Very interesting in terms of the digital age. When I read 1984 back in 1980, I recall how the main character was afraid to do more than think, since words spoken aloud were also discoverable via omnipresent surveillance.
Even private journals written on your laptop and kept local could be open to warrantless search, since you shared them with the laptop manufacturer by sheer use of the tool by this argument in extreme.
I just read it for the first time last year. I found the book incredibly frightening. It wasn't because the ideas discussed painted a scary picture of the future. It was because the ideas painted a picture of the present.
Because Orwell's dystopian vision has progressed so quickly, I'm worried we're too late to fix things. In the future, I think I'll look back and see my reading of Orwell's 1984 as a milestone that changed the course of my life. I've never in my life felt so empowered while also feeling so incredibly helpless.
My peers considered the USSR and China at the time as living embodiments of Big Brother at work, so each generation finds their corollaries I guess. It feels good to feel or know something and relate it to the world around you, that is true for better or worse.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 18.4 ms ] threadI just read it for the first time last year. I found the book incredibly frightening. It wasn't because the ideas discussed painted a scary picture of the future. It was because the ideas painted a picture of the present.
Because Orwell's dystopian vision has progressed so quickly, I'm worried we're too late to fix things. In the future, I think I'll look back and see my reading of Orwell's 1984 as a milestone that changed the course of my life. I've never in my life felt so empowered while also feeling so incredibly helpless.