1984

       I think the best way to prevent an Orwellian takeover is to exercise our free speech, right to protest, and other first amendment rights. We already do a very good job of this, and many examples of these rights have been seen, especially in the past few years. People even protest good things, such as mask wearing. So, it would be incredibly difficult for our own government to turn against us. I think the most likely way that an Orwellian takeover would happen is from war, but even then it’d be incredibly difficult.            I think this book is more relevant when discussing nations that are already under oppressive rule or weaker nations that are susceptible to Orwellian takeovers as opposed to big nations that probably aren’t as susceptible to Orwellian takeovers. In the video of North Korea that I saw (mentioned in a recent blog post), there were many interesting similarities. Additionally, it’s interesting to learn about...

  The end of the book reminded me of mafias, corrupt governments, and similar bad groups that force those who speak against them to be quiet using threats. Russia and North Korea are two big examples of this. Last year, Putin poisoned Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of his. I think this is pretty similar to how the Ministry of Love is used to suppress anyone who has ideas of rebellion against the government in 1984.      Speaking of North Korea, I recently saw a video of a morning in North Korea on YouTube that is incredibly similar to what I imagine 1984 is like. There are even posters of Kim Jong Un that are comparable to those of Big Brother. What other comparisons do you see? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i82PBpw2Vg0

  Although Winston was getting interrogated and tortured most of the time in chapters 3-5 of part three, the only thing I could think of was how big the Ministry of Love is and how many employees they have. Winston mentioned the size of the building previously in the first few chapters, and he also mentioned it in these chapters. But, what stands out to me most is that I think Winston hasn’t seen anyone but O’Brien and a few guards since the beginning of his imprisonment. Surely there must be at least hundreds or thousands of people that are detained in the Ministry of Love, and if they all stay there for a few months without seeing each other, the building must be colossal. In addition to that, there were a few guards that Winston saw, such as the ones that beat him and the ones that took him to Room 101. But, if there are guards beating everyone that is detained, there must be a ton of people hired by the Ministry of Love. Not to mention, there are many that guard the outside, m...

  The beginning of Part 3 shows how difficult it is for regular people in 1984 to gain power by fighting with the Brotherhood. It’s pretty shocking when Winston sees O’Brien, who goes on to torture him and force him to side with the government. Winston’s trust has been betrayed, because O’Brien and Mr. Charrington were both unassuming people, and O’Brien even claimed he was part of the Brotherhood. While Winston is being tortured, O’Brien keeps asking him what two plus two is if the government says it is five, and keeps torturing him if he says four.      I thought this part was interesting, because it vaguely reminded me of people who deny science, such as flat-earthers. Only maybe a few hundred years ago, we didn’t have any proof that the Earth was round, so we thought it was flat. If our government was restrictive, destroyed all evidence saying that the Earth is round, and killed those who tried to say otherwise, then who would believe the Earth is round?