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There wasn't really a "panopticon gaze of Big Brother" - only the Outer Party were heavily monitored as these were the only people who could be a threat to the

• KineticLensman 5y ago
  > There wasn't really a "panopticon gaze of Big Brother" - only the Outer Party were heavily monitored as these were the only people who could be a threat to the Inner Party. Okay, it might not have been a total panopticon (my poor wording), but Big Brother seems not to have had the massive blind-spots that Sauron did.
  • adamc 5y ago
    In fiction, perhaps. But I think Tolkien was closer to the mark. In practice, it is very difficult to know everything, even if the information is available, because of the limitations on our attention and imagination. Tolkien clearly describes that as a limitation of Sauron, and I think it remains a limitation, even today, even when all the facts are available.
• vmh1928 5y ago
  Perhaps Orwell couldn't envision the technological capability that would allow monitoring of the entire population. Plus he hadn't seen the soft revolutions that occurred in the former Soviet Block, driven by masses of common people. In the 40's, with the exception of Germany and Italy, authoritarian regimes were seemingly invincible.