'1984,' George Orwell's classic dystopian nightmare was published 70 years ago. Here are 5 eerie pre

[corbe]

'1984,' George Orwell's classic dystopian nightmare was published 70 years ago. Here are 5 eerie predictions that came true.

Bill Bostock
 
11 hrs ago
 
In 1949, British author and essayist George Orwell wrote of a future where a global despotic power controlled the people of Oceania with surveillance and propaganda. This was "1984."

It depicted a dark future where technology exists in the public realm only as a tool for the elite to control society.

But while the book is a work of dystopian fiction, some of the technological innovations that it predicted have come true in the 70 years since it was published.

Here's a look at some of the things that "1984" got right.

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/1984-george-orwells-classic-dystopian-nightmare-was-published-70-years-ago-here-are-5-eerie-predictions-that-came-true/ss-AACuxsD?ocid=ientp

[skeeter]

Figures MSN would focus on technology and ignore all the really ominous similarities between the book and whats happening today.

[Zak]

He should be remembered even if all he said was this:
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

[corbe]

   Welcome to TBR @Zak

[austingirl]

Figures MSN would focus on technology and ignore all the really ominous similarities between the book and whats happening today.

Yes, like changing the meaning of words. That is double plus ungood.

[The_Reader_David]

Yes, like changing the meaning of words. That is double plus ungood.

In that Orwell was prescient, but he got wrong how it would be done.  Syme describes Newspeak in the following terms:

Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten … Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller… The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect…”

Elsewhere in the novel, process is described as proceeding on the basis of reason.

The real-world analogue of Newspeak used by the 21st century Left proceeds on exactly the oppose basis:  words are given more and more meanings on the basis of emotion.  A word the English meaning of which produces a strong emotional reaction, either positive or negative, is loaded with other meanings that are then supposed to evoke the same reaction.

For example, "racist" can refer to the English meaning of the word, a person who objects to any policy the Left purports benefits racial or ethnic minorities, a person who advocates any policy the Left fancies will harm racial or ethnic minorities, a person who accurately reports and objects to some illiberal aspect of sharia, or simply a white person.  Likewise "health care" can mean the services provided by physicians and allied health professionals, health insurance, or government specified and mandated health insurance;  when modified with the adjective "womens'" it can refer to any of these in which the patient/beneficiary is a female human being, or to hormonal contraception or to abortion.  The reader can readily discern the alternate real-world Newspeak definitions of "violence" and "unsafe" from their use in what to a speaker of standard English would nonsensical screeds in support of censoring speech on university campuses.