George Orwell's 1984

The Muffin Man

The Muffin Man

Winger
So just finished reading this tonight. Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was. Utterly incredible read.

Written in 1949 was it a commentary on what had just happened or what he foresaw happening? While we don't have the "Tele screen" in your house monitoring everything you do, for most people literally everything you do is or can be traced through the internet and electronically. And there has actually been a scandal about peoples conversations been recorded by their TVs and the contents passed on to third parties.

The average person in the UK is filmed on CCTV 150 odd times a day, if you show "radical" thought in school then teachers must report you to the authorities, is this not a sign of thought control?
 


The Muffin Man said:
So just finished reading this tonight. Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was. Utterly incredible read.

Written in 1949 was it a commentary on what had just happened or what he foresaw happening? While we don't have the "Tele screen" in your house monitoring everything you do, for most people literally everything you do is or can be traced through the internet and electronically. And there has actually been a scandal about peoples conversations been recorded by their TVs and the contents passed on to third parties.

The average person in the UK is filmed on CCTV 150 odd times a day, if you show "radical" thought in school then teachers must report you to the authorities, is this not a sign of thought control?
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Be careful. We're watching you.
 
The Muffin Man said:
Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was.
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Imo Huxley was far closer to the truth in 'Brave New World'.

Orwell portrays a bleak authoritarian police-state future, where as Huxley portrays one where we're all so pampered and cared-for that we stop giving a fuck about others and let governments do what they like.

It's quite scary how right he was.

Comparison...
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that our fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us."
 
The Muffin Man said:
So just finished reading this tonight. Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was. Utterly incredible read.

Written in 1949 was it a commentary on what had just happened or what he foresaw happening? While we don't have the "Tele screen" in your house monitoring everything you do, for most people literally everything you do is or can be traced through the internet and electronically. And there has actually been a scandal about peoples conversations been recorded by their TVs and the contents passed on to third parties.

The average person in the UK is filmed on CCTV 150 odd times a day, if you show "radical" thought in school then teachers must report you to the authorities, is this not a sign of thought control?
Click to expand...

Oldspeak
 
bigmarlon said:
Imo Huxley was far closer to the truth in 'Brave New World'.

Orwell portrays a bleak authoritarian police-state future, where as Huxley portrays one where we're all so pampered and cared-for that we stop giving a fuck about others and let governments do what they like.

It's quite scary how right he was.

Comparison...
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that our fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us."
Click to expand...
I’ve read both books and totally agree with you. Wasn’t brave new world set like 400 years from now (500AF) ? Whereas nineteen eighty four was set more in the near future?
To the OP aye mate it’s scary how much it’s like the present day.
Try brave new world also.
 
Read it recently, I was surprised by the ending, but looking back it does make perfect sense.

It is scary how close it is to how we are now.
 
I read a book about people who live/d in North Korea, (Nothing to Envy) which reminded me of 1984. All democracies have these Orwellian tools available to gain information on us, but they tend to be used by companies to help us or make money from us.

In North Korea they control the TV and the commmunications, can find out if you tune your receiver to pick up other signals, and encourage neighbours to be good citizens by shopping you to the police, from where you could end up in regional detention centres. The book flagged up the potential of totalitarianism and in one or two cases it was very close to the mark.
 
The Muffin Man said:
So just finished reading this tonight. Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was. Utterly incredible read.

Written in 1949 was it a commentary on what had just happened or what he foresaw happening? While we don't have the "Tele screen" in your house monitoring everything you do, for most people literally everything you do is or can be traced through the internet and electronically. And there has actually been a scandal about peoples conversations been recorded by their TVs and the contents passed on to third parties.

The average person in the UK is filmed on CCTV 150 odd times a day, if you show "radical" thought in school then teachers must report you to the authorities, is this not a sign of thought control?
Click to expand...

I keep thinking about giving that one a read.

One I’d recommend reading is Isaac Asimov’s The Complete Robot

What a mind that bloke had! Some of the early short stories he wrote in the 1940s/1950s very much is about SatNav, drone tech, etc. One short story was about a bloke that has a “farm” of self-drive cars.... quite interesting considering where we currently are with that kind of tech.

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bigmarlon said:
Imo Huxley was far closer to the truth in 'Brave New World'.

Orwell portrays a bleak authoritarian police-state future, where as Huxley portrays one where we're all so pampered and cared-for that we stop giving a fuck about others and let governments do what they like.

It's quite scary how right he was.

Comparison...
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that our fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us."
Click to expand...
Started to read BNW and stopped. Must get back on it.
 
The Muffin Man said:
So just finished reading this tonight. Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was. Utterly incredible read.

Written in 1949 was it a commentary on what had just happened or what he foresaw happening? While we don't have the "Tele screen" in your house monitoring everything you do, for most people literally everything you do is or can be traced through the internet and electronically. And there has actually been a scandal about peoples conversations been recorded by their TVs and the contents passed on to third parties.

The average person in the UK is filmed on CCTV 150 odd times a day, if you show "radical" thought in school then teachers must report you to the authorities, is this not a sign of thought control?
Click to expand...

We had a cyber presentation at work and were told that certain smart TVs record conversations in the room they are in and it’s stored in some massive data bank somewhere.
 
The Muffin Man said:
So just finished reading this tonight. Anybody else read it, did it disturb you how close to the way life is it was. Utterly incredible read.

Written in 1949 was it a commentary on what had just happened or what he foresaw happening? While we don't have the "Tele screen" in your house monitoring everything you do, for most people literally everything you do is or can be traced through the internet and electronically. And there has actually been a scandal about peoples conversations been recorded by their TVs and the contents passed on to third parties.

The average person in the UK is filmed on CCTV 150 odd times a day, if you show "radical" thought in school then teachers must report you to the authorities, is this not a sign of thought control?
Click to expand...

You have just read it? :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

roker beach said:
I read a book about people who live/d in North Korea, (Nothing to Envy) which reminded me of 1984. All democracies have these Orwellian tools available to gain information on us, but they tend to be used by companies to help us or make money from us.

In North Korea they control the TV and the commmunications, can find out if you tune your receiver to pick up other signals, and encourage neighbours to be good citizens by shopping you to the police, from where you could end up in regional detention centres. The book flagged up the potential of totalitarianism and in one or two cases it was very close to the mark.
Click to expand...

Try Escape from camp 14. I think you'll like that, if you can't get a hold of it let me know and I'll help you out

Teed said:
Read Agenda 21, for a peek into your future, it's not a book, it's an action plan by the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. very worrying.
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:cool:
 
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