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A comment on '1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell. Parent comment

Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by unethical_ban on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @04:56PM (#20159463)
Not meth or anti-depressants, but even alcohol and weed to excess.

And yeah, more than anything I think we have a caste system. Social mobility is decreasing, and we certainly don't interact with people of far-away economic classes unless it is required (usually). I don't think the poor like being poor the same way the Epsilons were pleased not to be burdened with responsibility.

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Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by sonnyblarney on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @06:10PM (#20159972)
1 in 6 Americans take some kind of 'anti depressant'. [1]

That's enough to talk about Soma.

11% of children have ADHD [2]

We give them ritalin, which is meth.

Obviously not all of them, but quite a lot.

So 25% right there on anti-depressants, possibly ritalin. This doesn't factor in all the other legal and illegal drugs.

The Soma prediction is not unreasonable at all.

Also, 'the rich' in America generally do have the burden of responsibility. Wall Street lawyer earning $800K is not an easy field trip.

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/one-6-americans-t...

[2] http://www.demarleinc.com/ADHD%20NY%20TIMES%20more-diagnoses...

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Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by antisemiotic on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @01:53AM (#20162090)
Ritalin is methylphenidate, not methamphetamine (which is what is usually called "meth"). And it's an SNDRI, while by "antidepressant" most people mean SSRI (or older types like MAO inhibitors and tricyclic). Though SNDRI are also used as antidepressants, I haven't really heard about Ritalin being classified/used as such. Do you have a source for that?

I'm not trying to make an argument here, just pointing out some factual errors in case you wonder why you're being downvoted.

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Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by sonnyblarney on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @03:47AM (#20162563)
Yes, that's technically true, but it's besides the point: Ritalin is close enough to Soma for the predictive nature of the story to make sense.

A very significant chunk of the population are taking drugs, legally or not legally, that materially affect our state of mind. This is a dystopian feature of 'A Brave New World'.

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