post cuatro

Winston and Julia have different outlooks on life that definitely shapes how their relationship works. Winston is that one friend who wants to run the XC workout and actually improve while Julia wants to grab some bread from Jimmy John's first.

Back to 1984, both agree that the party's regime is bad, but Julia is more about those small acts of rebellion than bringing the whole system down, and is bored by Winston's jabberings about the book. I'm not even sure she wants to actually instill change. Winston, though, is totally ready to just frick everything up, and perhaps understood his relation with Julia was something that would have to end.

Post tres

 A shocking turn of events in 1984, spies were closer to Winston that we'd imagined. I didn't really expect it, but it makes total sense looking back. The thought police had been set up throughout the beginning of the book as these super-sneaky, night-terror like beings hiding in the shadows, and it was inevitable that they'd actually show up at some point. Still, the fact that Winston and Julia already knew they were screwed does have some meaning. Absolutely nothing can be hidden from the party, and your mistakes definitely comes back to haunt you. 

Last week in the middle of a midnight youtube rabbithole, I found this somewhat interesting animated series that hit me with some 1984 vibes. Here's the link to one of the short films in the series. It's only 5 minutes long, and worth watching.
In the short, citizens live in a heavily regulated city called Autodale, which is run by robots. The short describes Autodale's "Model Citizen/Family," showing off Mr. and Mrs. Robinson and their son, Robinson Junior, repeating the same daily cycle over and over again as Robinson Junior grows up. Each day, the friendly neighborhood robot checks in with them, with the same, friendly responses said by both sides. In the end, however, once Robinson Junior grows up, Autodale has no more use for the old Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, and the friendly neighborhood robot comes to take them away.

In line to be executed, Mr. Robinson tearfully thanks the robot executioner for all he has done, and you definitely get the feeling that it was heartfelt. These people have been totally brainwashed into believing in the system. Robinson Junior, now the new Mr. Robinson, continues the cycle with his new wife, and his new daughter.

So what did y'all think? I think some parts obviously differ from 1984, but the main structure is still there. If you're interested, the creator did make more videos featuring Autodale, and they're definitely worth looking into.

Post dos

 Sheeple!

 The proles have more freedom than party members but they're too mindless to understand this. The party controls access to information and has destroyed the real past, rewriting it each time they want to change their narrative. The Proles don't see how this affects their lives, so they don't really care about it. By not rebelling, they're making the party's hold on society stronger.

Cue anti-maskers claiming that the current 'rona situation is "literally 1984."
I think looking into right-wing conspiracies is a goldmine for writing blogposts for this book.

 Overall though, does their claim make a small amount of sense to the untrained eye? Conspiracy believers are typically a certain type of person, and we have seen them fall for many other things. 

Post uno

I wanted to start off by confessing that for some reason I got it in my head that 1984 was Animal Farm and Animal farm was also Animal Farm. Whatever.

It was interesting to see how Mrs. Parson's kids acted in comparison to the children in BNW. On one hand, at least the Parson's aren't engaging in en-masse erotic play, but perhaps they're even more indoctrinated in some ways than the BNW kids. Both are brainwashed into following the system, but in 1984 the kids actively try to root out people who don't follow the system. The mother is genuinely terrified that she's gonna be called out to the party by her own kids.

The party found that targeting kids with propaganda is a very effective tool for rooting out existing rulebreakers and negating the possibility of future offenders. A common trope that we've heard from conservative news hosts over the past decades is that schools are "indoctrinating kids" by forcing liberal views and demonizing conservatives. They like to draw the supposed stifling of conservative views in connection to 1984 like it's a big conspiracy. 

Is it a big conspiracy? It would be interesting to hear from y'all how the US could begin morphing itself into a 1984-type system. How easily do you think the government could force this on us, if they wanted to?