
1984: The masterpiece that killed George Orwell - ksvs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell
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stcredzero
1984 again? I wonder if there should be a "recurring" page? Maybe call it a
"classics" page? This might be good for reddit, since it has the semi-random
box at the top. Such links of proven interest could be randomly shown there.
This would be a great tool for catching the eye of new users, with proven
great content. It could then be turned off by veteran users. This would give
the best of both worlds. New users could be introduced to great links they
missed, and veteran users wouldn't have to deal with "dupes."

~~~
madair
The regulars who wring their hands over HN or whatever other site going down
hill really should just go find somewhere else to read.

~~~
pg
It's not the real regulars who wring their hands over this-- more the users
who've been here 5 months or so. It seems to be a phase people go through.

~~~
ivankirigin
Those that complain and mean it leave. Those that complain and don't will have
stopped complaining about it.

~~~
pg
The people who stick around aren't so much the ones who didn't _mean_ it when
they said, after a bad day, that HN was going to the dogs. I think more often
they simply noticed that the next day everything was fine again.

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cturner
I read Yevgeny Zamyatin's _We_ recently, and recommend. It has a more
lighthearted style generally but the ending is still fairly devestating.
There's just been a new translation released and it hides most of the cultural
problems well and is just honest about the one it couldn't (character using a
polite version of a pronoun).

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I feel 1984 is the weakest of the classic distopia triumvirate (We, BNW,
1984). We and BNW are both scarier because they are plausible. Many people
read BNW in particular and say "that doesn't seem so bad".

~~~
dan_the_welder
Wait, are you saying that 1984 is implausible?

We actually have newspeak, constant surveillance, the bumbling inept
bureaucracy and crumbling infrastructure he predicts.

It's a pretty accurate vision as far as I see it and the Department of
Homeland Security/CIA/NSA are merely a step removed from the Ministry of
Truth.

Long live Oceania!

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zandorg
I personally think that personal computing, computing in general and the
Internet/Web has moved us far far away from Orwell's nightmare world.

For even a tiny example, logistics software allowing transport costs to
plummet and more products deliverable.

And yes, I've read 1984 and various books on Stalin and the Soviets.

~~~
bitwize
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=585153>

Cereal Killer respectfully disagrees.

~~~
zandorg
"I used to work for a _company_ "

Note highlights... Company, not government.

That's data protection, not politics.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
the government is a corporation. it's just a corporation with a monopoly on
protection and really good marketing (how many people will die for apple?)

~~~
dan_the_welder
"(how many people will die for apple?)"

On certain message boards....all of them.

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azgolfer
Animal Farm is much more to the point today. And it's not Big Brother, but Big
Mother, that has taken over.

