this is stuff you like and the first time I read 1984 I skimmed the part which was
supposedly a manual on how to oppress people because I was 16 years old and I
didn't care I wanted to know what happened to Winston. the second time I
read 1984 which was relatively recently I noticed how unlikable Winston is which
is understandable in the same way that his hatred of women is understandable
and his disassociation is understandable but it doesn't make him a fun person to
be around. and I also paid very careful attention to the theory and practice of
oligarchical collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein and to the appendix on
Newspeak at the end of the novel because Wow George Orwell just Wow
the plot of 1984 goeth thusly: we opened with Winston writing in a diary
which is going to lead to his death because there are no laws no but keeping
a diary will get you killed by the state yeah
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth the propaganda outlet of the party he's
a member of the outer party so he's not a member of the two percent of the inner
party the creme de la creme and he's not the proletariat the eighty-five percent
but he's the group in the middle he dreams of rebellion against Big Brother
meets and falls in love with Julia who also hates the party and loves sex, Julia
and Winston swear loyalty to the rebellion, read a handbook on the theory
and practice of oligarchical collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein get
captured by the thought police and are in the end broken of everything
including their love for each other because when you've tried to throw the
person you love most in the world under the bus to save yourself you just don't
quite feel the same way about them anymore.
in the end Winston drunk and alone loves Big Brother cheery
right
the novel 1984 is so famous that thoughtcrime and the thought police and
Orwellian have entered the lexicon even if you've never clapped eyes on the book
we describe things as Orwellian when we mean something that the party would
approve of so government overreach is Orwellian cameras everywhere:
Orwellian, destroying language and the meaning of words: Orwellian. big brother
is watching you: Orwellian. oh the irony that constant
surveillance is now entertainment fodder it's like Aldous Huxley and George
Orwell had a horrifying baby. but yes most importantly for this episode
Newspeak is Orwellian. 1984 is a really interesting book and so rich in topics
for discussion even if it's a tough read Winston is clearly not mentally well
because you can't function in a society like that and be so his relationship
with Julia is deeply weird and she is also a deeply flawed broken human being
because see above there's a palpable sense of post-war gloom going on in
Orwell's writing the victory mansions which were cold and dim and not to
mention the rationing and the never being able to get a razor would have
been very familiar to Orwell's contemporary audience and there's
general despair at the human condition but I think 1984 is really kind of a
Rorschach test you see in it what you want to see. Orwell has provided you with
a cornucopia of Horrors so you can just pick out the ones which strike the core
of you. good novelists have to be razor-sharp observers of humanity and
history and human nature and George Orwell was certainly all of those things.
I think that's why everyone loves him I mean conservatives love George Orwell
because his is the ultimate in "big government doing your thinking for you!"
libertarians love George Orwell liberals love George Orwell I'm having trouble
thinking off the top of my head of a group who wouldn't be able to find
something in George Orwell that they could point to and say "look Orwell
thought this sucked too this is a mark of a degenerate society!" whether it's
scrapping science or public figures lying being commonplace unexpected or no
truly we've always been at war with Eastasia because the party says we have
or two plus two equals five if the party says so, no right to privacy or
individual opinion, everything being cold and miserable and in short supply
the thought that anyone could betray you and that if you are betrayed you will
not just die you will be a rest from existence
take your pick. and while Winston and his family made my heart hurt Newspeak hurts
my very soul
"in Newspeak there is no word for science the empirical method of thought on which
all the scientific achievements of the past were funded is opposed to the most
fundamental principles of ingsoc". science is inimical to crime stop
because rationality requires you to follow your thoughts to a logical
conclusion crimestop means the Faculty of stopping short at the threshold of
any dangerous thought and includes the powers of not grasping analogies failing
to perceive logical errors misunderstanding the simplest arguments
if they are inimical to IngSoc and of being bored or repelled by any train of
thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction crime stop in short
means protective stupidity but stupidity is not enough. intellectual
dishonesty as the overarching principle of your life. when we talked about
motivated reasoning in The Da Vinci Code same kind of deal but consciously chosen.
we naturally wish to dismiss arguments which are in opposition to our current
views but crimestop would have you not even think about them and then there's
newspeak itself which is here to help you with that! that's Newspeak as
opposed to Oldspeak by the way not news speak. common misconception. the point of
Newspeak is to make rebellion impossible because you don't have the words to
express it if you cannot name your problem you cannot change it and you
cannot solve it. I mean yes the whole of 1984 is depressing but the appendix is a
manual on how to make heretical communication impossible to take the
example given in the appendix from the Declaration of Independence "we hold
these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are
endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are
life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" no chance because equality in
the broader sense cannot be expressed in Newspeak "all mans are equal" is a
possible Newspeak sentence but merely expresses an obvious untruth all mans
are not the same size or weight or strength and so don't be ridiculous
you might as well say all mans are red-haired. in Newspeak there is no such
thing as political or social or economic equality yeah the idea is to control
thought by controlling language Newspeak wants there to be one clearly and
narrowly defined meaning for each word and no more you can also use it to
obscure bad things with language joy camp is a forced
labor camp or to take a more modern example alternative facts are lies or at
least untruths and of course in Newspeak you make sure to abbreviate things as
much as possible the Ministry of Truth propaganda becomes Minitrue the
Ministry of peace war becomes Minipax and so on because by abbreviating or
shortening in them you subtly alter and narrow its meaning Ingsoc is the name
of the party which used to be English socialism but English and socialism both
have meanings outside of Ingsoc Grand Old Party has a different feel to GOP
which has a different feel to Republican words are tools which we use to persuade
newspeak turns every word into a hammer to beat orthodoxy into your brain. also
high up on my horror list is the fact that there are new laws so you can't
commit a crime but if you commit thought crime which surely is a crime you can be
punished for it of course when it comes to thought crime specifically the clue's
in the name thinking thought is a crime but beyond
that a crime is whatever the party says is a crime and it's Turtles all the way
down. 1984 turns your relationship with the state into a relationship with the
most powerful capricious controlling abuser you have ever imagined in your
wildest nightmares. war is peace freedom is slavery ignorance is strength believe
it or die. if there are no laws than anything is a crime and by saying it is
a crime the party make it so if depressingly on point dystopias are your
thing then you may well enjoy reading 1984 even if it doesn't sound like your
thing though if you have even a passing interest in language or politics or how
words shaped a bit you should give the appendix a read it's public to a man so
you can get it for free at least until the party bans it thanks for watching
this episode of stuff you like if you have read 1984 or seen one of the many
adaptations of it leave a comment and let me know which bits got under your
skin as always thank you so much to my patrons for making this show possible
if you would like to join them then there is a link to the right of my face
and regardless unless I am made into an unperson I will see you next time