1984 - Dystopias and Apocalypses - Extra Sci Fi

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed.

But always, do not forget this Winston. Always there will be the intoxication of power

Constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler always at every moment.

There will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

If you want a picture of the future, Imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.

Perhaps the most influential dystopian novel of all time,

1984 provided the world with a vision of the future where fascist and totalitarian forces rule supreme.

But to understand 1984, you have to understand its author George Orwell and what he was trying so desperately to warn us against.

George Orwell was a socialist and an ardent anti-fascist his entire life. In 1936 at the age of 33

He signed up to fight in the Spanish Civil War and this was no mean feat,

The British government trying to maintain peace with Nazi Germany

Which had already taken a side in the conflict, outlawed its citizens from volunteering to fight for the Democratic Republic of Spain.

Orwell went anyway, determined as he said, "To fight fascists."

But the Stalinist Soviet Union supported the Republic and as the war began to go badly for the Republican cause,

Soviet influence began to hold more and more sway. The once freedom-loving Republicans began to turn on each other.

Succumbing to the same type of ideological purity test that the Soviet Union had adopted under Stalin.

So anyone not firmly a Soviet style communist was being labeled a fascist and run out of the country or imprisoned.

Orwell himself had to flee. And it was an experience that would color the rest of his life.

It made him realize that Totalitarianism in all of its forms, not just fascism was a threat to the future of humankind.

He would write about this in his excellent 'Homage to Catalonia' where he recounts his adventures in the Spanish Civil War.

Then again in 'Animal Farm' where he would deal directly with the descent of the Russian Revolution.

From an ideals driven, if perhaps somewhat naive drive for freedom to a totalitarian nightmare of starvation and purges.

And while this analogy would serve well where his ideas really hit home. His home was in his 1949 classic '1984'.

He envisioned a version of Great Britain dominated by a Soviet style totalitarian government.

It is a surveillance state with cameras in every home and neighbor primed to turn on neighbor at work or at home or walking about the town.

One must conform to the thoughts of the party. It's where we get the phrase, "Big brother is watching you."

Which is plastered up all over 1984's London or as it's known in the book the principal city of Airstrip 1.

And the terrifying thing is people find this comforting. They put pictures of big brother up in their home.

He's a venerated figure even though no one knows if he actually exists.

His watchful gaze keeps them safe and roots out traitors.

Or at least that's what many people believe because they're told everyday that's what he does.

But unlike the society in Brave New World though,

There's little about the England of 1984 that could even be argued to be better than the world we know today.

This world is in a constant state of war.

Buildings are left in ruins and food often has to be rationed. Government services are nearly non-existent.

And scientific progress seems limited to military and propaganda purposes.

In fact a much of society's labor is devoted to propaganda.

Newspapers are re-edited to remove the names and pictures of people the party no longer approves of.

Speeches are constantly given about how terrible and evil the world outside England is.