1984

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell goes to great lengths in his novels to get his message across; avoid conformity. So it is not surprising that in Nineteen Eighty-Four, he uses many extreme examples of his vision of the future. In some realities our societies have become as Orwell forecasted and in others we have not yet reached his extremes. We have some communist countries and some dictators but we also have democracies. We even try to imitate Orwell’s ideas such as in the form of the television show Big Brother.

Orwell outlines extreme totalitarianism and shows its dreadful results, but we also have to remember the other side, extreme capitalism which is also not the answer for healthy society. A healthy society lies between communism and capitalism, and even a bit more to the communist side, but still with democracy.

We still have a few communist countries in the world and 100% of them are not actually communist, that is just a term. In true communism, Marxism, everybody is equal. The countries we consider to be communist, Cuba, North Korea, and China may not be as extreme as in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, but the basics of Nineteen Eighty-Four still apply to them, in the sense of conformity. This is Orwell’s message; avoid conformity.

Outlying interference to these countries from “democratic countries” puts them no better off. The only way that they will achieve a different lifestyle, maybe not even better as they see it is to rebel. In the same ways Winston tried to rebel. Winston may have been caught but eventually in all societies if enough people are yearning to change, change will occur.

I believe that it is impossible to ever achieve a perfect society. We can come close, Canada is close but still has a ways to go. You also have your countries on the extreme brink of