Sunday, December 7, 2008

1984

"My novel 1984 is not intended as an attack on socialism, or on the British Labor Party, but as a show-up of the perversions to which a centralized economy is liable. . . I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive." George Orwell covered the idea of totalitarianism, along with addressing the thought that perhaps in the future the ability to corrupt ones psychological mindset with certain regulations may be quite affluent, yet on the flip side he had clearly illustrated the concept that perchance this future system may be more harmful rather than helpful. I have read in the past that Orwell was profoundly concerned by the general cruelties and oppressions that he saw well heeled in many communist countries. Orwell was concerned by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments to monitor and control their citizens. “A reactionary society can force people to do many things which are against their social and physical interests and which may cause them acute discomfort and pain; but I doubt that it can break down the fundamental physiological distinction between pleasure and pain." By reading Howe’s piece and his quote, I am reminded by how I see the terms of Psychological usage in Orwell’s piece mirroring the ways of our American society nowadays. It is a thought that may not be paid much attention to, but to think of how much security has been enforced and changed throughout the years, due to the events of September 11, 2001 and just the new found desire to be safe in general since then, is fairly astonishing. You cannot walk into any grocery store, department store, and liquor store, without being watched. Are these just precautions to serve protection for those rich business owners, or to protect us all, the affluently rich Americans and the severely poor minorities from harms way? Hard curveballs are thrown into people’s daily lives, but I do not agree with Howe in that he doubts that a reactionary society can break down the fundamental, physiological distinction between pleasure and pain. No matter how brainwashed or forced to conform one becomes, one can never lose the ability to distinguish pleasure from pain. I simply refuse to believe so. In addition to Orwell having pondered upon what difficulties the future had in store for any society, I also believe that the media controls every source of information that we, the people of a nation, are being given. The news coverage is all we have to go about, and to decipher the truth about something massive, as did the party in 1984. They controlled every piece of information, and rewrote history to their own liking. We believe what we are conditioned to believe in our world today, but whose to say what is true and what is false, and whether or not the stories we are being led to believe are completely accurate or not. The media controls our society and our thoughts if we continuously let them in to do so, and in turn they will continue to control our pasts, as did the party in Orwell’s 1984.

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