How George Orwell predicted the future?
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” This is the most crucial quote from Orwell’s most famous book, “1984”. And honestly, that sounds kind of familiar nowadays, doesn’t it? Was Orwell right all those years ago? Was he actually a prophet?
More than 70 years after it was published on June 8, 1949, the novel “1984” is still one of the most significant in history. George Orwell’s masterpiece, which describes the dangers of totalitarian rule and censorship, is regularly on Amazon’s bestseller list. Orwell drew inspiration for his writing from various sources, but mostly from the totalitarian tendencies of the Soviet Union and the Third Reich.
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The omnipresence of “Big Brother” in the novel is reminiscent of the personality cult of Stalin or Hitler. At the same time, the tortures of the “Ministry of Love” are reminiscent of the interrogation procedures and methods of the NKVD, the police of the Soviet Union. Orwell’s “spies”, children and young people who were taught to watch and notice “enemies of the state”, the writer based on young Soviet pioneers. They also looked for so-called “enemies” and betrayed them to the NKVD. The “League Against Sex” was inspired by the communist youth union, better known by the abbreviation Komsomol. Although they did not explicitly advocate celibacy, Komsomol members did not encourage sexuality among their members because it was seen as a diminishing commitment to the party.
Also, the slogan “Our new, happy life”, which is shown on television screens in the novel, recalls Stalin’s statement from 1935: “Life has become better, comrades, life has become more cheerful.” Because of such parallels, the book was once banned in the Soviet Union. And that leads to the conclusion that the world has not changed much in the last 70 years since “1984” was published. Namely, in May of this year, the news appeared that Belarus banned the sale of the novel “1984 “. Belarusian journalists who had access to the document imposing the ban did not publish it in order to protect the people who provided them with the document. It is not known how many bookstores and retail chains have received the order. After the war in Ukraine started, social networks actively discussed this dystopian novel. Especially phrases like “war is peace”, “freedom is slavery”, and “Big Brother is watching you”. And in April, Dmitry Silin, an activist and former professional football player from Ivanovo, Russia, decided to share Orwell’s novel “1984” for free on the streets. Of course, that led to him being sued for “spreading fake news” regarding the Russian military.
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Also, the aggressive Russian campaign by state media justifying the invasion of Ukraine has been compared by many to the events in this novel, writes The Guardian. In Russia, strict laws have been introduced that forbid the war in Ukraine to be called an “invasion” but instead try to portray it as an action to “liberate” Ukraine. Similar to what the US has been doing and saying regarding the invasion of the Middle East for the last few decades, but let’s not get into that right now. During a press conference in May of this year, the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, was asked by one person what to say to friends and relatives from the West who believe that Russia is currently the embodiment of the totalitarian state described in the novel “1984”. Zakharova replied: “For a long time, we thought that Orwell described the horrors of totalitarianism, but that is one of the biggest lies. He actually wrote about the end of liberalism. He described how liberalism would lead humanity to a dead end. He did not write about the USSR, but they convinced you to think that he wrote about us. And tell your friends and relatives in the West that they are the ones living in a fantasy world.”
Needless to say, you see the resemblance, right? I mean, who doesn’t? And, no, we’re not just talking about the current war – we’re talking about a global war. One that’s been going on for decades. It’s the ordinary people vs those who are in power. Those who are trying to convince us we have all kinds of freedoms, including The Freedom of Speech, and that we have democracy. But do we, really? Sure as hell doesn’t look like it. We have the gifts of PC, “woke”, and “cancel” culture, just to name a few. And ironically, western leaders call that democracy. When, in reality, it’s exactly how Orwell described, if not worse. Don’t forget; we also have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, the infamous BlackRock, and many more huge companies that are taking our data, collecting it and selling it to who knows who. Essentially they’re spying on us. And it doesn’t even end there. There are cameras everywhere on the streets that are watching your every move. You don’t have any privacy whatsoever in your own home and on your computer or phone! Let’s not even mention that China has gone even way beyond Orwellian predictions. With their face recognition cameras that are literally on every corner. In China, if you cross the street at a red light, even if there’s not a single car on the road, the camera photographs you, and you get punished for it. Sounds totally crazy, right? Well, unfortunately, all of this is true.
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The most important question is – why doesn’t anyone care? Or at least the majority of the people. When Snowden exposed Orwellian USA and the NSA, he got a little bit of attention, and now what? Does anyone even mention him? Does anyone remember or even care? No, sadly. When they unjustly arrested Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who was one of the rare real fighters for freedom of information, did anyone at least protest? Do you even know that he is in one of the worst prisons in London right now, serving a life sentence? That he is locked up with the worst people in the world – murderers, serial killers, baby killers and worse. Do you know that they are trying to extradite him to an even worse prison in the USA? And for what? Spreading information that is, in fact, the truth. But those in power, of course, don’t want to lose their power. So they compare a regular man, who hasn’t hurt anyone ever, on the contrary – tried to help society, with baby killers.
And yet, with all these terrible things happening, we protest in favor of the third, 14th or whatever gender. Somehow, we have time for that, but not for actual fighting. Guess George was really right: “Ignorance is strength.”
So, good job, world! We’re definitely headed in the right direction. And at the end of that road, Orwell will be waiting, and all he’ll say will be: “Ha, told you so!”
