The abolition of ideas, through the destruction of words to express them.

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	• 1984 George Orwell Signet Classics, 1950 - 267 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

What It Means to Be Human

I read this book because I was growing weary of my own ignorance. One-too-many references to Big Brother amid the post-911 proliferation of video cameras, wire-tapping, and concern about government intrusions into private life pushed me to question my own cultural literacy (thanks to author E.D. Hirsch, Jr. here). My job also sent me to southern Sudan in 2007, during which a colleague noted that I would need to visit a rather remote "Orwellian province". It turns out that province is called Unity State. After reading 1984, I get his drift.

It also occurred to me that the TV phenomenon Big Brother was likely produced by staffers who found themselves in their teens or early adulthood during 1984, while the audience to whom it caters may largely have been born well after that year. Given a generation who knows Big Brother not as the incarnation of thinly veiled government despotism but as the product of CBS Prime Time, there was reason to question more than my own cultural literacy. But what, or whom, we really need to discuss is Winston Smith.

Best I can tell, Winston Smith is me. Modern man; modern society but faced with the reality that government had morphed into political, economic, sociological, technological, and intellectual fiat - its greatest coup perhaps being the subtle control of free thinking. By changing content of archival media, limiting contact with others, or simply eliminating those who dare _remember_, all that matters is current perception, regardless of logical inconsistency. And if this is achieved, then Smith's government (for lack of a better term) is, and always has been, right and just. For if you never learned (or never remember learning) that 2 + 2 = 4, then 2 + 2 = 5 seems quite plausible.

The problem is that Smith dares to remember - dares to become conscious that another manner of thinking exists beyond the required and ubiquitous application of Doublethink, which he describes as follows: "To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself - that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed."

As the book opens, Smith fails to "consciously induce unconsciousness", the mere act of which is considered a crime - Thoughtcrime, to be precise. The sort of awareness with which he is left can culminate in nothing other than action, and action which can culminate in nothing other than death. "He was already dead, he reflected. It seemed to him that it was only now, when he had begun to be able to formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive step. The consequences of every act are included in the act itself. He wrote, 'Thoughtcrime does not entail death: Thoughtcrime IS death.' Now that he had recognized himself as a dead man it became important to stay alive as long as possible."

This book is compelling because of the pains Orwell has taken to conceptualize a world in which government has conquered thought life as the last bastion of liberty. Once memory and perception is controlled, what better way to direct the mindless fervor of the masses than to create focal personifications for polarizing emotions: one to love (Big Brother) and one to hate (Emmanuel Goldstein). As such, manipulated thought can become concentrated action with the purpose of maintaining the entire regime in perpetuity.

It almost seems as if Orwell is trying to answer the question, "How bad could it (government) get?" to which it is tempting to reply, "How realistic is his answer?" Because so many of us, so many Winston Smiths, have seen smatterings of Orwell's answer in recent developments, there is good reason to be guarded and better reason to be proactive in the defense of intellectual freedom. Looking at the China, Burma, North Korea, and even western democracies of our day, it is easy to see hints of Doublethink and more overt evidence of a paralyzing fear of independent thought. But there is little reason to suspect that government can achieve a more frightening end: that of transforming the essence of humankind. Yet this is precisely where Orwell takes the reader. Smith's nemesis O'Brien notes, "The command of the totalitarians was 'Thou shalt.' Our command is 'Thou art.'" While this book is an excellent call to political and intellectual vigilance, the day government controls our essence as humans is the day government merits consideration as deity. Until then, I remain thankful for my ability to think otherwise.

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The abolition of ideas, through the destruction of words to express them.

Truly, a more bleaker look at the future you could never find.
No one can advocate revolution, if the words to express revolution don't exist.
A fascinating concept on the part of Mr Orwell.
This is the only book I couldn't stop thinking about months after I'd read it,
and now with CCTV cameras just about on every street corner, in every city of the world,
makes this story more relevant now then when first published.
If there's a bit of Winston Smith in us all, then there's probably a bit of the O'Brien character too.
Fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.
Down with Big Brother?.... not likely.
This is most deservedly, a Classic.
(First published 1949.)

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Amazing

Orwell was a pioneer in this form of literature. His insight into a "possible" future held more accuracy than I'm sure even he imagined.

The book is a struggle of man vs. ministry. How far will the few in positions of power go to improve their personal ideals in the guise of overall social improvement?

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dark themes. The ending had me in tears.

A very disturbing book

This book is an Orwell classic, all about how totalitarian governments were tricking the people, destroying freedom, and ruining the world. The main character is Winston Smith, a disgruntled middle class office worker who secretly harbors a hatred of The Party. The world in which Winston lives is divided into three super states: Oceana, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Winston lives in London, the capital of Oceana, which is ruled by a totalitarian regime known as The Party, and it's leader Big Brother. The Party does not allow any dissent against it and even thinking rebellious thoughts is a crime. They change history to their liking and falsify endless documents to be in their favor. Winston does not know what is true and what is lies. The Party is constantly watching Winston and he must be careful not to give himself away. He eventually starts a love affair with a woman named Julia, who also hates The Party and all that it stands for. They get in touch with an inner party member named O'Brien who claims to be part of a rebel organization known as the Brotherhood. He is actually a party spy and Winston and Julia are eventually arrested. Winston is interrogated and tortured to try and force him to accept the party ideals. Eventually he is subjected to his worst nightmare, having his face eaten by rats. He begs that they do it to Julia instead, breaking his most important promise not to betray her. His soul destroyed, Winston is released. He no longer loves Julia and has learned to love Big Brother and The Party. This book is a very bleak view of what George Orwell saw the world becoming in 1949. Although it is quite disturbing this book makes you think a lot and is very well written. I recommend this if you like other George Orwell books as well as depressing novels.

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the hobo philosopher

When I was young and read this book for the first time strangely enough I never thought of it as a warning about some other country's type of government. I thought of it as a description of what could happen in my own country if the wrong type of thinking was supported by a majority of the people of my country. I don't know what Mr. Orwell intended it to be but looking at my own country today I still think that my original interpretation was accurate.
I felt the same way about Animal Farm.

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The George Orwell classic with an afterword and bibliography.

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