Get this book away from me. Why is this required reading? I'm dropping out.

My preparedness for the regime change taking place in the United States--with elements of the Electoral College, the Kremlin and the FBI helping to install a failed business promoter who the majority of American voters did not support in the election--begins with 1984 by George Orwell. Like many, this 1949 novel was assigned reading for me in high school. What stood out to me then was that I needed to finish it because there would be a test. Studying how civics is supposed to work in 3rd period government did not prepare me in 7th period English for this harrowing and precise depiction of fear and hatred run amok.

1990 Joe

We're in the future! At least, what George Orwell thought postwar England might be like in in the future. Great Britain is now governed by Oceania and resembles a Warsaw Pact nation--the Party controls every action and thought of its miserable population through propaganda, surveillance and torture--but what's happened is that an atomic war in the 1950s left survivors in the United States and Western Europe desperate for law and order. Party members who pledge absolute loyalty to a figure known as Big Brother have their essential needs provided for, while the lower caste are known as Proles and regarded as rubbish. It sucks here!

2016 Joe

Winston Smith is a contemplative thirty-nine year old Outer Party member who works at the Ministry of Truth in London. Like many great literary characters, he does not feel well. Winston is employed in the Records Department, altering (or as it's officially known, rectifying) articles for The Times which no longer adhere to the reality of The Party. Winston suffers from an ulcer on his leg and like many, subsists on Victory Gin. He leaves work on his lunch break to return his flat in Victory Gardens, hiding in a nook where he believes the telescreen installed in his home cannot see him. He begins a handwritten diary in an old book, with paper, that he found in a junk shop.

For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria. He began writing in a hurried untidy scrawl:

theyll shoot me i don’t care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother--

He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down the pen. The next moment he started violently. There was a knocking at the door.

1990 Joe

Whoa so there's some heavy stuff in this book, like, telescreens that scream at you to do calisthenics in the morning, shout propaganda at you in the afternoon and listen to you talking in your sleep at night. There are periodic shortages of essential goods like razor blades and a perpetual war with Oceania's foe, Eurasia. At least the Party says so. No one trusts anyone else. In addition to hidden microphones, there are informers and spies everywhere prepared to turn you in to the Thought Police for thought crimes. Children most of all revel in ratting out their Outer Party moms and dads.

It was always at night — the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases there was no trial, no report of the arrest. People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: VAPORIZED was the usual word.

2016 Joe

The Party has so eradicated records of the past and traumatized its Outer Party members into obedience that its slogans are: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. But Winston's mind is his own. He's old enough to keep a mental inventory of the inconsistencies of the Party--like the one that says they invented aeroplanes--and contemplate that the glance of a co-worker named O'Brien reveals a fellow rebel. Believing that the only hope to overthrow Big Brother lies with the proles, Winston ventures into the slums. He buys an old man a pint and grills him for information on the past. Everyone seems blind, except, to Winston's terror, a dark-haired woman he works with at the Ministry of Truth. She sees Winston in the slums.

1990 Joe

This book is hard to enjoy. Just when things start to slow, there is a love story introduced between Winston and his co-worker, Julia. She works at the Fiction Department, operating the press (that's kinda hot) that cranks out the only books that are allowed in Oceania. Winston initially suspects her of being a typical frigid Party femmebot, but Julia slips him a love note and arranges a series meetings with the aplomb of a spy. Separated in age by about fifteen years, I never understood what Julia's attraction to Winston was or why the couple didn't band together to escape or to take down Big Brother. If I was Winston, I'd stab Inner Party members all day without a lunch break.

2016 Joe

George Orwell's writing is so precise, so penetrative, that I felt like he was broadcasting truths into my mind with a laser. I could appreciate that Winston and Julia were doing what they had to survive, that staying alive another day, even under tyranny, had become paramount to all other concerns. As an adult, I can now appreciate how fear and hatred warp democracy and how people who feel they have nothing left to lose surrender their once cherished freedoms and throw their lot in with a Big Brother who promises to take care of them. And did I mention the writing?

‘You are very young,’ he said. ‘You are ten or fifteen years younger than I am. What could you see to attract you in a man like me?’

