1984 (Signet Classics) by George Orwell
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.58 You Save: $5.41 (54%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.11 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of 1984 (Signet Classics)
Book Review: a must read for all citizens of the world
Summary: 5 Stars
1984 is one of those books you're supposed to read in school, the kind that all the weird, geeky kids with Chuck Taylor All Stars and too much acne read while ranting about The Man. It's a well-known manifesto of those playing at anti-government, anti-establishment, brandishing about their membership cards for the Society for Creative Anarchy. This isn't for the kids that read trashy romances or pulp novels: it's not for the Collins, Grisham, Crichton, or Clancy fans out there, and it's definitely not something a Harry Potter kid is going to pick up in a few years. 1984 is depressing, it's dark, and as most devotes will tell you, it's happening right now. After all, this is the book that defines what "Orwellian" means-a word so specific in its meaning, even a spin doctor being interviewed on The Daily Show couldn't put it in a positive light.
Considering my choices of literature, it probably comes as some surprise that this is only the second time I've read this book, and really I wouldn't have even been motivated to do so if I hadn't picked up a copy of the movie version of 1984 on DVD. I read the book back when I was a senior in high school-this and Metamorphosis were two works that the teachers at my otherwise fine high school just couldn't be assed having us read. I protested after reading both books myself between Junior and Senior year, and in the end talked the English literature teacher into allowing me to teach "The Hunger Artist" but it was a rather one-sided compromise, especially when you look at recent statistics. According to one report, the majority of students do not understand or value the first amendment, think that freedom of speech is too unrestricted, that the press has too much say, and that in effect, Americans are too free.
It is in this environment that 1984 is more relevant than ever. Look at the National ID cards passed last week without the main media outlets blinking an eye or raising a voice. (Dan Rather, oh distrustful ally of the anti-Bush liberals and libertarians, where are you now!?) In a world where we can go from being at war with Afghanistan to Iraq in the blink of an eye (Er, I mean, we were never at war with Afghanistan. We've always been at war with Iraq. We were never not at war with Iraq. Big Brother Bush says so) and where September 11th is brandished about like a giant banner to take away every freedom known to man, the only difference between the Republicans and Ingsoc is the extent of power and religiosity. While Bush follows a god only he can hear (and really, isn't that signs of a mental disorder, having an imaginary friend that only you can hear that tells you to do things and then acting on that friend's word?) he has yet to understand that to captivate all power, he needs to be God.
Of course, the United States isn't the only country with gross miscarriages of justice and invasion of privacy. In addition to China's censorship of the internet, the uniting of England with the US against the unifying European Union (read: Eurasia), there's the almost-but-not-quite-telescreen announcement system in Japan known as "The Box" to some residents and "Off Box" to others. Technology was meant to make our lives easier, but as Orwell predicted, it is only being used to impose class systems more rigid than they were fifty-years ago.
On the way home from work on Wednesday, David and I were walking past Hyde town hall when we heard the bell begin to chime. He mentioned to me that the bell was given to the town by Joshua Bradley, an Industrialist and self-made man who worked his way up from a mill worker to owner. Rags to riches, the kind of JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie American dream where hard work pays off if you pull yourself up by the bootstraps and put your axe to the grindstone-it doesn't exist in twenty-first century America. Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Richard Branson: they were born into the world they've simply modified. There was never a chance they'd be a factory worker somewhere, watching over robots as computers were assembled or working as a flight or train attendant. Donald Trump was never going to be a bartender in a casino. They were born into their class and remained there, entrenched in their wealth.
In the past, this would have sent up a cry through the students and middle classes, charging the revolutionary-minded among us to action, to take our piece of the pie, to work harder. Instead, we see lawsuit after lawsuit as people who feel they deserve something for nothing become litigious instead of industrious while the rest go on with the drudgery of the world in which they live. We've become sedated by our technology, dependant on mass media and the Internet for our information. How many Americans first believed we were going to war with Iraq because of Weapons of Mass Destruction? How many people still believe that? More importantly, how many of those Americans still believe Saddam Hussain was responsible for 9/11? How many media outlets bother pointing this out?
