I don’t want this to turn into a GD argument. I’m just looking for you humble opinions. Now that it is known that Iraq wasn’t linked to 9/11 or that they held no WMD’s and while the government that represents us as people continues to lie to us about such miscarriages, and while Europe seems to be gearing up to become a superstate and while “threats” to the “free people” are growing less and less am I the only person to be thinking that 1984 might be just around the corner. Am I the only one who believes that in my lifetime I may wake up to find I am ruled by some seemingly omnipotent and omniscience government who controls every aspect of my life?
Do you think that the current governments could be heading towards this? Do you think that maybe another Hitler may emerge and rebuild the crumbling system by blinding the populous to its ulterior motives?
In some ways, yes; in some ways, no. We don’t quite have memory holes, where the truth of history is vaporized. However, we just had a week of mourning where everybody forgot all the corruption and deficits. We have leaders who say, “We never said there was collaboration,” and nobody seems to want to point out the lie. We don’t have TV cameras in every room, but the government has the ability and the authority to scan all of your internet traffic, and they can find out what videos you rented and what books you have read. Orwell’s Winston Smith was disappeared and tortured horribly. We don’t do that stuff, um, do we? :rolleyes:
When people die, it’s customary to talk about the good things they did. This is true for Presidents as well as people who aren’t particularly important. That’s just what you do when people die. History hasn’t forgotten, (and will not forget) the bad stuff that Reagan did.
I think the world is in a state of flux right now like it’s never been before. This makes us feel like all is chaos. We see the worst scenario because all we see is disorder.
I really believe, though, that we are headed towards a time of greater freedom than even we here in the U. S. haven’t imagined. When people taste freedom it becomes addictive. I don’t thing we’ll allow it to seep away.
One of the main ways 1984’s society functioned was to be in a permanent state of war …
Funny, my parents said that during the 60’s.
And my grandparents said it about WWII.
I suspect my great-grandparents probably said it about the Great War (Though I don’t remember them much.)
Doesn’t every generation say this about their current time?
One could argue that they’ve been right. There are a lot of factors that are in our modern society that have never been before that affect us, like nuclear weapons and the internet, reliable birth control, reliable air travel, etc. In a state of flux in the modern world, it’s likely that that state of flux has at least a few elements with no real comparison in history. There are always common elements though.
For the record, I don’t see what’s going on today as all that big of a deal. I know, people will shout that the shit’s going to hit the fan, but really.
If I can still read news from Great Britain and start chats with people from around the world, it’s not 1984. If Michael Moore and Bob Woodward can still write books and make movies, it’s not 1984. If I can leave whenever I want to and freely travel within the country, it’s not 1984. If I can still vote it’s not 1984.
Most importantly, if half the country thinks the president of the united states is a moron, it’s not 1984 
This is just a blip on the map of our history, and not even an important one IMO.
Re: the OP…
Nah.
If you can go to any library or bookstore and get a copy of ‘1984’ or (fill in political book here), I wouldn’t worry.
Yep, I’m another one of those curmudgeons who’s been hearing this stuff since the Ford Administration. The Iranians were going to take us all hostage and hijack all the planes, Reagan was going to provoke a war with Russia, nuclear winter was inevitable, Clinton was going to unleash Sodom n’ Gomorrah, every President including Carter was a lying blowhard incipient dicta–HEY! KIDS!! KIDS on my LAWN!!!
<hobbles off into the night–scenario is extra-pathetic since poster does not, in point of fact, have a lawn>
<comes back, having chased off damn kids with her cane>
Where was I? Ah yes, remembering the youthful glow of the first President I was scared of–it was Carter, who everybody thought was incompetent and hapless in the face of the Ayatollah and Rampant Inflation and the Nuclear Nightmare. I must say the OP might have been even more of a nervous wreck had he taken part in the last gasp of the nuclear drills like I did in the mid-70’s.
And…uh…Europe as a superstate? This Europe?
This is a poll, right? Then…
No.
Heh. Our Leaders actually almost never came straight out and said this. It was all implied.
But for the OP, No.
Life (at least in the US) has been on a slow but steady upward trend for many decades. Society is more open and tolerant than even 15 years ago. The current administration likes secrecy, but at least they have to fight Open Records laws.
Do I think surveillance of private citizens by the government and various corporate entities is becoming more widely accepted? Yes.
Do I think The War Against Terror is eerily similar to an Orwellian “permanent war” situation? Yeah, but so was the War On Drugs, and so was the Cold War. I do find it creepy, however, when Rumsfeld says that we’ll detain “enemy combatants” for the duration of TWAT (:D), as if it’s ever really going to end.
But we must remember that Orwell’s intent was to make people compare their own society to that described in 1984; after all, it’s primarily a satire of Orwell’s own time.
I tend to feel that we will be blind to what destroys us. If this is the point at which a ghastly new totalitarian nightmare arises, we HAVE to all say it won’t happen, otherwise it would be prevented.
What I’m trying to say is that if history really does repeat, well, that includes most folk standing around saying “nah, this isn’t the end of things as I’ve known them, but I can see how some people might think it was…” It even includes the usual doomsayers actually being right for once, and surprising themselves. This isn’t a very helpful observation, because it’s obvious and doesn’t offer a solution, but it makes me a little shy of dismissing the chances of all hell breaking loose. Given what did happen during the 20th century, and given the things that nearly happened, I think we’ve had an incredible run of luck.
So. For the OP.
Maybe.
As for our parents saying it about the sixties, our grandparents about WWII, and their parents about WWI… they were all correct. Here’s hoping my impression - of those events as not merely connected but as a tangible progression - is merely subjective.
For the people who gave a definite no:
So you are not concerned that more and more governments are becoming tending towards nationalism, or that the government is slowly increasing not only over the country but over the individual’s lives. The “war on terrorism” has made the point of demonstrating to the public that we are controlled by an almost paranoid government. And from this it seems that more and more of us are excepting these terms. We can except that post-9/11 the government may instigate tighter control over communications, they may enact random searches and investigations into peoples personal lives. We look at those people who mock and attack the current administrations like Michael Moore, and we ridicule him, pit him for his outrageous attitude and so forth. It just seems that by today’s standards all politicians seem to be doing is denying claims of corruptions and apologising for constant blunders. I’m not saying that the current administrations are gearing up to control the world, like an 1984 type scenario, but 50 years ago nothing could have been done without an army. Nowadays, a flick of a switch here and a few commands to a computer there and all of a sudden the world is flipped on it’s head. It could be done and if someone who was willing to do it came into power, or rather when someone who is willing to do it comes into power I don’t think that we will be able to stop it.
But then I could just be overexaggerating.
I wrote a paper about this just last year… It wasn’t great, so I won’t quote it here, but the general idea was that we’re the diet coke of 1984. 1 calorie? Not enough.
Yes, you are.
As to the OP, no.
Since this is neither the Pit nor GD, that will have to suffice.
Regards,
Shodan
Re: the question posed by the OP.
No.
The difference between the Bush regime and Winston Smith’s Oceania in 1984 is that GWB et al. actually believe their lies–well, at least some of them.
The government in 1984 was evil for evil’s sake. GWB is evil for nobody’s sake.
Is that difference clear?
I don’t see how anyone not determined to support the current administration, no matter what, could fail to be at least a bit concerned. So count me in the ‘yes’ column.