Nineteen Eighty-Four, as written by Eric Arthur Blair under the pseudonym George Orwell, contains in itself a vicious, frightening example of life in the 2001st Anno Domini.
The principle of Newspeak, for example, is exemplified by our so-called "Political Correctness," both of which create new words, with entirely new meanings, rigidly confined to their definition, from apparently nothing, in an effort to avert supposed thought crimes. For example, "African-American," in its entirety, defines a black person or persons living within the United States. Its apparent reference to being 'an American of African descent' is laughable at best, especially when one considers the fact that most anthropologists agree all human life (that is, homo sapiens and ancestral links) originated in Africa. Erego, I, a white male, living in the North American country of Canada, am safely and easily (one would assume) classified as African-American -- I am American, continentally speaking (as one may define somebody as "European,") and of African descent. However, this principle is seemingly unapplicable to me, which is an excercise in the rigid definitions of Orwellian Newspeak.
Furthermore, the idea of a "thought crime" and the "thought police" is not so far fetched. One needs only to look at the "crime" of being a Communist in the McCarthy era, and to McCarthy and his Sub-Committee as the thought police, for this terrifying reality. It takes place not always necessarily overseas, but in Western culture as well -- as previously stated, the McCarthyism, of course, but also other examples, such as the inability of Catholics to practice their beliefs in Britain until the late 1800's, and the persecution thereof. In more recent terms, one may look to the Afghani Taliban, or the pseudo-Communist Maoists in China, for their persecution of certain thoughts (predominantly feminism and the cult of Falun Gong, respectively.) Such "thought crimes" are evidently abundant, and to link to the previous paragraph -- the issue of being "non-politically correct" (on the issue of political correctness: PC was created as a way to offend nobody -- but the notion of PC offends me, thus rendering PC a hypocritical paradox, and therefore a non-entity, though I digress)... the issue of being "un-PC" is a thought crime in and of itself, certainly punishable by political death in political arenas.
The Orwellian notion of an infallible, everlasting Big Brother is evident in the two-party system of the United States of America. Hardly a democracy, and more of what I term a "coin-flip dictatorship," this two party system puts a supposed institution of the presidency at the head of the Democrat and Replubican parties, similar to Big Brother as the head of The Party -- an indefatigable status symbol and figure head, almost infallible when it comes to matters such as war and economics. As such, we can investigate certain so-called 'Ministries' as well... Orwell's notion of the Ministry of Peace concerning itself with war would oft remind one, should they know to look, of the Department of Defense or the Department of National Defence (in Canada) -- these Departments concern themselves not with actually defending the country, but moreso with attacking other countries -- governmental newspeak and doublethink, omnipresent and ever ignored. Furthermore, Big Brother and The Party claim to be guardians of democracy, similar to the US's same claim, despite having a two-party system (as mentioned prior.)
<i>The Book</i>, Goldstein's book (written, in actuallity, by O'Brien and others) is comparable to The Black Panther's Coloring Book, a grossly anti-white pamphlet distributed in white communities, being both distributed and constructed, in actuallity, by the FBI's COINTELPRO. In fact, Goldstein's entire character could be compared to Trotsky and Marx, if one were Stalinist Soviet or American, respectively. Both Stalinist Soviet Unionist and United States propagandist grossly twisted these men's words, especially evidenced in Marx's supposed utterance of "religion is the opiate of the masses," a statement that, while entirely invented, and having its roots in a quite difference quote, has become entirely "truthful" in its common place use.
The Two Minute Hate could be found by anybody willing to look. It is, of course, obviously the news -- such figures as Osama bin Laden (for all we know, and most probably, an entirely fictional character cooked up by politicos to create a larger scandal to overshadow their own) fixate our attention on CNN and other such newscasts, focusing all our anger and hatred into them, instead of the governments which spur them. For example, during the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, Osama bin Laden suddenly became a household name, and the anger created by having a untrustable, lying president was focused entirely on this supposed terrorist.
The falsification of past facts one finds every day, should one not wish to deny one's self the truth: the Soviets airbrushed prominent figures out of photographs, and the United States, despite having completed none of its goals and objectives, and having signed a declaration of complete surrender, still claims to have won the war of 1812, and their "history" books attempt to validate this claim.
Of course, these proofs are few of many, and while not as absolute as Orwell's book (of course, Orwell wrote the book in a dystopian vision of all these things taken further and further, a vision of what the world would be like when we can and do ignore such obvious undertakings,) these are still disturbing.