‘It was something in your face. I thought I’d take a chance. I’m good at spotting people who don’t belong. As soon as I saw you I knew you were against THEM.’

THEM, it appeared, meant the Party, and above all the Inner Party, about whom she talked with an open jeering hatred which made Winston feel uneasy, although he knew that they were safe here if they could be safe anywhere. A thing that astonished him about her was the coarseness of her language. Party members were supposed not to swear, and Winston himself very seldom did swear, aloud, at any rate. Julia, however, seemed unable to mention the Party, and especially the Inner Party, without using the kind of words that you saw chalked up in dripping alley-ways. He did not dislike it. It was merely one symptom of her revolt against the Party and all its ways, and somehow it seemed natural and healthy, like the sneeze of a horse that smells bad hay.

The devil is in the details. What stands out to me in 1984 is precision with which Orwell depicts the joys of humanity thriving under inhumane rule as well as the terror of being exposed. Thinking men like Winston know that they'll be arrested, tortured and possibly vaporized for allowing themselves the indulgences that they do, but no amount of reason can prepare them for that moment of betrayal, arrest and interrogation. The third act of 1984 is terrifying. The Party's true methodology--to convert political prisoners to embrace Big Brother before disposing of them--is chilling, something whose force I wasn't prepared to appreciate in high school.

1948: Europe was only starting to recover from the slaughter of World War II. Nazi Germany had been crushed by the Russian army in the East and by the Anglo-American forces in the West. The totalitarian regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and Imperial Japan were defeated. Stalin was going strong. Franco was undisturbed. However, the war was not quite over: the victors, Russia on one side, the USA on the other, were now superpowers staring stonily at each other, their hands loaded with a new and deadly arsenal.

Orwell wrote 1984, right after Animal Farm, in this ominous post/cold/perpetual-war context, and many aspects of it are steeped in the horrors of tyranny, dehumanisation and disaster. Winston Smith, the wretched protagonist, lives in an alternate history where everyone is under constant surveillance (via “telescreens” and widespread denunciation). A place where propaganda, misinformation, history re-writing, language and thought manipulation, “reality control” (2+2=5) are pervasive tools to make every individual conform with the “Ingsoc” Party’s ideology. The result is a diehard totalitarian state, a perfect hell on earth, where individuality is “vaporised” at the whim of a spectral Big Brother and where even love is impossible.

Worth highlighting in the novel: the long interlude about “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” (II, 9) — inserted within a slightly incongruous romance episode — and the appendix on “The Principles of Newspeak” — written as if from an unknown point, far in the future, when the madness has eventually subsided. Both sections are stupefying. Yet, the last third of the book is probably one of the worst nightmares in literature: a prolonged torture and brainwashing session that plunges into utter insanity.

Erich Fromm’s afterword (included at the end of the Signet Classics paperback edition) rightly puts 1984 in perspective with its historical context and other works of speculative fiction, like Brave New World. Still, while Huxley’s satire is substantially ironic, almost jovial, the general tone in Orwell’s book is dismal, revolting, at times practically unbearable. At any rate, this novel has become one of the canonical landmarks of political dystopia. Hannah Arendt possibly read 1984 when writing The Origins of Totalitarianism a couple of years after Orwell’s death. Its influence after that, on works like The Handmaid’s Tale, is manifest as well.

Michael Radford’s heartrending film adaptation is very faithful to the novel. But my favourite film “free-adaptation” remains Brazil by Terry Gilliam. Blade Runner, too, borrows much of its 2019 Los Angeles architecture from 1984’s Miniluv pyramidal building descriptions.

The days of Hitler and Stalin are long gone now. Even so, almost a century later, in a time of political paralysis and corruption, where the most prominent “doubleplusgood duckspeaker” politicians of the world make ample use of a new form of newspeak and doublethink; in a time of threatened privacy and increasing digital surveillance and mindfuck, Orwell’s prophetic warning is as relevant as ever.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

One of the party's slogans.

I don't really need to say more. The man was a visionary. He saw it coming.



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misogyny at its finest but this was written 76 years back so okay.