In the end, we have to look back at Orwell and realize that he knew this. He saw it all happening, saw where we were going, and gave us a picture of a world in the not-to-distant future that is depressing, bleak, and immanent. His book is more important than ever, and if you cannot believe it, take a look at the film version of the book. Admittedly, it was four years after reading the book for the first time that I happened upon the movie, so my memory of the book was foggy at best. So I picked it up and watched it with some skepticism. Surely, so much of that was changed to meet modern standards. Surely, as it is with Hollywood, the only thing it had in common with the book was the title and characters. It was for this reason I put 1984 on my list of books to read-to see how much had been changed. And to my surprise, not much is different at all, to the point that I could see scenes in my mind not because the movie colored my perception (as the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest did, so that reading the book is nearly impossible) but because it was so accurate.
In the end, there was no need for them to change, modernize, or update 1984 because it was spot-on. This is a book that is too important to change, and far to relevant to be relegated to dusty bookshelves in the unused school libraries of the United States, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. It is a book that needs to be read, not banned as it has been in some places. If you didn't read this in school, I urge-no, implore-you to read it now. Even if you did read it in school, a good re-read is always enjoyable and considering the way technology and government are evolving, there's no better or more pertinent time than now.
Book Review: 1984
Summary: 5 Stars
From the very first sentence to the last, this book held me on with wide eyes of horror and enthrallment, and a mouth drawn stupidly open at the books prophetic, almost clairvoyant vision of the future, at the magnificent power it holds within the text, the pages. When I finished, I closed the book, put it aside, and went to bed. It had such a profound, powerful, overwhelming effect on me, that I could not really think straight; it was overall depressing, and it left me spellbound. And I know, if you read it, it will leave you the same way too.
The year is 1984.
The world is now divided into only 3 main sections: Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania--the main setting of the story. There is no such thing as the U.S.A. or Canada or Australia or China anymore. It's all in those 3 divided places: Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania.
The entire world is under the terrible, unbreakable grip of totalinarialism.
Theres communism, of course...and theres totalinarialism...which is very much worse. While communists control most aspects of life for their people...totalinarialism controls ALL aspects of life for their people...and now in 1984, I don't know if it is sane or rational to call them 'people' anymore...it would be more fitting to call them, their 'slaves.'
Everything is controlled by the Party or the main government system, with Big Brother, an ominous, mysterious creature being at the top of everything. Big Brother is eternal. Big Brother is invincible. Big Brother never dies. Big Brother will never die. Big Brother is watching you. Everywhere you look, every corner you possibly turn, everywhere you are, he is listening...and watching you...watching you to see if you make any mistakes, break any rules. If possibly, you are against the party, against Big Brother. To see if you commit any 'thought crimes', which are negative thoughts towards the party and Big Brother or thoughts of rebellion and rivalry towards them. They scan every possible inch of your face. From the emotion flickering in your eyes, from the gesture of your mouth and nose and skin contractions, from the actions of your throat...to see if there is any evil, any rebellion, any thoughts of hate toward the Party. For the party is invincible. Big Brother is invincible. They control you. You must obey them. Or else.
But even if the thought police somehow don't catch you in the act of thought crime, there are always your sons or daughters, who will turn you in. There is no morality anymore in 1984. There is no sanity. There is no rationality. There is no freedom. That is all in the past...and the past is long gone forever.
Now everything is based on these three rules of the Party:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
which are all examples of 'doublethink'(which I will explain a little later).
It is the year 1984. And by then all Hell has broken loose...
There is no such thing as 'plain English' anymore. That is known now in 1984, as 'Old Speak.' Now, there is something new and better and more efficient; something invented by the Party so that people will have less ways of speaking and writing and comprehending words; thus less thougths; thus again, less possibilities of negative, rebelling thoughts toward the Party. And that is Newspeak. Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, and to put it basically, is a deeply cut down and edited version of English or 'Old Speak.'
For example, there are no adverbs anymore(quietly, peacefully, quickly, profoundly, words mostly ending in ly)and there are no synonyms of normal, everyday words, such as, 'splendin' or 'wonderful' or 'magnificent' all rooting back to the same thing; the same word; the same meaning, which is 'good.' Instead, to describe something 'very good' or as we call it, 'excelling' or 'exceptionally good', great in fact--they add a plus to the word good, to magnify it, if it needs it. Thus plusgood or very good, or doubleplusgood, meaning very very good, great, and so on.
