1984

I'm not entirely sure whether or not George Orwell foresaw his book becoming such a commonly referenced topic in the world today, but either way, that's how it panned out. He wrote a story that efficiently painted the picture of a dystopian world where society had completely lost its way and most of the ideals that we hold so dear had all but lost every trace of relevance in the controlled chaos that was life. From my perspective, the reason this novel is so consistently brought up in many a discourse is that it is the best description of what many see as a "worst case scenario"; a world where war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is power. Some would say the book is reflective of what the world has become, and while in some ways this could be seen as true, in other ways this narrative is wildly exaggerated. Examples that are often cited include the rapid expansion of surveillance, the perceived out of control nature of censorship and groupthink, and the outlook of a world that is bleak and withering because of both the sinister nature and moral failures of those who run it. I will confess that it's been quite a while since I read the book, but the core picture that it paints is one that is not forgotten easily, especially if freedom is a central value of one's outlook on life. I think the book was intended to scare people, to make them question the powers that be, and while it has served that purpose marvelously, it also has the drawback of being used as a kind of weapon by those of all varieties of philosophies to paint their opposition as the greatest evil to ever stalk the dark corners of society. I remember the title being thrown around quite a lot under the Obama presidency as a means of slandering what was seen as government overreach. While President Obama is obviously no longer in the Whitehouse, the book still comes up from time to time usually in the context of criticism of political correctness. I still hear the terms "PC police", "thought police", and "thought crime" from time to time, almost exclusively in that context. In my own opinion, whether or not the world really has become a dystopian wreck akin to that which was conceived by Orwell, is a matter of perspective. It is a matter of what you see as a limitation of freedom. Obviously this is something that varies from person to person, what one might see as a reasonable law, another might see as a step taken towards tyranny and oppression. The idea that the world could ever truly become like that of the world in the famous novel is a bit far fetched in my mind. The reason I say this is that whenever anyone cries "1984!" whatever it is that they're throwing that accusation at is usually something that is just extreme in their view, when the objective truth may be quite different. But that act in and of itself brings me to a positive aspect of the novel, which is also an additional reason that I find it unlikely for this worst case scenario to truly come about, and that is that because of this work and others like it, people are constantly watchful for any indication that the world might be making the slightest indication that it is heading in that direction. While sometimes irritating, that act of constantly bringing up the possibility acts as a pretty decent deterrent, reminding everyone, either consciously or subconsciously, that many things that are able to be forged in the mind of a man, so too can man create in his physical reality.