8 ms·
“1984” was a parody describing an extream society – now its not far from reality
- dudul 10y agoIt's because people thought it was a parody that we ended up here.
- Piskvorrr 10y agoParody? Not really. Try Politics and the English Language - you'll see that the theses were at the core of Orwell's writing. http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/ http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit...
- Bromskloss 10y ago> the theses were at the core of Orwell's writing. What do you mean by this?
- Piskvorrr 10y agoIf the linked page is too long for you (seeeveeen paaageeees! OMG WTF TLDR!), here's a choice quote: "if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." This, I think, is the core idea of 1984. But seriously, go read the linked essay: it's even more applicable now than when it was written, 70 years ago. 1984 is, in this regard, a lengthier version of this (okay, this claim is not entirely serious).
- sp332 10y agoIt was a real warning, well a bit fantastical but more in the form of satire. He could see where it was going.
- ThomPete 10y agoI would actually say that Huxley not Orwel was right.
- sevenless 10y agoThey were both right. We're amusing ourselves to death in a conformist, panopticon society where we can't say things that are true.
- hx87 10y ago> we can't say things that are true Such as...?
- happyslobro 10y ago"It's a trap!" -- Admiral Ackbar
- sevenless 10y ago[flagged] And that's just one example!
- elgabogringo 10y agolol. Flagging things online is the best way to erase thought crimes.
- josho 10y agoRecall Afghanistan/Iraq invasions when American patriotism was questioned if you challenged the merits of the war. Remember when the afghan freedom fighters were on our side (Cold War era fighting Russians), but became terrorists when they fought our armies. Perhaps not the best examples, but two that came first to mind.
- hx87 10y agoJust because the prevailing opinion sways a certain way doesn't mean it's impossible to say something different.
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- pif 10y ago[OT] "its" instead of "it's" in the title? Please! :-)
- mapleoin 10y agoThis is a copyright violation in the US and a lot of other countries.
- happyslobro 10y agoIt's public domain in Canada.
- scarygliders 10y agoAnd the link points to push.sh , hosted in Canada.
- lossolo 10y agoParody is a wrong word if you describe Orwell's "1984".
- SCdF 10y agoThis is just a link to the book 1984, which apart from presumably being a copyright violation, isn't exactly something to build a forum discussion around. Flagged.
- happyslobro 10y agoDisagree, on both counts. 1984 is in the public domain in several countries, and it is more relevant than ever. Shoutout to anyone else here working in advertising analytics :p
- riphay 10y agoNot in copyright anymore in several countries, including my own (Canada) [1]. Kind of interesting question about treatment of works on the internet with differing copyright laws across borders. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Copyright_status https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Copyright...
- scarygliders 10y agoSince the link concerned is hosted in Canada - where this book is in the Public Domain - I disagree with the flagging.
- pavlov 10y agoThe copyright status of 1984 varies around the world. It is in the public domain in some major English-speaking countries like Canada and Australia [1]. For that reason, I don't think HN should take down the link due to copyright alone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Copyright_status https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Copyright...
- scarygliders 10y agoI agree. It would be ironic if discussion on Nineteen Eighty-Four was effectively censored (Room 101'ed) due to being flagged for copyright.
- greenyoda 10y agoRoom 101 (in the Ministry of Love) was for torture, not censorship. Censorship was done in the Ministry of Truth (where Winston Smith worked).
- scarygliders 10y agoFar from being a "parody". It was written as a warning. It seems that quite a few governments in various countries appear to think it was a manual.
- elgabogringo 10y ago+1 - Brave New World is a manual of sorts for as well - at least for the developed world. Take Huxley's "soma" for instance. An astounding portion of our population go through life medicated: Prozak/etc, pain killers, marijuana. Not that I blame them. Totalitarianism is a bitter pill. Better have something to take the edge off.
- buckbova 10y agoExistence is tough. Humans have been using mind/mood altering techniques for millenia.
- Twisell 10y agoTwo day's ago ago a coup d'état was stopped because the contested prime minister of turkey was able to reach medias using built-in VOIP technology of one of the most worldwide sold smartphone. Citizens comprising even some politics opponents rallied in the street to contest the coup d'état so that turkey remain a democracy (even if Erdogan is very very contested as a leader). And a few more days ago police abuse was catch and shared live on Facebook leading to investigations on cops abuse. I can only encourage everyone to read the Orwell's full novel. But I can't agree less with OP, we currently live in a society where any injustice can be share worldwide in a heartbeat. This is very very far frow Orwell's totalitarian society depicted in 1984.
- Grishnakh 10y ago>Two day's ago ago a coup d'état was stopped because the contested prime minister of turkey was able to reach medias using built-in VOIP technology of one of the most worldwide sold smartphone. Citizens comprising even some politics opponents rallied in the street to contest the coup d'état so that turkey remain a democracy (even if Erdogan is very very contested as a leader). Nope. There was never a coup at all, it was all made up to help Erdogan become a dictator. It's all working exactly to plan. What kind of coup doesn't bother to capture the country's top leaders, and instead captures a bridge? What kind of coup has rebels flying fighter jets, and even when they have the President's plane in their sights, they ignore it? And instead, they use aircraft to shoot at people on the streets? Or at an empty Parliament building? Why would a country that has a long history of highly successful and competent coups now carry out the most utterly incompetent coup in all of human history? The Turkish citizens aren't supporting democracy; they're exactly like the German citizens of the 1930s, supporting their new dictator. And this "coup" was very much like the Reichstag fire.
- Twisell 10y agoThanks for the insights. I must say I hesitated a lot before using this example because it's a smoking hot news and Erdogan could probably have settled this whole thing up. My point was mostly that technology enable us to share like never before and the sole fact that we can talk freely about Erdogan lies is another example of why, no, we don't live in 1984.