60th Anniversary Of Orwell's 1984

Eric Blair, respekt.

How close is the use of double-speak, the re-writing of history, the Thought Police [illegal wiretapping] and the Ministry of Love [We love, that is why we torture.] to the pseudo Christianization of the Bush Administration? Scary.

June 8, 1949: Sixty years ago today, Nineteen Eighty-Four is published. It’s official: In the face of the monolithic state, the little guy has no chance at all.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is told through the eyes of Winston Smith, a minor civil servant in the Ministry of Truth whose job it is to rewrite history for the totalitarian state of Oceania. His spirit hasn’t been entirely quashed, though, and he chafes under the yoke, eventually joining a rebellion against the state. He is soon betrayed, arrested and tortured.

In the end, Smith wins his "freedom" by accepting the assertion that 2 + 2 = 5, while at the same time betraying his girlfriend, "Do it to Julia!" he yells, to endure more torture in his place.

"Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life."
-- Oscar Wilde

Source: WIRED