1984
By George Orwell
Read 3/25/2025 — 4/4/2025
Review title: Many parallels to today, worth reading again
The stock market is rapidly falling, science and medical research budgets have been drastically slashed, and medical aid, education, museums, zoos, environmental protection, services for the disabled, and more are being defunded. Eggs are outrageously priced as the bird flu spreads. Measles cases continue to soar in multiple states. Taxes for billionaires have been reduced. Hair stylists and pastors claim they know more about the spread of diseases and vaccine safety and effectiveness than immunologists and virologists. Anti-vaxxers are in charge of vaccine research. How did we get here? George Orwell’s book, 1984, written in 1950, is eerily similar to America today.
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1984 explores the nature of humankind and culture, the extremes needed to break human will, and the corruption of society by unhindered power. Winston Smith, the main character in 1984, works at the Ministry of Truth, where he alters references in past publications (books, newspapers, etc.) to align with the current political positions. We see this happening today with the removal of references to notable contributions by non-white people and women.
“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship (p263).” “And yet he knew, he knew, that he was in the right. The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind — surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false (p266).”
1984 was a warning that was ignored. In 1984, the government decided what was true and updated all data to reflect this “truth”. There are many in today’s America that have fallen for this approach to truth as well. Actual data, actual reality, is not relevant to their “truth”; only their political affiliation, only their tribe’s proclamation of what is “true”. Does truth even matter anymore? Looking at social media tells me that for many people, it doesn’t. And that is why we have measles, a disease once eradicated, killing people again.
