Since I saw a report about 1984 (because of a new audio version done for motherfucking Audible!) with the same talking points, here's the usual correction:
1984 is not a book about total surveillance. It's a book about how to ensure the middle class will never stand with the lower classes against power. It's about how to destroy solidarity. In 1984 only the middle class is surveilled, the lower classes (proles) and the upper class (inner party) are not. It's a book about power and class politics that is more relevant than ever - but not "because our phones surveil us".
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/113526982012372142
@tante People also think the whole "editing the past" that Winston does is inspired by Stalin's habit of doctoring photos, when in reality it was just as much inspired by Orwell's own wartime […]
@tante @stk Gute Sicht auf das Buch. Danke
@tante It's also very much a book about disinformation as a tool for achieving that. Surveillance is indeed one of the lesser parts of it all, it just stands out, I guess.
It should be more […]
@tante if there’s hope, it lies with the Proles. Book is burned into my brain.
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I’ve had people argue against my proposition that the the three slogans are more true in reverse than the way they are written despite the title of the book hinting quite loudly that […]
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Real question, how can you have read 1984 and still support communism ?
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The updated version of 1984 is 2025
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@tante for others seebrave new world and fahrenheit 451
@tante Might be a controversial opinion, but I think 1984 is not nearly as good as Brave new world by Huxley.
That said, I have read everything by Orwell, and admire the hell out of the […]
@tante absolutely to the point.
I would suggest another relevant book "Do androids dream of electric sheep" and not because all animals on Earth have disappeared
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