Why Orwell was right ...

[sasguru]

...Reread 1984 recently for the umpteenth time and was struck by how much he'd got right:

1) Constant spin of bulltulipe
2) Figures on inflation, unemployment, immigration are all lies
3) We are in a constant war with a particular region (acting as Airstrip One for the Yanks)
4) We are all under constant surveillance
5) We must all toe the party line or be ostracised
6) For proles read chavs

Any others you can think off?

[KathyWoolfe]

...Reread 1984 recently for the umpteenth time and was struck by how much he'd got right:

1) Constant spin of bulltulipe
2) Figures on inflation, unemployment, immigration are all lies
3) We are in a constant war with a particular region (acting as Airstrip One for the Yanks)
4) We are all under constant surveillance
5) We must all toe the party line or be ostracised
6) For proles read chavs

Any others you can think off?

7) Doublethink exists

[DimPrawn]

Ingsoc is New Labour's "3rd way"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingsoc

Under Ingsoc, society is composed of three classes:

The Inner Party, who make policy, effect decisions, and run the government, they are simply referred to as The Party.

The Outer Party, who work the state jobs and are society's middle class. "Members are allowed no vices other than cigarettes and Victory Gin."

The Outer Party also are the most scrutinised, constantly monitored with two-way telescreens and other surveillance technologies.

The Proles, who are the lower class, the rabble whom the Inner Party keeps happy and sedate with beer, gambling, sport, casual sex, and prolefeed ("rubbishy texts"). The proles are the proletariat, Marx's term for the working class. The Proles are 85 per cent of Oceania's populace.


Inner Party = New Labour + rich party donors
Outer Party = Public sector workers & middle classes that voted them in.
Proles = Chav culture, underclasses dependant on state handouts.

[Moscow Mule]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingsoc

Under Ingsoc, society is composed of three classes:

The Inner Party, who make policy, effect decisions, and run the government, they are simply referred to as The Party.

The Outer Party, who work the state jobs and are society's middle class. "Members are allowed no vices other than cigarettes and Victory Gin."

The Outer Party also are the most scrutinised, constantly monitored with two-way telescreens and other surveillance technologies.

The Proles, who are the lower class, the rabble whom the Inner Party keeps happy and sedate with beer, gambling, sport, casual sex, and prolefeed ("rubbishy texts"). The proles are the proletariat, Marx's term for the working class. The Proles are 85 per cent of Oceania's populace.


Inner Party = New Labour + rich party donors
Outer Party = Public sector workers & middle classes that voted them in.
Proles = Chav culture, underclasses dependant on state handouts.

Where do successful entrepreneurs (such as ourselves) fit into this? Other than those of us in Switzerland of course...

[NotAllThere]

...happy and sedate with beer, gambling, sport, casual sex, and prolefeed ("rubbishy texts")...

And the downside?

[realityhack]

On that same page:

Ingsoc "rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it does so in the name of Socialism"

Sound familiar?

[PRC1964]

In much the same way that the chocorat (chocolate ration) went up from 30 grams to 25 grams per week, unemployment falls everytime job losses are announced.

[DiscoStu]

I'm still waiting for my Soma....

(Ok, it's Huxley not Orwell but the same principle applies)

[Marina]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingsoc

Under Ingsoc, society is composed of three classes:

The Inner Party, who make policy, effect decisions, and run the government, they are simply referred to as The Party.

The Outer Party, who work the state jobs and are society's middle class. "Members are allowed no vices other than cigarettes ..

Whoa stop right there, or rather wrong there! Cigarettes are "nonplusgood" (was that an Orwell neologism?)

Mind you I suppose "allowed as vices" implies Party disapproval, even if not an outright ban (yet).

[Peoplesoft bloke]

With ID cards, we're all due to be told by the state what our identity is, ordered to surrender our data to the state and they will license it back to us (for a cost of course). That actually seems slightly more draconian than 1984.