1984 is a world seized by fear – you are never alone, not even inside your own mind. The ‘thought police’ can arrest you for a thought which they deem to be ‘against the state’ and ‘against Big Brother’ – the all powerful dictator, who we never meet…
So I started making connections:
The ordinary man will never meet his leader. May’s campaign ensured as little interaction with the public as possible, and she only spoke to current Tory party members during her campaign.
Big Brother erases the truth. They employ the discipline of doublethink, which means that the people are taught that there are 2 truths, but one is false. Sound familiar? Fake news. The answer, is to train yourself to believe what the state tells you is the truth. 1984, explains this is when you will be happy, because you are happy in your ignorance. Trump’s idea of ‘fake news’ is really ingenious, because he can never be wrong, in the same way which the government in 1984 is omnipotent.
All slogans and no substance. The world of ‘Big Brother’ is run on phrases and slogans of opposites – ‘freedom is slavery, slavery is freedom’, for example. This reminded of the ‘May-bot’ campaign ‘strong and stable’…
What’s stuck with me about this book, is that it is a rule by fear. The people under the rule of Big Brother, need the government to protect them because the government has ensured that they have nothing left to be self sufficient by themselves. It scares me, that this is not a world away from the situation around the world today.