1984 is not a particularly good novel, but it is a very good essay. On the novel front, the characters are bland and you only care about them because of the awful things they live through. As a novel all the political exposition is heavyhanded, and the message completely overrides any sense of storytelling. As an essay, the points it makes can be earthshaking. It seems everyone who has so much as gotten a parking ticket thinks he lives in a 1984-dystopia. Every administration that reaches for power, injures civil liberties or collaborates too much with media is accused of playing Big Brother. These are the successes of 1984's paranoia, far outliving its original intent as a battery against where Communism was going (Orwell was a severely disappointed Marxist), and while people who compare their leaders to Big Brother are usually overreaching themselves and speak far away from Orwell's intent and vision, it is a useful catchcloth for dissent. Like so many immortalized books with a social vision, 1984's actual substance is so thin that its ideologies and fear-mongering aspects can be stretched and skewed to suit the readers. If you'd like a better sense of the real world and Orwell's intents, rather than third-hand interpretations of his fiction, then his Homage to Catalonia is highly recommended.

Wow it's been a while since I've read a book in a day. It's strange to go back to the real dystopian novels after reading a number of YA dystopian that hijacked the genre. I mean no disrespect to those novels, I enjoy them they're just so different from dystopian work like 1984 and Brave New World.

As usual my reviews contain spoilers so stop reading if they bother you.

For one, this book was not about overthrowing the status quo, it was demonstrating how powerful it was. Winston Smith was not a hero. He was a vehicle to show us the extent of the government's power. It was so powerful that it could change reality. It could make 2+2=5 or change the laws of nature--or at least how they're perceived by humans since only animals and proles are free (so the lower-lower class aren't seen as human).

It's just so vast. The fact the world is broken up into 3 super continents and each one has its own form of big brother. It's just so overwhelming and feels so infinite. There is no hope and those like Winston are conditioned to learn that and eventually love that before celebrating their own death.

It's an insidious tale. While I was reading I was entertained but an hour after putting it down I felt creeping fear. Every detail about the ruling party changing reality, rewriting history, and making people disappear, it's all terrifying.

1984

نشر أورويل هذه الرواية بعد أربع سنوات من نشر روايته (مزرعة الحيوان)، كانت مزرعة الحيوان عن انهيار الحلم الشيوعي، وتبعثره على يد الستالينيين، وكيف أن المجتمع الشيوعي أصبح أسوأ بكثير من المجتمع الرأسمالي، وأنه ليست أرزاق العمال والفلاحين المهددة الآن تحت ظل الشيوعية، وإنما حرياتهم بل وحياتهم ذاتها.

احتاج النظام السوفييتي إلى عشرين عام فقط بعد الثورة (1917 – 1937 م)، ليظهر أقبح وجوهه في مهزلة محاكمات موسكو، وحملات التطهير التي قتل فيها ما يقترب من المليوني شخص في الاتحاد السوفييتي، فلذا عندما نشر أورويل كتابه هذا في سنة 1949 م، كان يتوقع بأن 35 سنة كافية ليتحول العالم كله إلى الصورة المرعبة التي رسمها في روايته هذه، حيث تنقسم الكرة الأرضية إلى ثلاث دول فقط، إيستاسيا وهي الدولة التي تضم بلاد شرق آسيا وجنوبها من الصين واليابان والهند وغيرها من الدول المحيطة، وأوراسيا وهي الدولة التي تسيطر على روسيا وأوروبا، وأوقيانيا التي تسيطر على الأمريكتين والجزيرة البريطانية.

بطل الرواية وينستون سميث خمسيني يعيش في لندن ضمن حدود دولة أوقيانيا، والتي يسيطر عليها حزب وحيد يقوده الأخ الأكبر، والذي يحمل ملامح ستالينية لا يمكن أن يخطئها القارئ، الأخ الأكبر تتمحور حوله عبادة الشخصية كما ظهرت في الفترة الستالينية، وصوره في كل مكان من الدولة، وتحتها العبارة الشهيرة (الأخ الأكبر يراقبك)، وطيلة الرواية لا ندري هل الأخ الأكبر موجود أم لا؟ ربما يكون ميتاً منذ زمن بعيد، ولكن عبادة الشخصية تحوله إلى كائن أسطوري خالد، وتمحور كل شيء حول شخصه، وهي حالة مخزية جداً، لازالت موجودة في واقعنا المعاصر وإن بدرجات متفاوتة، ومثالها البارز كوريا الشمالية.

