The return of '1984'

[Englander]

By H.D.S. Greenway | June 24, 2005

IF YOU TAKE something to read at the beach this summer make sure it is not one of George Orwell's books. The comparison with current events will ruin your day.

In what was then the futuristic, nightmare world of ''1984," written in 1949, Orwell introduced the concepts of ''newspeak," ''doublethink," and ''the mutability of the past," all concepts that seem to be alive and well in 2005, half a century after Orwell's death. In the ever-changing rationale of why we went to war in Iraq, we can imagine ourselves working in Orwell's ''Ministry of Truth," in which ''reality control" is used to ensure that ''the lie passed into history and became the truth."

And what about the Bush administration's insistence that all is going well in Iraq? In the Ministry of Truth, statistics are adjustable to suit politics -- ''merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another," Orwell wrote. ''Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection to anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in the rectified version." Welcome to the Iraq war, Mr. Orwell.

More at;
Boston Globe

[Pryderi]

1. "1984" needs to be re-made again. Who would you have direct it?

[mark11727]

2. Tim Burton...? (ducks)

[pnorman]

3. Check out this Democracy Now! presentation:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/25/1353213&mode=thread&tid=25
It's entitled: "The Two Georges", and is precisely what you mean.
Here's the (searchable) online 1984: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/

And here's a version you can download and stuff into your (Palm OS) PDA: http://memoware.com/?screen=doc_detail&doc_id=16061&p=title^!1984~!description^!1984~!author^!1984~!

pnorman

[YankeyMCC]

4. I was just about to post this myself

The comparision of current political situation to "1984" should be made often and loud.

But then again maybe not enough people have read the book.

[skooooo]

5. kick

[acmejack]

6. I doubt that many have read it!

Needs to be a video for sure. People don't read anymore, they play computer games instead.

The percentage of adults reading any book at all in 2002 fell from 61 percent to 57 percent.

"The decline was especially pronounced in the youngest group surveyed,18-to-24 year olds. Only 43 percent had read any literature in 2002, down from 53 percent in 1992."-National Endowment for the Arts

http://money.cnn.com/2004/07/09/news/bookreading/

[GuvWurld]

7. Is 1984 Taught In Schools Anymore?

From the GuvWurld archives, 9/6/04:

When I was in high school, George Orwell's 1984 was required reading. I can't help but wonder how common this is in American schools today? Wherever it is being taught, it is difficult to imagine that a class now reading 1984 could have a meaningful learning experience without discussing the eerily similar context of current events, especially since teachers have been suspended or otherwise disciplined for benign free speech about war in the past two years.

MORE: http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2004/09/is-1984-taught-in-schools-anymore.html

[zinndependence]

10. I included it in my Poli Sci curriculum

In fact, I had to dig 20+ copies out of the garbage in order to have a classroom set! (It sounds worse than it was....actually it was the garbage, but the only thing in the garbage was discarded books.)

I only had the kids read the first chapter as required reading...they were welcome to read the rest for extra credit. I incorporated political ideologies into the curriculum, so when we discussed totalitarian regimes, I thought 1984 would fit in well. And, yes, we were able to make comparisons to contemporary society. It was scary how easily we were able to make those comparisons. One thing we did was to look for examples of Doublespeak from the current administration. Unfortunately, this was a VERY easy task. I think it really opened a lot of kids eyes to the realities/horrors of an unchecked/over-powerful government.

[GuvWurld]

11. Good for you!

It shouldn't be such a victory but I'm glad you told me at least you were teaching at least part of the book. What you say about how easy it is to make contemporary comparisons is at the core of the essay I teased. Also that finding a class reading this book today is likely an exception where it was once required everywhere.

[ixion]

8. 1984 is the neocon PR handbook

really.

[GuvWurld]

9. Kick (eom)