The prophecy that warned us
The year 1984 has dissipated, but the novel 1984 remains with us. A numerical reversal of the last two digits of the year that Orwell jotted down his story, 1984 is interesting in other respects besides its cleverly-concocted title. It is George Orwell’s futuristic, satirical, nightmarish "warning” of what society would embody in the future: dark totalitarianism, demanded obedience to harsh functionaries, depleted vocabulary, and ever-present surveillance. Though published on June 8, 1949, and in spite of its author’s death in 1950 from tuberculosis, 1984 is still culturally relevant.
The "everyman" figure, Winston Smith, no. 6079, attempts to survive in a dystopian London. Many obstacles hinder him. He must grapple with the caustic, cryptic language of Newspeak, which uses words such as “doublethink”, “plusgood”, and “facecrime,” cope with the substandard, World War II-like food and beverages (“Victory Coffee,” “Victory Chocolate,” and so on), deal with food shortages, and dodge the Thought Police, Big Brother, torture, and so forth.
In the end, however, he falls victim to the mind control and torture of the Ministry of Love, dubbed “Miniluv” in Newspeak and filled to the brim with pain, and he "loves” Big Brother.
Newspeak represents the dumbing down of America’s education over recent years, since the Newspeak vocabulary is so carefully developed that each word only has one meaning and there are no synonyms for any word whatsoever. Translations of standard English (“Oldspeak”) literature into Newspeak also destroy the original context of those books, which represents whitewashed history and how revisionism obliterates historical truth.
Big Brother, Emanuel Goldstein, Ingsoc (English Socialism), and the ironically-named Ministries of Truth, Peace, Plenty, and Love (Minitrue, Minipax, Miniplenty, and Miniluv, respectively) all symbolize corrupt political power and the urge for totalitarian conquest and control of humanity. Winston and Julia, both destitute and despondent, embody the average person attempting to get by in an unfit world.
Room 101 in the Ministry of Love is an allegorical representation of a person experiencing their worst fear. For Winston, who has an extreme phobia of vermin, Room 101, also the center of other, more destructive forms of torment, is infested with wild rats.
Orwell skillfully develops his dystopian London setting so that the reader can really imagine himself in such a scary place and feel what Winston is going through.
1984 and academia
College degrees, students hear, boost happiness and peace of mind. People with degrees can appear to be better citizens and to be more involved in their community than their peers with only a high school education.
College students are not always told about the growing problems of student debt, lack of critical thinking, lack of curiosity, and dearth of innovation in some classes. They are not warned about wild dorm environments or the encouragement of conformity in select university courses.
College education should be more considerate of the needs of emerging adults, which most college students happen to be. They are the main demographic seeking higher learning, as they arrived in the "real world" fresh out of high school.
Exclusively for our VIPs: The Dictionary of Ideological Defense Mechanisms
The more prominent the university is, the more closely it resembles a few of the 1984 Ministries of Oceania.
Newspeak: Some college students across the 50 states have not been expected to read full novels cover to cover, as schools changed gears to Common Core and put too much emphasis on standardized tests.
Room 101, Minipax, and Miniluv: In true Miniluv fashion, students from one university spat on their classmates' Students for Life materials because they were afraid of seeing another perspective. Sadly, the representatives of Students for Life were falsely accused of being troublemakers and were kicked out of the public property where they manned a booth. The real troublemakers got off scot-free. University police, akin to Minipax, did not punish them.
Minitrue: The overuse of "land acknowledgments" at Drexel University, as just one example, could potentially make Lewis and Clark and other settlers' scientific breakthroughs seem less meaningful.
Orwell once stated that 1984 was "a warning, not a prophecy." Both are true at once. Unlock the PJ Media VIP Membership to learn about his warning becoming prophetic. Use promo code FIGHT to get your VIP Membership at 60% off.
