On This Day In History: 1984 in 1949

On this day in history: June 8, 1949 on 12seconds.tv

George Orwell’s dystopian novel, one to stand alongside Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World as a towering work of futuristic pessimism, posits a grim society where the government is all powerful and all knowing and the individual spirit has been effectively extinguished. Big Brother, a seemingly benevolent but terribly vengeful ruler who may or may not exist, is the personification of the state. To keep the masses docile and pliant, books are banned, surveillance is everywhere and all information is closely guarded by the state. (Huxley envisioned a different future, one which perhaps more closely mirrors our present: In Brave New World, there is no reason to ban a book, since people are too busy pursuing their hedonistic distractions to bother picking one up.)

Source: Wired.

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