Re:The lesser-known Orwell: are his novels deserving of reap...
by chongli on Saturday January 09, 2021 @07:59PM
(#25707045)
There were plenty of enthusiastic volunteers in 1984. Children in the story were trained as spies and rewarded for denouncing their parents. Friends denounced friends.
Orwell understood that in order to create an atmosphere of total oppression there could be no loyalty between anyone. This is why the party criminalizes sex for pleasure. It’s the recognition that the loyalty within families is the greatest threat to the totalitarian state.
The government in Brave New World recognizes that as well but seeks to eliminate the threat by other means (taboo and superficial pleasure).
Re:The lesser-known Orwell: are his novels deserving of reap...
by hobby-coder-guy on Saturday January 09, 2021 @07:13PM
(#25706647)
Doesn’t sound like Twitter at all.
At least the Orwellian invisible guards were paid employees. On contemporary Internet, there is no shortage of unpaid volunteers digging in other people's activity just for the thrill of getting someone punished.
The difference is that the state apparatus may run out of money; the USSR did. You never run of enthusiastic volunteers, as long as you reward their actions with what they want, in this case, a public spectacle of a virtual guillotine.