Might as Well: 1984

Well, I finished reading George Orwell's 1984. It is the more brilliant of Orwell's anti-Stalinist books, the other being Animal Farm. I found Animal Farm rather tepid a few years ago, when I read it. I felt that it perhaps lost a lot of its power, now that we no longer live in fear of the Godless Communist Russians. However, 1984, is still startlingly relevant to the way that power is gotten today, whether it is the constant fear mongering to which we we are subjected, or the way in which war is used to maintain and propagate economic instability. I don't even know if Orwell intended the book to be aimed at more than Stalinist Russia, but, to borrow from Eric Fromm's essay at the end of the book, it means us.

If anyone still looks at this page and is interested in further discussion of this book, add comments to this post, and maybe drop me a line telling me that you have.

Peace.