
“1984” was a parody describing an extream society – now its not far from reality - mathiasrw
http://1984.surge.sh/
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Piskvorrr
Parody? Not really. Try Politics and the English Language - you'll see that
the theses were at the core of Orwell's writing.
[http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit...](http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/)

~~~
Bromskloss
> the theses were at the core of Orwell's writing.

What do you mean by this?

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Piskvorrr
If the linked page is too long for you (seeeveeen paaageeees! OMG WTF TLDR!),
here's a choice quote: "if thought corrupts language, language can also
corrupt thought." This, I think, is _the_ core idea of 1984.

But seriously, go read the linked essay: it's even more applicable now than
when it was written, 70 years ago. 1984 is, in this regard, a lengthier
version of this (okay, _this_ claim is not entirely serious).

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pavlov
The copyright status of _1984_ varies around the world. It is in the public
domain in some major English-speaking countries like Canada and Australia [1].

For that reason, I don't think HN should take down the link due to copyright
alone.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-
Four#Copyright...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-
Four#Copyright_status)

~~~
scarygliders
I agree.

It would be ironic if discussion on Nineteen Eighty-Four was effectively
censored (Room 101'ed) due to being flagged for copyright.

~~~
greenyoda
Room 101 (in the Ministry of Love) was for torture, not censorship. Censorship
was done in the Ministry of Truth (where Winston Smith worked).

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Twisell
Two day's ago ago a _coup d 'état_ was stopped because the contested prime
minister of turkey was able to reach medias using built-in VOIP technology of
one of the most worldwide sold smartphone. Citizens comprising even some
politics opponents rallied in the street to contest the _coup d 'état_ so that
turkey remain a democracy (even if Erdogan is very very contested as a
leader).

And a few more days ago police abuse was catch and shared live on Facebook
leading to investigations on cops abuse.

I can only encourage everyone to read the Orwell's full novel. But I can't
agree less with OP, we currently live in a society where any injustice can be
share worldwide in a heartbeat. This is very very far frow Orwell's
totalitarian society depicted in 1984.

~~~
Grishnakh
>Two day's ago ago a coup d'état was stopped because the contested prime
minister of turkey was able to reach medias using built-in VOIP technology of
one of the most worldwide sold smartphone. Citizens comprising even some
politics opponents rallied in the street to contest the coup d'état so that
turkey remain a democracy (even if Erdogan is very very contested as a
leader).

Nope. There was never a coup at all, it was all made up to help Erdogan become
a dictator. It's all working exactly to plan.

What kind of coup doesn't bother to capture the country's top leaders, and
instead captures _a bridge_? What kind of coup has rebels flying fighter jets,
and even when they have the President's plane in their sights, they ignore it?
And instead, they use aircraft to shoot at people on the streets? Or at an
empty Parliament building? Why would a country that has a long history of
highly successful and competent coups now carry out the most utterly
incompetent coup in all of human history?

The Turkish citizens aren't supporting democracy; they're exactly like the
German citizens of the 1930s, supporting their new dictator. And this "coup"
was very much like the Reichstag fire.

~~~
Twisell
Thanks for the insights. I must say I hesitated a lot before using this
example because it's a smoking hot news and Erdogan could probably have
settled this whole thing up.

My point was mostly that technology enable us to share like never before and
the sole fact that we can talk freely about Erdogan lies is another example of
why, no, we don't live in 1984.

~~~
Grishnakh
Being able to talk freely about his lies isn't helping; the Turkish citizens
are happily signing up to be his brownshirts. Those of us who are outside the
country and not Turkish can point this stuff out all we want, but it doesn't
really matter. I'm sure people in England, the US, Poland, France, etc. said
similar stuff about Hitler in the 30s, but it didn't help then either.

I won't be too surprised to see Turkey setting up death camps soon, for all
the Kurds, intellectuals, and others opposed to his regime. And like Germany
and Rwanda, the rest of the world will just stand by and watch.

I'd also like to point out that even with the internet and freedom of
expression here in the US, we're not doing a great job of electing our next
leader, and the ability to "expose lies" isn't helping either: no one believes
it. People on the right don't believe it when others point out how their
leaders or candidates are lying to them, and people on the left likewise don't
believe it when others point out to them how their leaders and candidates are
liars and crooks. It's probably much the same in Turkey right now; they do
have internet access, Facebook, etc. But the pro-Erdogan people simply aren't
going to believe anything they're told by anti-Erdogan people.

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scarygliders
Far from being a "parody". It was written as a warning.

It seems that quite a few governments in various countries appear to think it
was a manual.

~~~
elgabogringo
+1 - Brave New World is a manual of sorts for as well - at least for the
developed world.

Take Huxley's "soma" for instance. An astounding portion of our population go
through life medicated: Prozak/etc, pain killers, marijuana.

Not that I blame them. Totalitarianism is a bitter pill. Better have something
to take the edge off.

~~~
buckbova
Existence is tough. Humans have been using mind/mood altering techniques for
millenia.

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dudul
It's because people thought it was a parody that we ended up here.

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pif
[OT]

"its" instead of "it's" in the title? Please! :-)

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ggambetta
And "extreme" instead of "extream", maybe?

~~~
mathiasrw
Aw - how to change the title?

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ThomPete
I would actually say that Huxley not Orwel was right.

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sevenless
They were _both_ right. We're amusing ourselves to death in a conformist,
panopticon society where we can't say things that are true.

~~~
hx87
> we can't say things that are true

Such as...?

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josho
Recall Afghanistan/Iraq invasions when American patriotism was questioned if
you challenged the merits of the war.

Remember when the afghan freedom fighters were on our side (Cold War era
fighting Russians), but became terrorists when they fought our armies.

Perhaps not the best examples, but two that came first to mind.

~~~
hx87
Just because the prevailing opinion sways a certain way doesn't mean it's
impossible to say something different.

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sevenless
It certainly can mean that, anywhere you can be shut out, moderated, banned or
shouted down: on mass media, various internet fora and public venues.

~~~
ThomPete
Compared to history we have never has as much freedom of speech as we do
today.

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lossolo
Parody is a wrong word if you describe Orwell's "1984".

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mapleoin
This is a copyright violation in the US and a lot of other countries.

~~~
happyslobro
It's public domain in Canada.

~~~
scarygliders
And the link points to push.sh , hosted in Canada.

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SCdF
This is just a link to the book 1984, which apart from presumably being a
copyright violation, isn't exactly something to build a forum discussion
around. Flagged.

~~~
happyslobro
Disagree, on both counts. 1984 is in the public domain in several countries,
and it is more relevant than ever. Shoutout to anyone else here working in
advertising analytics :p