Every year more and more words are edited swifly and more and more words are 'vaporized' forever from the language--thus less words, less thoughts. In every way you could imagine, the Party, ultimately Big Brother is controlling all aspects of life, from the language, the way you talk, your thoughts, the way you think--with Doublethink(a mind technique where 2 contradictings thoughts come into one, and you accept both. For example, lets say you were a boy in actuality, but you used doublethink to think you are a girl, always have been a girl since you were born. You would need to have those 2 contradictings thoughts: "I am a girl" even though deep inside somewhere, you know "I am a boy", at once, accepting both. It even takes you to use doublethink in order to understand the concept, in the first place)where you live, always watching and listening what you are doing, and everything else in between. Life, humanity--mankind, as we know it--is going down the drain; blinded by pride, jealousy, selfishness. Trying to keep their audience as far from the truth of things, by keeping them afraid, paranoid, controlled; always with the sense of being watched and heard. Always.
Now comes the protagonist of this horrific tale; Winston Smith. He is a middle-aged man, with a varicose ulcer on his ankle, and works for the Ministry of Truth. Or in actuality, since that is of course, an example of 'doublethink', it should be called, instead, 'The Ministry of Lies.' He is a reasonably normal, lonely, distraught man, with a secret. Which is a thought crime. He hates Big Brother. He hates the party. He wants to bring Big Brother down. He wants to bring down the party down. Down with Big Brother! he had written over and over in his diary. Down with Big Brother!
When he meets O'Brien, one of his co-workers, his dream comes closer to actuality being commited to reality, and when he once again, meets the love of his life, Julia--the space from his dream and reality is magnified again, and so, he is one rung higher up the ladder from achieving what he wants. Which is, to throw down the party, to throw down Big Brother. Down with Big Brother!
But the party is invincible...Big Brother is invisible...He is always watching...Always listening....no matter what........Big Brother is watching you.
Although 1984, has long come and gone, Orwells nightmare vision of the future of man fate, under the terrible grip of totalinarialism and it's nasty results, stay as timely as ever, standing all by itself, as one of the greatest novels of all time.
Like how it was quoted from the front flap of a hardcover edition of this book:
"As timely as the label on a bottle of poison."
Book Review: Of course it's not true...real stories never are
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm always struck by the dichotomous reactions to 1984. Some will claim it's brilliantly written, others that it's horribly written. Some paint it as an attack on socialism, others as a brilliant satire of modern republican democracy. I find it utterly terrifying if only because its ideas run further into the fabric of our society than most people know; that because there are no posters for Ingsoc on the walls they assume there is not one stamped indelibly in their mind.
Or, to put the point lucidly, the horror of 1984 isn't the telescreens and rocket bombs, nor is it even the Thought Police. The horror is the idea, and the idea is still being fought against even today.
I suppose first of all I should consider the writing. It's fantastic. It's subtle. It's appropriate. From the very first sentence 'the clock struck thirteen' the reader is informed something is very *wrong* here. Clocks do not strike thirteen; they strike twelve. It's as common as green lights meaning go. From the very beginning an undercurrent of wrongness is present. Orwell also maintains the difficult proposition of keeping his writing limited to the point of view of Winston while at the same time trying to explain enough of his dystopia to make it plausible and whole.
Second, its 'point'. Well, despite the unfortunate name given, Ingsoc (or 'English Socialism') is no more proper socialism than it is facism, or republicanism. All three rely on a precariously perched ruling class and a shortage of the necessities of life. Unfortunately too many were influenced by the satire of 'Animal Farm' and its seemingly obvious parallels to the Soviet Union (try this fun game; the old pig is not Lenin but Franklin. Snowball, rather than Trotsky, is Jefferson and his ideological children. Napoleon is not Stalin but Alexander Hamilton. Insert names as needed. The true genius of 'Animal Farm' is that its archetypes can be filled by the proper people/ideologies of almost any modern government.) This book isn't about the Soviet Union. The SU is, if anything, infinitely preferable.
Orwell is attempting to make the point (further explained in his essay 'Homage to Catalonia') that all government has that awful potential, and each is as likely to slide into totalitarianism as another. Those who say the book is an attack on communism are
a) woefully misinformed; the society depicted in 1984 bears little or no relation to communism or socialism beyond the communal obligation, and this obligation is not to one's fellow man as in proper socialism but to the state, and is then fascism or republican democracy if it is anything, and
b) naive if they believe that the fall of the Soviet Union makes the book's ideas irrelevant. Orwell observed more than once that no government is inherently 'better' than any other. Anyone who says of communism "Well, it failed in the Soviet Union, didn't it? That proves it didn't work!" might well look towards Athens, Rome, France, Germany, and countless other countries where democracy failed even more spectacularly. Any government can fail at any time in any place given the proper conditions. Democracy can collapse. Monarchs can be overthrown. Fascists can be defeated. Communists can be glasnosted out of existence. Orwell observes the Marxist idea that a distribution of wealth, even if still geared towards the wealthiest one percent, would still proportionately increase the standard of living of the average person to the point where they would realize the Highs are superflous appendages, the appendices and vestigial lower ribs of the social body.