نتعرف مع وينستون على الحالة الغريبة التي وصل إليها ذلكم المجتمع الشمولي، حيث أربع وزارات تدير البلد، وزارة السلم وهي المسئولة عن الحرب، وزارة الوفرة وهي المسئولة عن الاقتصاد، الذي نعرف من خلال الرواية أنه بعيد تماماً عن الوفرة، وزارة الحقيقة وهي مشابهة لوزارة الإعلام ولكنها متخصصة في نشر الأكاذيب والشائعات، وأخيراً وزارة الحب وهي الوزارة المرعبة التي تشرف على شرطة الفكر، وعلى عمليات التعذيب المنهجية للمعارضين، والتي تتابع الناس من خلال شاشات الرصد الموجودة في كل مكان حتى في منازل أتباع الحزب.

قد تبدو لنا تسمية الوزارات ساخرة، حيث تقوم كل وزارة بمهام معاكسة لاسمها، ولكننا نكتشف أن وراء التسمية فلسفة رهيبة، هي فلسفة التفكير المزدوج، التي يحاول الحزب من خلالها قتل كل فكر مناهض، هذه الفلسفة نفهمها ونفهم المراد منها في الفصول الأخيرة من الرواية.

في هذا المجتمع المخيف، يحاول وينستون المشوش، والذي يعمل في وزارة الحقيقة، حيث يقوم بمهام تعديل الأخبار القديمة لتتوافق مع معطيات الحاضر، وهي مهمة يحرص عليها الحزب ليتلاعب بالتاريخ ويجعله يأتي وفقاً لفلسفته وخططه، يحاول وينستون البحث عن الحقيقة، التساؤل، هل كان الأمر هكذا دائماً؟ لا يوجد ذاكرة للمجتمع، لقد تلاعب بها الحزب، أعاد كتابة التاريخ ليجعله يبدأ من الثورة التي أتت بالحزب، وسلطته على رقاب الناس، فلذا صار وينستون لا يعرف إلا أطياف من المعلومات عن أوضاع ما قبل الثورة، ما قبل الحزب، وفي رحلته في البحث عن الحقيقة، تنشأ قصة حب خفية بينه وبين جوليا، وهي فتاة من الحزب، تتظاهر بأنها مؤمنة بالمبادئ قلباً وقالباً، ولكنها هي من يقود وينستون في قصة الحب هذه التي يخفيانها عن شاشات الرصد، وعن شرطة الفكر.

في أثناء هذا يلتقي وينستون بأوبراين، أحد قادة الدائرة الداخلية للحزب، والذي يكشف له أنه مؤمن بأفكار عدو الحزب الأساس (عمانوئيل جولدشتين)، والوصف الذي يعطينا إياه المؤلف لجولدشتين هذا يذكرنا بتروتسكي، يمني أوبراين وينستون بثورة قادمة، ويعطيه كتاباً لجولدشتين يقرؤه وينستون أثناء لقاءاته بجوليا.

يتم القبض على وينستون وجوليا أثناء أحد لقاءاتهما، حيث يكتشفان أنهما كانا مراقبين منذ البداية، وأن كل ما فعلاه رصدته شرطة الفكر، بل والأسوأ هو أن أوبراين ذاته من شرطة الفكر، وهو من سيتولى تعذيب وتحطيم شخصية وينستون.

يصف لنا المؤلف وبدقة التعذيب الذي يتعرض له وينستون، وهو ليس تعذيب جسدي فقط، وإنما هو عملية منهجية يتم فيها غسل دماغ وينستون، وتلقينه التفكير المزدوج الذي يجعله يصدق أن 2 زائد 2 يساوي خمسة عندما يقول له الحزب ذلك، لا يكفي أن يقولها خوفاً، لا... وإنما يجب أن يؤمن بها في قلبه، وهذا هو الطريق الذي سيحمله إلى محبة الأخ الأكبر.

