Comicsdad wrote:
deejayway wrote:
I re-read 1984 not long ago and was struck but how unerringly prescient he was.
Not about the material conditions of the future but about newspeak, controlling thought, controlling information, shifting military alliances, perpetual warfare.....

Uh, how is that different from any other time in human history? Far greater proportion of world's population lives now in relative peace than ever before.
If so, is that a price we want to pay.

    
True but that doesn't mitigate Orwell's prescience or how the mechanisms of totalitarianism work.
It's fine having freedom of speech and access to information but if you aren't capable of independent or critical thought anymore, what does it count for?
Have we sacrificed personal freedom and automony and our capability for independent thought for peace and prosperity?

Totalitarianism is aimed at controlling the masses and a good way to do that is to employ the mushroom strategy; 'feed 'em #%#@ and keep 'em in the dark'.

Is the trade-off worth it?
True democracy and freedom entails risk.

I may be painting too bleak a picture. I'm not completely sure where I stand on this.
I'm a socialist, which entails individuals partially subordinating their needs and desires to the needs of the collective.
And peace and prosperity are not to be sneezed at but I feel uneasy about the new developments and how the young generation seems intent on giving up privacy wholesale and allowing government to monitor everything.


Last Edited By: deejayway Jun 10 11 10:07 AM. Edited 1 times.