George Orwell

 George Orwell

George Orwell was a literary critic and writer that wrote many essays and books. We learn that one of the most important books that George Orwell wrote was 1984 that describes a dystopian society where individuals are not allowed to think for themselves, and technology has attempted to remove autonomy, freedom, and empathy. We learn that George Orwell wrote against totalitarianism and communism. 

George Orwell wrote about the flaws and lies of communism that attempted to "appear" to help when in reality attempted to lead to hypocrisy, decreased autonomy, decreased empathy, and suppression of free thinking and the free market. We learn that "wrong-think" is a word derived from "group-think". "Wrong-think" signifies in 1984 the hatred from communist and totalitarian sycophants of individuals who think for themselves. Any thought that was different, unique, and non-conformist was deemed "wrong-think" by the totalitarian and communist dictators and sycophants. "Group-think" describes the inability of an individual to think for oneself and instead leads to the individual to choose to go along with the crowd that is common of sycophants. We learn that this describes oppressive and totalitarian dystopias that fail to help individuals and instead lead to difficulties, stagnation, vices, and destruction of the wicked in the long run seen in the collapse of the Soviet Union and Nazi socialism. This describes the importance of practicing responsibility along with autonomy so that autonomy does not lead to iniquity. 1984 describes the manner that communism and totalitarianism uses lies to cause individuals to believe things that are never true.

"Then the face of Big Brother faded away again, and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals: 

WAR is PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

        IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"- 1984 (page 17)

In 1984, George Orwell describes an individual who is able to think for himself and resist the indoctrination of totalitarianism and communist like "group-think". Although, George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1949, the book is a warning against placing all hope and faith on repressive and totalitarian systems that only look to cause difficulties and stagnation.

George Orwell's critique for totalitarianism and communism is seen in 1984 where technology is used as a method to remove autonomy and freedom from individuals. We are able to understand the importance of free thinking, autonomy, freedom, and also responsibility. We are able to realize that with autonomy there is also the need to practice responsibility. 

George Orwell's Criticism of Technology

George Orwell was able to describe the manner that technology needed to be used with responsibility. We learn that George Orwell wrote against the misuse of technology and also against the dangers of socialism. In 1984, technology is used to attempt to remove freedom and liberty from individuals. We learn about individuals needing to participate in community activities whenever they were not at work or sleeping so that they did not have time for themselves. This was with the intention to lead to sycophantic behavior and prevent the individual from realizing the truth. We learn that specific activities were looked down upon. We learn that writing, reading truthful books, and solitary exercising was looked down upon. Reading books that spoke truth were destroyed and only approved and revised versions of the books were allowed. If individuals did not participate in community activities, they were accused of being traitors. Individualistic activities that reinforced the need to be independant and self-sufficient such as reading, writing, and learning were seen as dangerous to the socialist state. Big Brother was the individual that was the leader of the socialist technologic dystopia. We learn about the face of Big Brother that was an individual that was placed in advertisement boards and posters with the slogan “Big Brother is watching”. This describes the use of technology to attempt to lead to decreased freedom. Individuals in 1984 knew that they were being watched and that the intention was not to help the individual. We learn that individuals had a specific time during the day in which the television turned on by itself and led the individuals to listen to specific propaganda messages. This was with the intention to see and listen to the individual’s reaction to said propaganda. Individuals were always beeing watched through technology and informants.

If the individual reacted negatively or spoke negatively against the propaganda of the system, the Thought Police would remove the individual from society. George Orwell described the need to be weary and cautious about technology since it can be used to cause difficulties, decrease freedom, and lead to enslavement seen in the manner that individuals did not have freedom of speech and could not voice their true opinions for fear of being removed. George Orwell described that even a facial expression could cause the Thought Police to remove an individual. This describes that not even voicing an opinion, but a facial expression of disapproval was enough to remove the individual from existence. 1984 is fiction, yet describes the need to be skeptical of idolatry seen in the worship of technology. We are able to know that George Orwell saw the incongruencies and hypocrisy of socialism in his time and was able to describe the need to not believe socialist and communist temporary lies.