هذه العملية المرعبة نتابع نتائجها المؤلمة على وينستون حتى النهاية، المرعب هو أننا نعرف من خلال التاريخ أن أورويل لم يبتكر كل هذا، فبرامج التعذيب هذه مطبقة خلال الفترة السوفياتية، حتى أن المعذبين كانوا عندما يعدمون، يبكون، لا على أنفسهم، وإنما لأنهم يشعرون بأنهم خذلوا الأخ الأكبر، خذلوا الزعيم الأبدي.

“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” - George Orwell, 1984

It’s been over 5 years since I last read 1984 and I still find the storyline as horrific as ever. It's terrifying to think of a world in which your own children are spies for the government and can turn you in, where cameras are watching you 24/7, where one could be accused of committing a "facecrime" or having an "ownlife", a world in which we live nervously worrying about whether the sensitive machinery that is watching you will pick up an increase in heartbeat that may incriminate us.

When I first read this book I imagined a similar dystopic world taking place in a Communist country or perhaps in a dictatorship like the one so many of my relatives were raised in. Now I realize it could just as well take place in a so-called democracy under several guises, and that’s the scary part. My mind did wander quite a bit while I was reading this book, thinking of the eerie possibilities, trying to find parallels between what I was reading and what I was observing in society. We are witnessing so much propaganda which may not be as obvious as some of the hilarious pro-Stalin and pro-Mao posters that I’ve seen online and in history books, but it’s there in an often subtler form.

I think one of the scariest parts for me was seeing how language can be used to manipulate and control:

“All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory.’ Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’

Language is definitely becoming more simplified and some of the words that are making it into the dictionary are just laughable.

I kept thinking about the following Virginia Woolf quote while reading this book:

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” - Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Freedom of mind is something I take for granted. We all want to believe we’re untouched by all this propaganda but are we really? Yes, this is definitely a cautionary tale. I wonder how many are listening.

Yes! This book! Amazing! Terrifying, brutal, intricate, prophetic - and, in one big word, GENIUS!

This was a reread - the last time I read this was over 20 years ago and I wanted to see if the 5 star rating and its standing in one of my top 3 favorite books held up - and it most certainly does.

If this book was written today in the midst of the slew of dystopian novels that come out, it may not have stood out. But, this book was way ahead of its time. Written in a post WWII era where the fears of dictatorships and brutal tyranny were fresh in the minds of the people, this book plays off that fear and adds a dark vision of a potential future.

This is where the genius of Orwell comes in. The book is mainly the manifesto of the Party that the main character is seeking to rebell against. But, the ideology and descriptions of this dystopian world are not presented in a boring way - they are fascinating. The fact that Orwell created this world and laid out not only a terrifying political environment, but the rules for the new language they were creating, is beyond amazing.

Finally, some of the things he describes sound all too possible in our current world. The controversial elections this week in the US only added to the intensity of this book.

Read this! Especially if you are a fan of modern dystopia, you must read the fore fathers - 1984 and Brave New World.

And, remember - Big Brother is watching!

(Book 547 From 1001 Books) - Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel published in 1949 by English author George Orwell.

The novel is set in Airstrip One, formerly Great Britain, a province of the superstate Oceania, whose residents are victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation.

Oceania's political ideology, euphemistically named English Socialism is enforced by the privileged, elite Inner Party.

Via the "Thought Police", the Inner Party persecutes individualism and independent thinking, which are regarded as "thoughtcrimes".

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «1984»؛ «۱۹۸۴»؛ «هزار و نهصد وهشتاد و چهار 1984»؛ نویسنده جورج اورول؛ انتشاراتیها (نیلوفر، آزرمیدخت، یاران، اردیبهشت؛ حکایتی دگر، فراموشی؛ ماهانه؛ هنر پارینه؛ انتشارات ولی؛ اختر، سومر، کارگاه، گهبد؛ مجید، و ...)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش سال 1982میلادی

عنوان: 1984 (۱۹۸۴)؛ نویسنده: جورج اورول؛ مترجم: صالح حسینی؛ تهران، نیلوفر، 1361؛ در 272ص؛ چاپ دوم 1364؛ سوم 1367؛ چهارم سال1369؛ شابک: 9644480449؛ پنجم 1374؛ ششم 1376؛ هفتم 1380؛ هشتم 1382؛ یازدهم و دوازدهم 1388؛ شابک789644480447؛ سیزدهم 1389؛ در 312ص؛ چاپ چهاردهم 1395؛ عنوان گسترده: هزار و نهصد وهشتاد و چهار؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده 20م

