# Poll: Are we going to Hell in a Orwellian handbasket? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2004, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-going-to-hell-in-a-orwellian-handbasket/251213 "2004-06-19T18:30:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-going-to-hell-in-a-orwellian-handbasket/251213/21 "2004-06-21T05:07:33Z")
I think it’ll get worse before it gets better, but we went through the 50s without ending up taking our soma and we’ll probably make it through this time again, hopefully. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-going-to-hell-in-a-orwellian-handbasket/251213/22 "2004-06-21T06:39:00Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > 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? No, I disagree. Not about GWB, but about “1984”. The leaders there did actually believed their own lies completely. I’m trying to remember the name of the guy in charge of torturing Winston … Meyers? He says he has complete power, and could even fly, but he chose not to. Remember, the purpose of torturing Winston was not to get information or to get him to publicly recant his anti-government positions … it was to get him to recant that position to himself. It was important to the government that, before they killed him, Winston believed they were right and he was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-going-to-hell-in-a-orwellian-handbasket/251213/23 "2004-06-21T10:20:56Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > No, I disagree. Not about GWB, but about “1984”. The leaders there did actually believed their own lies completely. I’m trying to remember the name of the guy in charge of torturing Winston … Meyers? He says he has complete power, and could even fly, but he chose not to. Remember, the purpose of torturing Winston was not to get information or to get him to publicly recant his anti-government positions … it was to get him to recant that position to himself. It was important to the government that, before they killed him, Winston believed they were right and he was wrong. I can’t agree. Remember that same guy tells Winston that _he_ had written the book explaining about how the Party and government works. At the crucial point in that book, just where it’s about to explain the **purpose** of the totalitarian government, it just goes “…” and it’s never explained. Dot-dot-dot: kind of like GWB’s cognitive process… ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-going-to-hell-in-a-orwellian-handbasket/251213/24 "2004-06-21T10:24:10Z")
> [@clayton\_e](#): > > I think it’ll get worse before it gets better, but we went through the 50s without ending up taking our **soma** and we’ll probably make it through this time again, hopefully. Wasn’t that **Brave New World** by Huxley? Either way, they both deal with control. Brave New Worlds way just seemed a lot more _pleasurable_ 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-going-to-hell-in-a-orwellian-handbasket/251213.md?page=1)