1984: A future in the past

It happened almost 20 years ago. People live in beaten-down houses and have barely enough to eat. They are taught to believe that everything told them is right. Sex is more disgusting than cleaning a public toilet and is done only to keep the population up until artificial means can be perfected. There are no loving connections between people even in the family structure and children are their parents’ biggest traitors. Mass killings are made public but many individuals still disappear in the night, never to be seen again. Everyone is under the total control of their leader, and thinking is a heinous crime of which the penalty is death. Life is miserable but strangely enough, the people are happy.

This terrible scenario is the backdrop of George Orwell’s book, 1984, a picture of what the world would be if socialism were taken to the extreme. Written in 1949, it served as a warning of the possible after-effects of the events of the times, had those events carried on.

1984 has always been on my list of must-reads ever since I was in high school, but the drive was never strong enough for me to actually read it. Whenever I entered a bookstore, I always picked up the book, but I would purchase a different book to take home. I finished the series of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a few classics by the Bronte sisters, Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens, and all four Harry Potter books, among others. But never 1984.

Then last semester, I took up a class called science, technology and society. I would have passed up on this course if it wasn’t required because my grades in social science were terrible, but there I was. Little did I know that this course would finally give me the drive to read the book. As this course was about the present and possible effects of science and technology in society, it mentioned both the positive and the negative.

1984 was on the negative side, mentioned several times along with Alvin Toffler’s Aftershock and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. These books were all about societies whose advanced technologies narrowed down the freedom of the people. Readers were forewarned that this particular book may be depressing and sometimes revolting, with its vivid description of people’s death and suffering. This made me want to read it all the more. I finally left the bookstore with it in my hands.

This is probably the best book I have ever read, and I regret that I didn’t read it sooner. It captured real people and real emotions, exactly how that world required it, as deadpan and lifeless as possible. But there were also sparks of hope and fiery spirits in a few characters, all of whom eventually die for that "crime," unfortunately. Even with its entirely different situation, it shows the problems of everyman in our times as well. How many of us have been faced with the dilemma of our private thoughts over the public opinion? Or our personal actions against the social norms? What is right and wrong? And who decides those things?

My favorite part of the book is the memorable scene wherein Winston, the protagonist, is being made to accept that 2+2=5. He remembers from school that this is wrong and he is now being told it’s right and he is confused. He is in a torture chamber, being punched, kicked and electrocuted until he almost dies for such a simple math problem that we take for granted.

I realized that the point of this is not to find the logic of the problems, but to make someone accept what is so obviously wrong to be right just because they can. They have the power and they intend to use it to their pleasure.

This book struck me with more force than any other book I have ever read because of this sentence: He who controls the present controls the future and the past. The connection between the present and the future is easy enough to make, but the present and the past? I’ve always thought that history cannot be changed. This book proves that it could, for history is nothing but written word and memories. Words can be changed easily and memories can be altered. People may confuse memories with dreams and they eventually die, taking their real memories with them.

I couldn’t sleep for a week after reading the book. I kept thinking about the sentence. Similar events have happened in this country 30 years ago. That would have been enough time to change things. I know I cannot contest anything personally, but those who experienced it may have a thing or two to share, and their stories should be known to the public. How can we be sure that what we know to be true is not just something that someone made up? How much truth is there in what we know now?

Such events are still happening here now, and in various parts of the world, on a smaller scale. Even with the year 1984 long over and communism slowly dying, the story still seems like a possible future – but I hope I’m only being paranoid.

Socialism, as with capitalism, has noble intentions, but power can blind people to their ideals. Here’s hoping that if the world ever trudges this path, what Mr. Orwell feared that could have been will never be at all.