Totalitarianism, Orwell argues, exists at the core of all governments and, despite the best intentions of its rulers, a government is almost a living entity in and of itself, and will naturally seek to aggregate as much power to itself as possible. Whether one is ruled by an absolute monarch or a representative body this tendency remains.
Perhaps the most terrifying moment occurs within the reader: when we realize that Winston Smith is a journalist, and moreso clearly a writer in the purest sense. In the world of 1984, he is what the writer has become. This is what our noble dreamers, our Shakespeares and our Platos, have been reduced to. This is what all of the words come to.
Nevertheless, Winston *is* a writer. We see this in his utterly irrational need to keep his journal, to write down his thoughts, in the face of certain punishment. Perhaps a projection of Orwell himself, Winston is a writer who exemplifies all of those other doomed souls who died impoverished, unnoticed, unable to break their addiction to putting the inside of their heads down on paper. We see the horrible things 1984 has done to the writer, and the journalist, made him a heretic, a newspaperman who fabricates lies and destroys the truth.
Seen in this light, Newspeak becomes all the more horrific: by destroying the very tools a writer might use, Orwell sees the death of revolution.
To those who were forced to read this book for school: god forbid. I'm sorry you were forced into something which is the solemn obligation of any citizen, that to be informed and as educated as possible. It is the implicit guarantee of any democracy or socialist state that one's fellow man (or woman) is dedicated to making the most of themselves, not vegging out wringing their hands over American Idol. If it is painful or sophomoric to you it is because you are painfully sophomoric yourself, and have as little right to your freedom as the air you breathe (which is what brings about dystopia more surely than anything, the willful, arrogant ignorance of the people.) Not only do you not know, you don't care you don't know. Ignorance is worn like a badge of honor, and if totalitarianism comes I can hardly say you do not deserve every agony of it.
It is a book not only of but about ideas, and its only optimism is given in Orwell's comments on human nature; that a human naturally rebels against such a state, and it may take a thousand years to destroy it, even if it is only to repeat the mistake again for another thousand. But in those moments between the terrible millenia are the small spaces allowed for such things as simple human kindness and decency, which is the surest remedy to totalitarianism as anything. When humans cease to be competitors for the material they find an almost limitless capacity for mutual understanding.
Anyone interested in other dystopia would be advised to read Zamyatin's 'We', Miller's 'A Canticle for Leibowitz', and perhaps the best of all if only for its brutal insight and simplicity, Platonov's 'The Foundation Pit'.
Book Review: Big Brother is winning his war against FREEDOM & JUSTICE
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading a few of the earlier reviews here I can see, sadly, that Big Brother is winning the war against the Individual and against Democracy. When seventeen year olds, "DON'T GET IT", it is clear that the propaganda and "education" that America and other "slowly turning fascist" nations are are being hypnotized with are hitting their mark and accomplishing their goals.
Anyone who can read Orwell's call to action and put it down with a yawn is already dead! Their friends and family should bury them and shrug. Imagine channel surfing when Paul Revere announced that the Redcoats were coming?! Orwell has made his announcement. It's up to us to heed the call or be dominated and subjugated by a government no longer of, for or by "the people" but rather owned and operated by Big Money, Big Business and Big Brother.
1984 has accurately predicted the state that we live in where we are being told by our? own government that there are threats around every corner, so watch out. Be afraid! Be very afraid! BEWARE! CONDITION ORANGE! CONDITION RED? THE TERRORISTS ARE COMING, THE TERRORISTS ARE COMING! LOCK YOUR DOORS AND HOARD DUCT TAPE AND WATER.
I am acutely aware that terrorism is a reality. It has been all through history. But how many times now have we been "warned" that a terrorist attack is being brewed? How many times have we been put on "CONDITION ORANGE"? But no attack follows and no follow up announcement that the "imminent attack" was prevented!
Where are all these terrorists that planned these imminent attacks? I would expect to see their faces on CNN every night.
