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.