مترجمین دیگر خانمها و آقایان: «رضا زارع، در 384ص، قزوین آزرمیدخت، 1392»؛ «خدیجه خدایی، در 318ص، تبریز، یاران، 1391»؛ «نرگس حیدری منجیلی، در 352ص، تهران، اردیبهشت، 1389»،؛ «مریم فیروزبخت، در 392ص، تهران، حکایتی دگر، 1389»؛ «زهره زندیه، در 400ص، قزوین، آزرمیدخت»؛ «کتایون شاهوردی، در 465ص، تهران، فراموشی، 1396»؛ «فهیمه رحمتی، در 400ص، تهران، ماهانه، 1394»؛ «امیر سالارکیا، در 384ص؛ تهران، هنر پارینه، 1394»؛ «مرتضی، سعیدی تبار، در 384ص، کرمان، انتشارات ولی، 1393»؛ «محمدعلی جدیری، تهران، اختر، چاپ یازدهم 1392، در 399ص؛ چاپ سیزدهم، تبریز، سومر، 1393، در 283ص»؛ «وحید کیان، تهران، کارگاه فیلم و گرافیک سپاس، 1394، در 375ص»؛ «حمیدرضا بلوچ، در 288ص، تهران، گهبد، 1384، چاپ دوم 1385، سوم 1386، پنجم 1388؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، مجید، 1386؛ در 288ص؛ چاپ هشتم 1392»؛

کتاب «1984» را نویسنده و شاعر «بریتانیا»، «اریک آرتور بلر» با نام مستعار «جرج (جورج) اورول»؛ بنگاشته اند، و تا‌ به‌ امروز به بیش از شصت و پنج زبان گوناگون برگردان، و میلیون‌ها نسخه از آن فروخته شده است؛ با توجه به تصویر روشنی که «اورول» در داستان از نظامهای تمامیت‌خواه ارائه می‌دهند، انگار کنید بیانیه‌ ای سیاسی، برای رد همه ی نظام‌های توتالیتر، و «کمونیستی» است؛ «جهان اورولی، 1984؛» داستان «وینستون اسمیت» را روایت می‌کند؛ فردیکه نماد یک شهروند عادی دگراندیش، در دنیای «اورولی» است؛ رمان در سال 1949میلادی نوشته شده، زمانی‌که جنگ دوم جهانگیر به‌ تازگی پایان یافته بود؛ و جهانیان، خطر تسلیم‌ شدن در پیشگاه دیکتاتورها را، نیک فهمیده بودند؛ در آن زمان، جنگ سرد هنوز آغاز نشده بود، و در دنیای غرب نیز، هنوز روشنفکران بسیاری بودند، که از «کمونیسم» هواداری، و دفاع میکردند؛ در واقع «اورول» کتاب را، برای اخطار به غربیان، برای گوشزد کردن خطر گسترش «کمونیسم»، نوشته اند؛ اما داستان این اثر را، می‌توان به شرایط حاکم بر تمام جوامع تحت سلطه‌ ی حکومت‌ها‌ی استبدادی نیز، گسترش داد؛ داستان در سال 1984میلادی (سی و پنجسال پس از تاریخ نگارش کتاب) در شهر «لندن»، رخ می‌دهد؛ پس از جنگ جهانگیر، حاکمان کشورهای توانمند، به این نتیجه رسیده‌ اند، که اگر جهان، به روند افزایش ثروت ادامه دهد، ارکان جامعه‌ ی طبقاتی، به خطر می‌افتد؛ و حکومتها سرنگون میشوند؛ آن‌ها تنها راه جلوگیری از این امر را، نابود کردن ثروت تولید شده، در جنگی بی‌ پایان می‌بینند؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 21/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 04/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

"Quien controla el pasado controla el futuro, quien controla el presente controla el pasado"


Publicado después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, en 1949, hace referencia a un futuro distópico e imaginario, en 1984, y a día de hoy, unos 70 años después, ocupa un lugar privilegiado estando en los primeros puestos por todas las librerías del mundo. Muchos números para una clara reflexión. ¿Puede el ser humano resistir al totalitarismo que lo rodea?

