If you want a picture of the future...
"'...How does one man assert him power over another, Winston?'
Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.
'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy - everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend and longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. there will be no loyalty, except the loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distiction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the progress of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always - do not forget this, Wiston - always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever.'"
-extract from George Orwell's book entitled, 1984
this is what the "future" (1984) was thought to be like, and you know what the funny thing is that is sounds a bit like today's society, and the future for us. read it and actually think of what our world has turned into and what it has become. don't lie to yourself, but look at it honestly...we - as a society are becoming cold and unloving towards others. we are becoming self - centered...caring only for number one, not others that are less fortunate then us. we are becoming more and more selfish as time goes by.
where it is stated, "Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation." how true is that? do we not see that in our schools, with the nerds and the bullies who beat inflict pain and humiliation?
or how about the part where it says, "In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement." do we not live in fear? fear for our children? ourselves? our families and friends? are we not afraid to let our children go out at night, afraid that they might be kidnapped, hurt, or worse?
"We have cut the links between child and parent, between man and man, and between man and woman." how many of us don't talk to our parents? other men and women? how many of us have pushed ourselves away from others, pushed them so far away that we are completely and utterly alone?
i donno i find it funny, you know, to read a book that was written a long time ago, but to see so much of our own society, and our future in it as well.
Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.
'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy - everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend and longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. there will be no loyalty, except the loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distiction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the progress of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always - do not forget this, Wiston - always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever.'"
-extract from George Orwell's book entitled, 1984
this is what the "future" (1984) was thought to be like, and you know what the funny thing is that is sounds a bit like today's society, and the future for us. read it and actually think of what our world has turned into and what it has become. don't lie to yourself, but look at it honestly...we - as a society are becoming cold and unloving towards others. we are becoming self - centered...caring only for number one, not others that are less fortunate then us. we are becoming more and more selfish as time goes by.
where it is stated, "Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation." how true is that? do we not see that in our schools, with the nerds and the bullies who beat inflict pain and humiliation?
or how about the part where it says, "In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement." do we not live in fear? fear for our children? ourselves? our families and friends? are we not afraid to let our children go out at night, afraid that they might be kidnapped, hurt, or worse?
"We have cut the links between child and parent, between man and man, and between man and woman." how many of us don't talk to our parents? other men and women? how many of us have pushed ourselves away from others, pushed them so far away that we are completely and utterly alone?
i donno i find it funny, you know, to read a book that was written a long time ago, but to see so much of our own society, and our future in it as well.
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