As George Bush reaffirms his vow to continue his ’’War on terrorism’’, I can’t help but try and force a few more people to read the words of a man whose foresight could penetrate the rather shadowy times we live in today.
1984....a tale of dystopia, seen through the eyes of an outlier in the system, a man by the name of Winston Smith. The story follows the latter through his escape from a state watched over by the Big Brother. Big Brother is not an ordinary individual...perhaps he doesn’t even exist physically...but his is an idea that runs through the veins of all the citizens of the state. The escape is not one of breaking physical boundaries, but one of escaping the mind control which the state uses to ’’guide’’ the people. The much quoted party slogans, War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength are not mere shocking cry’s but rationally arrived at rules, which optimize the running of a country. Certain truths are but inevitable. Remember ’’There’s no economy like a war economy’’...well Oceania is perpetually at war...anybody thinking of the US?.
But perhaps the most incredible feature of the story lies in the alteration of history, which the party does to rule. An idea used also in Animal Farm, here there’s an entire department, The Ministry of Truth which painstakingly changes the friends and the foes of the past. While speaking of the Stalinist regime, where patriots became traitors at the drop of a hat, and were summarily dealt with; the story shows the mindnumbing power of the state, which practically holds all the people in a state of trance...induced by hate, propaganda and a language which does not permit individual thought to be deviant from the official stand. NEWSPEAK...Yet another high point in literature...for when one doesn’t have words such as ’’lie’’...does the concept survive long?
Winston does the only thing he can to break free from this treadmill, by giving in to his most base instincts, with the inevitable consequences.
The intellectual, literary and emotional wizardry that holds this novel together, is an experience one should not miss, whatever one takes from the book. Perhaps only an author of George Orwell’s stature could show how the most effective state machinery can pretend to offer everything to its citizens, while taking away from them all that makes them human...
’’After all, it works...’’
Mr. Bush, are you listening?