Orwell had an excellent understanding of what living in a modern empire was like; He was a colonial cop in occupied India after all. He saw and participated in the British oppression of India and, like all good liberals, he took the things he saw there and sublimated it onto the Enemy. When he was writing the Enemy was the Soviet Union but he could have just as easily written it about France, Germany, Japan, America, or any other state that the British propaganda apparatus was designating as the Enemy when he was writing his book.
Don’t feel bad about quoting Orwell to describe the sort of state he lived in. That’s what he was taking inspiration from, even if he didn’t realize it. He certainly wasn’t inspired by the Soviet Union, how could he be? He had never even been there, he had only had it described to him.
Don’t feel bad about quoting Orwell to describe the sort of state he lived in. That’s what he was taking inspiration from, even if he didn’t realize it.
I’ve read 1984 several times as a younger lib, and I was 100% certain that it was describing the future that my capitalist country was moving towards.I can’t imagine anyone that would read it today and think that socialist societies would be any more “totalitarian” than our present capitalist states.
Fuck, I’d happily have a “social credit score” vs the reality that masked secret police are arresting and disappearing people off the street.
My favorite bit about the social credit score is to point out we essentially have the exact same thing here in the west also…we just don’t have the social part of it. In practice your credit score still typically defines where you can live and what resources you have available.
I’ve been saying this for a long time. Compounded by things like your zip code of birth being indicative of whether or not you escape the poverty trap.
Reposting this.
I’ve read 1984 several times as a younger lib, and I was 100% certain that it was describing the future that my capitalist country was moving towards.I can’t imagine anyone that would read it today and think that socialist societies would be any more “totalitarian” than our present capitalist states.
Fuck, I’d happily have a “social credit score” vs the reality that masked secret police are arresting and disappearing people off the street.
My favorite bit about the social credit score is to point out we essentially have the exact same thing here in the west also…we just don’t have the social part of it. In practice your credit score still typically defines where you can live and what resources you have available.
I’ve been saying this for a long time. Compounded by things like your zip code of birth being indicative of whether or not you escape the poverty trap.
It’s all