How Do We Avoid 1984?
One big fear that comes with every dystopia is whether or not that could happen in real life. 1984 definitely seems like this kind of book, especially considering it specifically calls out how the countries evolved into what they are in the story. It's always possible that something like this could occur. So how do we prevent it? How do we keep the government from establishing a takeover, and leading to the chaos that takes place in 1984?
I think that one of the biggest things that can help prevent this kind of dystopia is keeping the people educated. In the book, history is rewritten so that it's all Big Brother, and the civilians believe all of it. They aren't taught how it actually happened, which allows the Party to take over and maintain power pretty easily. Keeping everyone informed on actual history and other topics will let the people have some sort of resistance to that kind of brainwashing.
Another thing that can keep us from 1984 is the desire to protest the system. While constant protests aren't necessarily a good thing, and protests for the sake of protests aren't worth anything, having an outcry keeps us on our toes about the world, and about the events that are going on. We stay updated on the status of the protests, which allows us to tell how far we've gotten, and what people are currently working for and against. It also makes it notably harder for one party to take over, because there will always be an opposing party willing to put up a fight to protect their views.
I think that the most important thing to do in order to prevent 1984 is to continue learning about things like this book. Learning about dystopias that worked, that didn't work, and their methods, can help us to notice any subtle signs that this might be happening in our world. When is was released in 1949, there was a lot of interest around the book, and it made people wonder whether or not they were currently living in a society like that one. But even recently, the book has made a resurgence. In 2013, there were massive surveillance leaks all over the place, including NASA saving internet data. This was met with an upheaval on book sales, skyrocketing the amount of people seeing the book. For even more proof of this concept, take a look at the Google Trends results for the purchasing and reading of 1984.
I think that if the end goal is to keep from ending up in a 1984-esque dystopia, then we're doing alright. We seem to have the confidence to keep anyone or anything from taking too much power, and our knowledge of the world is enough to keep us always second-guessing. I think that if we continue on this path, we can continue to live the world we live now, without any fear for the future.
That chart is certainly interesting. Yes, I do think that keeping people educated is an important aspect. However, if something were to control the ENTIRE education system that would be a problem. Thankfully, that doesn't seem too probable. As long as we have a diverse range of people educated in different ways, with different views, it is impossible for an entity like the Party to take over.
ReplyDeleteWow! That is a vivid infographic. Great post -- I agree about protests and education, and you have a good point: if we are aware of the potential to end up in a truly "Orwellian" world, we can take steps to prevent it. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteI agree, especially with the part about the will to protest. As we saw this summer, we, as a society are very willing to come together in protest to fight for good. Winston's hope in the proles was useless exactly because they were too complacent, they had no reason to protest, and as such they could not be used as a force against the party.
ReplyDeleteI think that that observation about the value of books like 1984 as a form of self education and looking out for warning signs is a very poignant one. I agree with the fact that we need to keep ourselves "on our toes" just in case we end up too far down a road we don't want to be on.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the mentality someone approaches a book with is correlated to the lessons they learn from it. Even though book sales for 1984 are going up, I don't know if that is actually helpful. On the other hand, the increasing use of Orwellian can help educate the masses about dystopias and how to avoid a dystopian future.
ReplyDeleteI think a good example of the "desire to protest" is the mask protests, even though there was stupid logic behind it. But they just show that it's so easy to fight back against anything, especially because America is all about being "free".
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of good points here, and I think you're right that education is a huge and critical piece of keeping the world safe from a 1984-esque dystopia. You also mention protests, which have always been a huge part of American political culture (so that's another promising sign). At this point in time, I think we as a society have an irrational amount of fear of 1984. There is a lot of concern about an Orwellian society with no evidence that we're heading in that direction.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that protest and education are hugely important in preventing society changing. So much of 1984 was built on misinformation, and while there are some cases of incorrect or twisted versions of history being taught in certain places, it is not to an extreme that would threaten the future. I think the book sales come with people afraid of our world changing to a dystopian society (whatever that may mean to the individual person), but I feel like we are so far away from anything close to 1984, that thinking our society is nearing 1984 diminishes the horror and impact the novel warns us about.
ReplyDeleteYou make some great points. I think the way the term "Orwellian" is overused is a symptom of the fact that, as a society, we're absolutely terrified of Big Brother, and the existence of people who are willing to call a government Orwellian, even if they're wrong, proves that people won't be like the Londoners of 1984 and won't slip quietly into submission.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your points about education. However, if the U.S. became more educationally conformist, I would become more worried about a 1984-like situation.
ReplyDeleteThose are actually huge spikes, and making sure people are educated would definitely help to prevent this Orwellian future from occurring. I think making sure that libraries and the such still exist and everyone can have access to these facilities are very important.
ReplyDeletei definitely agree as well, and I think it's important that the government allows all kinds of resources for the people to educate themselves and not filter out the ones that don't agree with them.
ReplyDeleteI like your points here, I think an example of the desire to protest are the anti-mask ones lol, even though the logic was idiotic.
ReplyDeleteI agree, in 1984 we see how the Party erases all evidence of actual history and brainwashes its citizens. In the real world, if we make an active effort to stay educated and preserve our history, I think it does bring us one step farther from becoming an Orwellian society.
ReplyDelete