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I am genuinely curious as to why you seem to assert that "Orwellian" can only apply to governments. I personally sense that we are entering an age where corpora

I am genuinely curious as to why you seem to assert that "Orwellian" can only apply to governments. I personally sense that we are entering an age where corporations can wield power and influence on the same level as governments themselves. And, that they are able to utilize many of the same tactics that states used in the past century. Why, in your view, would it be incorrect to apply the term to the actions of these private/publicly traded companies?

OrvalWintermute 5y ago
I think corporations can wield power and influence way beyond governments. For example, bigtechs like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft: wealthier than many governments have more capacity to influence internationally due to regulatory capture, are embedded into many governments Can utilize powerful governments against weak ones through lobbying arms Can whip up revolts and foment revolutions easily fully capable of co-opting national level industries and telecommunications infrastructures When I think about dystopian, sci-fi, cyberpunk books and films, it was often the Megacorps that exceeded nations in power. We see that today.
mbesto 5y ago
> I am genuinely curious as to why you seem to assert that "Orwellian" can only apply to governments. Because that's literally how it's use in the book. > Why, in your view, would it be incorrect to apply the term to the actions of these private/publicly traded companies? See point above. From 1984: “Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’.” The Party is a political party.

OrvalWintermute 5y ago

I think corporations can wield power and influence way beyond governments. For example, bigtechs like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft: wealthier than many governments have more capacity to influence internationally due to regulatory capture, are embedded into many governments Can utilize powerful governments against weak ones through lobbying arms Can whip up revolts and foment revolutions easily fully capable of co-opting national level industries and telecommunications infrastructures When I think about dystopian, sci-fi, cyberpunk books and films, it was often the Megacorps that exceeded nations in power. We see that today.

mbesto 5y ago

> I am genuinely curious as to why you seem to assert that "Orwellian" can only apply to governments. Because that's literally how it's use in the book. > Why, in your view, would it be incorrect to apply the term to the actions of these private/publicly traded companies? See point above. From 1984: “Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’.” The Party is a political party.