George Orwell’s 1984 is considered one of the best science fiction works of the 20th century. Orwell published it in 1949, and it is still valid because his predictions (unthinkable at the time) are coming true today.
73 years ago it was unimaginable that society was digitized… but Orwell predicted it. And he not only described life under the influence of technology but also warned about the unprecedented control that governments would exercise over the individual… when even thoughts were able to read them. And punish them for having them.
He also spoke of a “Big Brother”…or kind of eye that sees and controls everything. We know very well that the famous internet algorithms know absolutely everything about us, and are capable of manipulating us through the information they provide us. And we also know very well that every day we spend more hours connected… and that all this leaves a trace.
The internet is being used by governments and companies with the aim of spying on us and controlling us. It cannot be ruled out that before the pandemic they studied us very well and realized how weak-minded we were… that we could be made to believe anything if everyone repeated it in unison. And lock us up without any resistance.
In 1984, a panorama is also described in which the historical texts have been modified, to make the facts fit with what they want the citizens to believe. The words have been changed, which no longer mean what they always meant, and a permitted “newspeak” is used, in accordance with the propaganda of the totalitarian regime that governs.
More or less that way we go now with that “politically correct” language with which you have to express yourself so as not to “offend”. When it is intended that the term “woman” be changed to “menstruating person”. When the word everyone is used to include those who get up in the morning and don’t know what they are. Or when there is pressure to change the history of Dominican independence… and to fit in with the interests of merging with Haiti.
The novel mentions a Ministry of Truth that is in charge of making what is not convenient for the regime disappear, and of disinforming to manipulate… which could be compared to the “fake news” of today. And with the famous network verifiers… who are in charge of blocking what does not conform to the “official truth”.
In today’s world the actual event (the evidence of the facts, quantifiable with numbers and all) has ceased to matter. What matters is saying what fits what everyone must think. What conforms to the prevailing prejudice.
Orwell also presents a world divided into three powers, which supposedly live in permanent war and threat of destruction… but this is nothing more than a strategy that keeps the masses (or the majority of citizens without the slightest critical spirit) in a state of fear permanent and total gratitude to the government that protects and saves them. So preoccupied with the next threat looming…that they have neither the time nor the mood to rebel. We have fallen into that as well.
As the years go by, the predictions of 1984 are more fulfilled. And what was a novel of pure fiction, is becoming a historical novel based on real events. Definitely a genius that Orwell.
