Books You Must Read – 1984

There are certain books which are ‘required reading’.   It is not to pass an exam, it is to understand society.  It is to get a glimpse of a deeper reality.

1984, written by George Orwell is one of the most important books of all times.

It was published in 1949, long before there was an Internet, when television was in its infancy, when so much of what IS today did not exist.   The foresight of the author, his ability to see where society was going is beyond shocking.

There is a great depth to the story, various factors seamlessly intertwined.

The protagonist, Winston Smith, works for the Ministry of Truth at Airstrip One, which is Great Britain, a province of Oceania.   It is a dystopian world  in a permanent state of war, sometimes with Eurasia, sometimes with Eastasia.

Winston’s job is to insure that the past matches the present and the present exceeds the past.  For example, if rations are dropped from 2 ounces of chocolate per person to 1.5 ounces of chocolate per person, Smith’s job is to go through the archives and change all references to 2 ounces to 1 ounce so that the government can announce that the rations have been increased from 1 ounce to 1.5 ounces.

The people are so stupefied that they can not and will not dispute the fact that last week they got more than this week.

Recently, there has been a rush on the purchase of 1984 due to many interesting parallels, such as Trump insisting he had more people at his inauguration then were at Obama’s, despite the photographs, despite reality.

Terms such as thought police, double-speak, Big Brother, war is peace, 2 +2 = 5, unperson, etc. derived from 1984.

The constant  surveillance, the need to self-censor one’s self, the suppression of rights described in the book are all are reflected in  daily life, from traffic cams to ‘politically correct’ speech.

The ideas in that book open your eyes to what is going on in the world.