Nineteen Eighty-Four
 Nineteen Eighty-Four  (dystopia)     | |
|---|---|
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| Type | fiction |
| Publication date | 1949 |
| Author(s) | George Orwell |
| Subjects | new world order, totalitarianism, newspeak, doublespeak |
| A critically acclaimed and some have said all too prophetic warning about totalitarian government. | |
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopia about a totalitarian future of perpetual war.
Contents
Topics
Orwell coins many new words in the novel, which he describes as 'Newspeak'.
Perpetual War
- Full article: Perpetual War
- Full article: Perpetual War
The nation states are engaged in permanent war with each other.
Universal surveillance
- Full article: Universal surveillance
- Full article: Universal surveillance
Orwell predicts the 21st century Mass surveillance by populating the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four with hidden monitoring equipment such as television cameras.
"Steve Jobs included a clip of the movie when Apple launched the Mac, in 1983. 1984 and the internet age coincide and determine the possibility of life imitating art."[1]
Elite rule
Anticipating the Supranational Deep State, the novel depicts a large majority of uninformed and materially deprived citizens ("the proles") who are routinely deceived and swindled by a small minority of party members.
Party members' lives are more disciplined, so for example they are expected to attend the daily "2 minutes of hate" session during which they focus on enemy images.
References
Modern discourse in certain circumstances is replete with references to the book, which coined many phrases and explored concepts of use when grappling with a totalitarian superstate. The disease COVID-19 was quickly relabelled "COVID-1984" as a shorthand way of describing its possible uses and/or sinister origins.
