1984 - George Orwell - as relevant now as ever
1984 - George Orwell - as relevant now as ever
After reading my review of Ayn Rand's Anthem novel, one of my friends
suggested reading George Orwell's writings. He was of the opinion that the concept of Authoritarian collectivism had been dealt with more exhaustively in "1984" and "Animal Farm",
two of Orwell's masterpieces.
In terms of size both the books are very small and easy to read. But when
we think of the impact it would certainly make a very huge influence into the readers minds.
There are some who would say that the novel 1984 was one of the reasons for Soviet
model totalitarian communism not taking root in parts of Europe. So hugely popular
the novel was,it would certainly, along with other similar writings, have contributed
to the anti authoritarian thinking in those days in Europe and USA.
1984 was written in the late 1940s after the World war II when the world
was slowly trying to limp back to normalcy and the conditions were quite fluid.
Many pundits feared take over of the world by totalitarian regimes including the
author George Orwell. He played a very active part in the Spanish civil war (1936-39).After that everything Orwell wrote was against totalitarianism either directly or indirectly.1984 was one book which he wrote directly on the fiercely evil nature of totalitarian collectivism and surprisingly that resonates with the times till today after more than seventy years.
The success of any fiction or non fiction book depends on the influence it makes on the readers minds. For me, this work of fiction seemed so real that the scariness and fear that engulfed me ever since I started reading this book was present throughout.What I felt was tinge of emotions, of extreme sadness,negativity, vulnerability as a human and lot of pessimistic thoughts. Though most of what he predicted did not come true
exactly but the threat of reaching that stage is still relevant as on today. The levels of technological advncements made now can easily make the governments resort to surveillance of citizens. Already with the use of smart phones citizens are exposed to all kinds of monitoring these days.
We can write separately about every one of the characters in the book like the
protagonist of the novel Winston smith, his lover Julia, the imaginary Goldstein,
the Big Brother and the villain O 'Brien. The characterisation is so effectively made by the author that we identify with the characters so completely that we feel as if we travel with them right through their travails from page one to last.
After reading this book I had gone through many articles written on this.
Most of the reviews and write ups are written very recently though it has been more than seventy years since 1984 was published. The essays refer this book
as a kind of sequel to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s "We" and Arthur Koestler’s "Darkness at Noon". But Ayn Rand's lesser known
work "Anthem" doesn't find a mention anywhere surprisingly. In my opinion,
Anthem is also a kind of dystopian fiction like 1984. It was written by Rand in the late
1930s. She almost had a first hand experience of collectivism in the Soviet Union in her early days before her escape to US.
The book 1984 deals with left wing authoritarian dictatorship and centralized
collectivism. In the present juncture, the Communist ideology is on the back foot all over the world and we are witnessing the emergence of right wing forces in many parts. And with advancement of science and technology it has been made possible for governments to monitor all activities of its citizens and do employ surveillances to curb free speech and thoughts. In India too the threat is looming large under Modi Shah dispensation. Incidentally this combine does not have democratic credentials on matters political or otherwise. So Indians too may have to face the threat of what the citizens of Oceana had in the novel. All similarities point to the situation like individual worshipping, defending acts of government using lies as propaganda, controlling and weakening all institutions and making them toe the line. Changing history to suit their needs, charging dissenters by imposing treason laws against them. On hunting down intellectuals who write against them do remind us of McCarthyism in the US in the 1950s.
We can go on writing on the wonderful work of fiction which is very much relevant even today after many decades since it was written. To conclude we may say that this book was not written essentially for anti communist propaganda as many would like us to believe. But George Orwell would have liked to give a warning about the dangers of collectivist authoritarian society under the aegis of leftist or righist governments. A must read for all who are politically inclined.
In terms of size both the books are very small and easy to read. But when
we think of the impact it would certainly make a very huge influence into the readers minds.
There are some who would say that the novel 1984 was one of the reasons for Soviet
model totalitarian communism not taking root in parts of Europe. So hugely popular
the novel was,it would certainly, along with other similar writings, have contributed
to the anti authoritarian thinking in those days in Europe and USA.
1984 was written in the late 1940s after the World war II when the world
was slowly trying to limp back to normalcy and the conditions were quite fluid.
Many pundits feared take over of the world by totalitarian regimes including the
author George Orwell. He played a very active part in the Spanish civil war (1936-39).After that everything Orwell wrote was against totalitarianism either directly or indirectly.1984 was one book which he wrote directly on the fiercely evil nature of totalitarian collectivism and surprisingly that resonates with the times till today after more than seventy years.
The success of any fiction or non fiction book depends on the influence it makes on the readers minds. For me, this work of fiction seemed so real that the scariness and fear that engulfed me ever since I started reading this book was present throughout.What I felt was tinge of emotions, of extreme sadness,negativity, vulnerability as a human and lot of pessimistic thoughts. Though most of what he predicted did not come true
exactly but the threat of reaching that stage is still relevant as on today. The levels of technological advncements made now can easily make the governments resort to surveillance of citizens. Already with the use of smart phones citizens are exposed to all kinds of monitoring these days.
We can write separately about every one of the characters in the book like the
protagonist of the novel Winston smith, his lover Julia, the imaginary Goldstein,
the Big Brother and the villain O 'Brien. The characterisation is so effectively made by the author that we identify with the characters so completely that we feel as if we travel with them right through their travails from page one to last.
After reading this book I had gone through many articles written on this.
Most of the reviews and write ups are written very recently though it has been more than seventy years since 1984 was published. The essays refer this book
as a kind of sequel to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s "We" and Arthur Koestler’s "Darkness at Noon". But Ayn Rand's lesser known
work "Anthem" doesn't find a mention anywhere surprisingly. In my opinion,
Anthem is also a kind of dystopian fiction like 1984. It was written by Rand in the late
1930s. She almost had a first hand experience of collectivism in the Soviet Union in her early days before her escape to US.
The book 1984 deals with left wing authoritarian dictatorship and centralized
collectivism. In the present juncture, the Communist ideology is on the back foot all over the world and we are witnessing the emergence of right wing forces in many parts. And with advancement of science and technology it has been made possible for governments to monitor all activities of its citizens and do employ surveillances to curb free speech and thoughts. In India too the threat is looming large under Modi Shah dispensation. Incidentally this combine does not have democratic credentials on matters political or otherwise. So Indians too may have to face the threat of what the citizens of Oceana had in the novel. All similarities point to the situation like individual worshipping, defending acts of government using lies as propaganda, controlling and weakening all institutions and making them toe the line. Changing history to suit their needs, charging dissenters by imposing treason laws against them. On hunting down intellectuals who write against them do remind us of McCarthyism in the US in the 1950s.
We can go on writing on the wonderful work of fiction which is very much relevant even today after many decades since it was written. To conclude we may say that this book was not written essentially for anti communist propaganda as many would like us to believe. But George Orwell would have liked to give a warning about the dangers of collectivist authoritarian society under the aegis of leftist or righist governments. A must read for all who are politically inclined.
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