This is exactly Big Brother's STRATEGY. It keeps people in a constant state of low level anxiety expecting a bomb to be dropped on our heads any second! But no terrorist are found under our beds. Just what does it accomplish to announce these "alerts" via Big Brother's Big Screen and color coded DANGER LEVEL lights?
Does he expect citizens to do something about it? Can citizens stop terrorism if we "expect" it to occur at any minute? Are we being given guns to protect ourselves and metal detectors to check out the bags of the "suspicious looking dark man" next to us on the train?
How does this work? Just what does our "National Homeland" Czar expect us to do other than worry, kneel and grovel to the Big Brother in the sky?
Are we taking classes or receiving instruction about how to identify and thwart terrorists and "suspicious" activity? Or are we just being made anxious and paranoid in the obvious (at least to some of us) attempt to get the masses to empty their pockets of even more tax dollars and to give up our few remaining Democratic rights of a FREE COUNTRY? So that Big Brother can "better protect us?" Please!
For the reviewers that can't understand this book I say: MORE'S THE PITY! You are ripe for the picking. All King Bill, George and John have to say to you is give us more money and all your remaining HARD-EARNED-BY-THE-BLOOD-OF-BRAVE-AMERICANS" RIGHTS, and we will keep you safe from the big bad terrorist boogie man! Yeah, right. Like they kept us safe in Oklahoma City and New York!
THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE WORLD IS THE INSIDE OF A PRISON CELL!
This is where our great leaders really want us all to be. Not an actuall prison cell but a controlled society with ID stamped into our flesh and eternal fear pressed into our souls.
GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS, MY YOUNG FRIEND AND READ THE BOOK AGAIN. YOU SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING ORWELL AND BECOMING A REAL AMERICAN.
Orwell's classic 1984 is, very simply, true. Many believe that it was a prediction of what our world would be like in 1984 (it was written in 1951). It was not a prediction but rather an analogy to the world of Orwell's time. He was ALREADY LIVING IN 1984.
Most people cannot (or will not) see that our world is already controlled by BIG BROTHER. It is sad, scary but true. In 1984 Orwell shows the governments of the world scaring their own population. Well, America does the same thing! So does any country that wishes to extract huge taxes from its population to support "needed" war machines. Now that the Soviet "threat" is gone, America needed a new one. Enter: TERRORISM.
But if the reader cares to do a bit of research he or she will find that American militarists have been suggesting that the American military and CIA conduct terror against ITS OWN POPULATION for many years now. During the Cuban "threat" the pentagon asked Kennedy to allow it to blow up an American ship killing Americans! He declined.
Are we SURE who was responsible for 9/11? No one has taken credit for it. Why? All terror groups IMMEDIATELY TAKE CREDIT FOR THIER WORK when they pull something off. Why wouldn't the Taliban or Al Quaida jump at the chance of taking credit for the greatest example of terrorism in America? The only LOGICAL explanation is because they didn't do it!
I'm not saying that American militarists did it. Maybe it was a country that stood to gain from having America go after those "crazy Moslems." Israel? How about Israel and America? Who knows? But there is no EVIDENCE of who actually did it and more important WHY.
You can sit back and take the easy explanation spoon fed to you from corporate owned media with its own agenda. Or you can read and understand 1984 and start thinking beyond the "obvious." If you want to read a book that picks up where 1984 leaves off try HOW TO SAVE AMERICA AND THE WORLD. Yes, I wrote it but that is no reason not to read it. Everyone advertises his or her own books. I simply offer it because, like Orwell, I want people to know what is really going on and why.
Read between the lines when you read American "news." Better yet listen to news broadcasts from other counties. It's not a matter of writing outright lies as much as OMITTING details and SKEWING various parts of stories.
Orwell gives you the tools to begin to think for yourself. If it's too much work or too scary, then just put your faith in your president. He would never lie to you, would he? Like his Daddy said, just "read my lips." Oh, that's right. What he was referring to turned out to be a lie and he DID RAISE TAXES after all! Oh, well. At least you can trust Orwell.