The principle of Newspeak, for example, is exemplified by our so-called "Political Correctness," both of which create new words, with entirely new meanings, rigidly confined to their definition, from apparently nothing, in an effort to avert supposed thought crimes. For example, "African-American," in its entirety, defines a black person or persons living within the United States. Its apparent reference to being 'an American of African descent' is laughable at best, especially when one considers the fact that most anthropologists agree all human life (that is, homo sapiens and ancestral links) originated in Africa. Erego, I, a white male, living in the North American country of Canada, am safely and easily (one would assume) classified as African-American -- I am American, continentally speaking (as one may define somebody as "European,") and of African descent. However, this principle is seemingly unapplicable to me, which is an excercise in the rigid definitions of Orwellian Newspeak.
Furthermore, the idea of a "thought crime" and the "thought police" is not so far fetched. One needs only to look at the "crime" of being a Communist in the McCarthy era, and to McCarthy and his Sub-Committee as the thought police, for this terrifying reality. It takes place not always necessarily overseas, but in Western culture as well -- as previously stated, the McCarthyism, of course, but also other examples, such as the inability of Catholics to practice their beliefs in Britain until the late 1800's, and the persecution thereof. In more recent terms, one may look to the Afghani Taliban, or the pseudo-Communist Maoists in China, for their persecution of certain thoughts (predominantly feminism and the cult of Falun Gong, respectively.) Such "thought crimes" are evidently abundant, and to link to the previous paragraph -- the issue of being "non-politically correct" (on the issue of political correctness: PC was created as a way to offend nobody -- but the notion of PC offends me, thus rendering PC a hypocritical paradox, and therefore a non-entity, though I digress)... the issue of being "un-PC" is a thought crime in and of itself, certainly punishable by political death in political arenas.
The Orwellian notion of an infallible, everlasting Big Brother is evident in the two-party system of the United States of America. Hardly a democracy, and more of what I term a "coin-flip dictatorship," this two party system puts a supposed institution of the presidency at the head of the Democrat and Replubican parties, similar to Big Brother as the head of The Party -- an indefatigable status symbol and figure head, almost infallible when it comes to matters such as war and economics. As such, we can investigate certain so-called 'Ministries' as well... Orwell's notion of the Ministry of Peace concerning itself with war would oft remind one, should they know to look, of the Department of Defense or the Department of National Defence (in Canada) -- these Departments concern themselves not with actually defending the country, but moreso with attacking other countries -- governmental newspeak and doublethink, omnipresent and ever ignored. Furthermore, Big Brother and The Party claim to be guardians of democracy, similar to the US's same claim, despite having a two-party system (as mentioned prior.)
<i>The Book</i>, Goldstein's book (written, in actuallity, by O'Brien and others) is comparable to The Black Panther's Coloring Book, a grossly anti-white pamphlet distributed in white communities, being both distributed and constructed, in actuallity, by the FBI's COINTELPRO. In fact, Goldstein's entire character could be compared to Trotsky and Marx, if one were Stalinist Soviet or American, respectively. Both Stalinist Soviet Unionist and United States propagandist grossly twisted these men's words, especially evidenced in Marx's supposed utterance of "religion is the opiate of the masses," a statement that, while entirely invented, and having its roots in a quite difference quote, has become entirely "truthful" in its common place use.
The Two Minute Hate could be found by anybody willing to look. It is, of course, obviously the news -- such figures as Osama bin Laden (for all we know, and most probably, an entirely fictional character cooked up by politicos to create a larger scandal to overshadow their own) fixate our attention on CNN and other such newscasts, focusing all our anger and hatred into them, instead of the governments which spur them. For example, during the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, Osama bin Laden suddenly became a household name, and the anger created by having a untrustable, lying president was focused entirely on this supposed terrorist.
The falsification of past facts one finds every day, should one not wish to deny one's self the truth: the Soviets airbrushed prominent figures out of photographs, and the United States, despite having completed none of its goals and objectives, and having signed a declaration of complete surrender, still claims to have won the war of 1812, and their "history" books attempt to validate this claim.
Of course, these proofs are few of many, and while not as absolute as Orwell's book (of course, Orwell wrote the book in a dystopian vision of all these things taken further and further, a vision of what the world would be like when we can and do ignore such obvious undertakings,) these are still disturbing.
however, people do. 
