How Is 1984 Still Relevant Today

Published in 1949, the book “1984” by George Orwell continues to relate to our current world in a number of ways. The book depicts a dystopian society ruled by a totalitarian government that controls every aspect of their citizens' lives by using surveillance, power, and manipulation. We can relate to this book in a number of ways. “Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell p. 34). This quote explains that the party knows changing the events in the past and controlling history will help them maintain a position of power. We can see this train of thought happening in the real world, for example in June 2022 an advisory panel containing nine educators tried to get slavery to be

At the time, she thought the government was doing the right thing because it was the only thing she knew, just like in 1984. “Some Eurasian prisoners, guilty of war crimes, were to be hanged in the park that evening. and it was a public spectacle. Children always clamored to see it” (Orwell, p. 23). Kids in North Korea in 1984 were both taught that their government was always right, that they had to make sacrifices for them to glorify their leaders. This shows how kids in North Korea and kids in 1984 are sadly similar. They both have been brainwashed to see their governments as “god” and something to idolize. The televisions in 1984 constantly listened and watched the people of Oceania,“any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well” (Orwell p. 4). This can be related to real world problems because we all know our smart TVs, Amazon Echo, and Google Home listen to us and our conversations, that's why we have targeted ads about things we just talked