Joseph Francione [author of HOW TO SAVE AMERICA AND THE WORLD]
Book Review: A fine piece of work
Summary: 5 Stars
Oceania, with the British Isles, the America's and other lands, and London as its capital is a totalitarian state. Winston Smith works on changing past newspapers and other documents to make them doctrinally consistent with the short term needs of the party running Oceania, INGSOC. Thus documents are changed to make it seem that Oceania has always been at war with one of the two other nations of the world, Eurasia and in an alliance with EastAsia, the other nation; similarly is the construction when Oceania goes to war with EastaAsia. Similarly documents will be changed that have some INGSOC official uttering an inaccurate prediction about economic performance so that the official will have originally made an accurate prediction.. Documents are changed to eliminate mention of former favored party members after they fall out of favor and are sent to a forced labor camp or are "vaporized." Winston and other bureaucrats throw doctrinally inaccurate documents into the "memory hole", a chute, attached to his cubicle where they are sent down to the inner recesses of the government building to be burned.
Party members have in their homes and offices "telescreens" where they receive propaganda, are led in mandatory morning exercises but through which are also watched by officials for suspicious facial expressions, or any activity that might indicate independence of mind or feelings of love, enthusiasm or any other human emotion that are not directed at Big Brother, the possibly non-existent ruler of Oceania. People who exhibit such tendencies towards "thought crimes" are immediately arrested, executed or released back into society brainwashed and then rearrested and shot or sometimes sent to a forced labor camp.
INGSOC indoctrination ensures that its party members will not be able to not think logically and instead be completely subordinated to their emotions, which are completely engrossed in worshipping Big Brother. "Doublethink" is what is called the ability of the INGSOC party member to somewhat recognize the logical fallacies and outright falsehoods the party propagates as truth. At the same time such fallacies and falsehoods are accepted as the truth because one's emotions are trained to accept the party's pronouncements as truth whatever common sense says. Thus, it is easy to accept that two plus two equals five when logic says two plus two equals four. Or to not see anything wrong in the Ministry of Torture being officially called "The Ministry of Love," The ministry of truth management/propaganda, etc, where Winston works, as "The Ministry of Truth, and so on. Or to have the party denounce the original ideals of socialism while declaring itself to be a repository of socialist purity. Logic seems to be only tolerated when examining the crimes of official enemies of Oceania.
The bigger one's vocabulary is, of course, the more one can utilize it to articulate opposition to the party; so INGSOC wants to keep Newspeak-the language it is developing--and the remaining use of "Oldspeak"-old standard English-- as small as possible. In Newspeak there is no bad to good. Instead bad is called "ungood," "very good" in oldspeak is called "doubleplusgood." INGSOC indoctrination and throwing old documents and dictionaries down the "memory hole" has made "freedom" have no political connotations but only is defined as in the sentence "She was now free from the illness." Most documents before 1960 are sent down the memory hole or like the Declaration of Independence, altered to express doctrines of INGSOC.
Orwell is not just talking about Stalinism in this book. He sort of touches on elements of our own society. The bottom eighty five percent of Oceanic society, the non-party members are called "Proles", for Proletarian. The Proles are far less constrained by party discipline than INGSOC members produces for them and encourages them to consume dumb popular songs, pornography, trashy novels, play lotteries.. They are encouraged to jingoist frenzies where they attack foreigners and watch parades where they can jeer at foreign POW's and so on. All this distracts them from organizing to seize economic and political justice for themselves. They are still economically enslaved as they were under capitalism.
The sort of Trotsky of the story, Goldstein, notes that Oceania's rulers want to keep throwing resources into war-making so as not to have to divert them to making an equitable standard of living for the masses. Erich Fromm notes in his 1961 Afterward notes a few examples of how we in the U.S. practice "doublethink." He gives the example of the person who works for Corporation A and defends its products and everything about it as perfect regardless of what one's common sense might say. However the person will attack his employer's rival corporation B, trying logically to look for flaws in the latter's products and so on. Then the person might switch to employment in corporation B., thus switching loyalty to the latter, and attack the flaws of Corporation A., its former employer. Fromm also notes how American propagandists described U.S. allies as part of the Free World even though it contained viscous Latin American military dictatorships, apartheid South Africa, Salazar's Portugal, Franco's Spain, and so on.
As a piece of literature, this book is excellent. The structure, the parts of the story, are well put together and flow together well. Winston's struggle to maintain his intelligence and impendence is very realistic and well told. I liked the views of life among the Proles as seen by Winston. How Winston and Julia make contact and their first meeting where they end up fornicating are all a little unreal.. But despite this the Winston-Julia love story is very charming, full of real feeling. Winston's experiences in the last part of the book are described vividly, if being slightly incredible.