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1984: "A Reality In Our Society?"

English 12                                                                                 Jacqueline Stevens
1984

1984: "A reality in our Society?"

I originally thought that George Orwell's 1984 was ridiculous, and extreme. I

thought that the novel was written to show us how good we had it. I couldn't understand

why Oceania's government needed to control it's people, and bring them down to a

mindless existence; but after taking in the story as a whole, and thinking about the natural

replacement of power, it no longer seems that outrageous of a concept. Orwell's novel has

been intended as a caveat for the modern day; but was his message taken to the conscious

realm in our society? The situations faced by Orwell's people of Oceania seem, when

unanalyzed, to be in many ways impossible- but there are overlooked similarities between

our modern American "democratic" society, and Orwell's world of warning.                                              

Our government of today has managed to "smuggle" into daily living, undetected

by the majority of Americans, the principle of doublethink. 1984's doublethink consisted of

two contradictory ideas expressed in such a way as to negate any confusion; sort of an

oxymoron, with an idealistic meaning. For example; equal opportunity employers, along

with the topic of affirmative action, are two perfect examples of our governments use of

doublethink. The contradiction can be seen easily in that to deal with the problems of

discrimination during hiring, or college acceptance, there must be discrimination against

others. One may ask how the both of these concepts could be executed without realization

of the fact that they make no sense; it can only be made out that we as a population look

to the government to solve our problems with their acts, and plans, and we accept them

for a solution, without examining what they really entail.

Our society is...