling out with USSR then it was claimed that China (East Asia) was siding with the US (Oceania). This would be the Nixon reset up till maybe a little before the turn of the century when Putin became BFF with China.

"How many fingers am I holding up Winston?"

"I see four but I want to see five....."

So yes 1984 was about the horrors of socialism, but it wasn't just the USSR he was warning about.

Animal Farm could be directly related to the USSR, down to the characters.

This dude gets it.