What Can We Learn Today from Orwell’s Predictions?

Orwell's predictions used to be widely mocked. Now, they seem utterly obvious.

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I took a seminar on Orwell and D.H. Lawrence during my junior year at university. Then I remember several years after I graduated – in the actual year 1984 – how the media had a field day with debunking Orwell’s predictions.

In actuality, the Internet, which manifests Orwell’s dark view, began as ARPANET in 1983 and widespread civilian use began in the early 1990’s.  But even back in college, the potential of Orwell’s dark vision of the future was seen by many as a possible future. 

With the seemingly endless Vietnam war and the killing of dissident students at Kent State, along with many other indications that the democratic dream was illusory, Orwell seemed to understand state sponsored fear very well.

The Propaganda is Obvious

Now, when I watch the “news” in the evening, especially during the recent US election season, I was struck by how much obvious propaganda I was exposed to. 

The presidential race was “covered” every night with predictions and polls with very little serious insight into the actual intentions of the candidates, their programs or their backgrounds.

Coverage of the war in the Middle East is also starkly reminiscent of Orwell’s daily hate sessions, through the “telescreen” where citizens train their anger on foreign “enemies” – which seem to change regularly with one foreign country being friendly until it becomes the focus of hatred soon thereafter.

There is also plenty of what Orwell called “Newspeak” – the use of language that actually obscures the truth and meaning of what is being discussed. In fact, protagonist Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth involves the very destruction of language and memory.

The current media assiduously avoids words that could promote dissent, which reminds me of how long the media often takes to acknowledge that politicians lie flagrantly, using words like misunderstanding or misrepresentation.

Language is Distorted to Support the Status Quo

Other euphemisms disguise the actual experiences of those mentioned; “senior citizens” is one of my favorites for old people. There are many others, including “collateral damage,” “correctional facility” and “food insecure,” which I find particularly offensive.

But to me, the most obvious example of Newspeak is the 24-hour “cable news” format that recycles the same videos with a slightly modified message by each “newscaster” whenever they are shown, and the roundtable “discussions” by “experts” which are most often characterized by binary thinking and little nuance – and generally involve more personal commentary than actual information.

One of the key aspects of Orwell’s novel is also how the overwhelming influence of the media – in this case the telescreen – results in the protagonist’s realization that he no longer can count on objective truth, along with the inculcation of deep fear as a means of control by the state.

Orwell’s work was often seen as a comment on the Nazis and the Communists – Hitler and Stalin – at the time of its publication and for decades later.  And the principal agents of control were the nation-states that were constantly at war. 

It’s No Longer Just the Government

I think that what we have moved to today, especially in the West, is a situation where commercial entities can accumulate massive power and wealth which they use through “lobbying” to influence the government to make decisions that favor their monopolies and control their markets at the expense of helping the general public.

In 1984 the main means of control is through fear, here, it’s the same. The fear used by corporations with the public is more subtle, making the individual feel more and more helpless to influence decisions made about his or her activities.

You experience this whenever you try to call a large institution – like a medical facility or corporation – and are confronted with artificial intelligence trying to get rid of you or a “customer service” representative telling you what the “policy” is regardless of its effect on you as a human.

Every app on your cell phone exists to monitor your activity – not for your benefit.

Everyone has heard of the concept of “Big Brother” from the novel to symbolize the constant surveillance carried out by the government; in the book it turns out that there has been a profile or dossier on Winston since the last war ended.

It is this surveillance which allows the party to completely break Winston, knowing that his deepest fear is rats – which is used in his final interrogation and surrender.

Everyone Today is Profiled

While the modern government also collects massive information on citizens today, often under the umbrella of national security, corporations have recently been revealed to also create complex profiles of consumers as they use the Internet and browse websites to influence their buying and lifestyle choices.

We also know that profiling firms like Cambridge Analytica have used and continue this information to bombard citizens with misinformation.

How many of us have been startled by a Facebook ad or number of ads that focus on areas that we had just searched for, or simply spoken about with others on our cell phones or even in person. Alexa and Siri are listening.

While this surveillance in the book serves to tell the party what it needs to know about Winson to get his complete capitulation – by the end of the book he even agrees that “2 + 2 = 5” -- the activities of corporations and the media today seem more subtly geared to simply preserving the status quo, and controlling what their clients and customers are able to understand.

Orwell's central message seems even more relevant given the ubiquity of the Internet and the current actions of both nations and corporations to control the messages that are broadcast to keep the populace docile.

With Modern Technology, Mind Control is a Reality

1984 shows how totalitarian control requires physical domination and the complete reconstruction of reality through the mass media and technology. Winston's journey from dissent to submission demonstrates how systematic propaganda, combined with fear and surveillance, can influence not just our behavior but even our consciousness itself.

Related Article: How We Are Being Misled

The telescreen – which in the book symbolizes all intrusive technology that we now have including nonhuman programmed intelligence – morphs from an agent of control to one of comfort, echoing the prescience of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” where citizens are subjugated mainly by pleasure and drugs.

Of course, in our own time, we could draw an obvious analogy from Brave New World to Big Pharma.

And as far as today’s corporate media is concerned the mind numbing repetitiveness of cable “news”, its propaganda and commercials eventually overcome most viewers’ resistance and lead to the complete acquiescence to an existence that is, of necessity trauma aware.

The fear induced today may be of destitution due to medical issues, or simply that the government or company knows what you’ve been secretive about.  We now have the intense social isolation of possibly not fitting into the model of behavior promoted by the media. 

In our time it may not be overt interrogation or prison but more subtle cues and influence carefully designed to break any notion of independent thought or dissent. We are witnessing this as a progression. 

In the U.S. we have the example of reproductive rights actually being taken away from half of the population. Women in anti-abortion are living in fear for their lives if they should have a nonviable pregnancy and need to take it to term.

We also have guns everywhere, militarized police forces with little accountability, and a justice system skewed in favor of those in power.

So when someone tells you that “1984” was science fiction – they are among the gullible.

The good news? More and more people are coming to realize what I have been saying in this piece. With awareness, we can make new choices, and perhaps a critical mass can lead to greater change.