Las experiencias de la Primera Guerra Mundial llevaron a un período de entreguerras todo muy politizado, centrado en regímenes totalitarios y utopías. Muchos proyectaron de esta manera en sus obras, imágenes de un futuro dominado por la tecnología y la opresión de la personalidad del individuo sobre el "bien mayor o general". Y que al final no se cayeron. La Segunda Guerra Mundial, con todos los horrores que siguieron, confirmó hacia dónde puede ser conducido el hombre.

En el año 1984 Londres es una ciudad lúgubre en la que la Policía del Pensamiento controla de forma asfixiante la vida de los ciudadanos. Winston Smith es un peón de este engranaje perverso y su cometido es reescribir la historia para adaptarla a lo que el Partido considera la versión oficial de los hechos. Hasta que decide replantearse la verdad del sistema que los gobierna y somete.

Orwell desarrolló la prosa inglesa más clara y atractiva del siglo XX. Pero es obvio que era mucho más que un gran escritor. Hoy resulta necesario debido a su pasión por la verdad.

George Orwell nos plasma el pasado pues es un representante de su tiempo. Vivió muchísimas cosas. Y se había dado cuenta desde joven que la propaganda conduce a la mentira, ambiciones y sobretodo a la destrucción total de nuestra capacidad crítica.

Nos transporta a Oceanía, es una de las tres fuerzas dominantes en este mundo. Los otros dos llamados Eurasia y Eastasia, con los cuales está alternativamente en guerra. Oceanía está dominada por el partido del Gran Hermano, un régimen autoritario que se impuso 40 años antes a través de una revolución. La sociedad está dividida en tres clases.

Primero los miembros del Partido Interior que son los privilegiados, los miembros del Partido Exterior, que son los funcionarios burocráticos, prescindibles, y finalmente los proletarios, son la mayoria, viviendo en condiciones trágicas. El personaje principal del libro se llama Winston, pertenece a la segunda clase social y en solo tres capítulos vemos tanto su ascenso como la caída de su personalidad.

La propaganda de los logros del régimen. Los éxitos de la guerra y la felicidad desenfrenada que se propagan contrastan fuertemente con las condiciones reales de vida de la sociedad. La pobreza y el hambre dominan cada rincón.

La vestimenta de las personas, es homogénea para que nadie destaque. Gris y negro cubren esta novela, es el miedo constante en el que se encuentran todas esas personas.

El Gran Hermano reemplaza a la religión y es venerado como el salvador y defensor de los derechos de los ciudadanos. Por el contrario, el enemigo de Oceanía, además de las dos fuerzas anteriores que mencionamos, es Goldstein. Un miembro poderoso del Partido que los traicionó y empezó la contrarrevolución.

Simboliza el mal para el Partido pero también para la sociedad. Llevar esto a cabo a través de la propaganda, el miedo y lograrlo es lo que se llamaría poder absoluto. Así de aterrador es y nada lejos de la realidad.

El valor y significado de la democracia está, o debería de estar en la libertad, de pensamiento como de libertad de expresión. En Oceanía son perseguidos, no sólo penalmente sino también moralmente. Las verdades y las mentiras así se van mezclando, se pierden y todo lo que queda es una persona indefensa y anulada.

Lo más fascinante viene después de terminar el libro, muchas preguntas surgen en el lector. Si uno está familiarizado con la época en que se escribió el libro, comprenderá las referencias y analogías. Una intensa reflexión, pero también una crítica.

Pero ese tiempo y esas cosas han pasado y las cosas han cambiado, ¿Verdad?..

Puesto que, ¿Aprendemos de todos y cada uno de nuestros errores, verdad?..

Entonces porqué este libro en pleno siglo XXI es uno de los más vendidos y de los más relevantes siempre en una cima. Este libro como todo lo de Orwell debería leerse alguna vez en la vida. Nos hace plantearnos muchas preguntas, y algunas terroríficas.

Un libro político, filosófico y existencial a través de una visión antropocéntrica. "1984" es, fue y será una obra atemporal.