Biggest takeaways: 1984 by George Orwell | by The Kontent – Scott Nguyen | Apr, 2022

I don’t know what the public schools’ obsession with book reports was, but it was always mandatory and on classic literature that nobody liked. As an adult, I appreciate the classics, but as a kid, I just wanted to read things that were interesting to me. As a result, I’ve always hated doing book reports/

Now that I’m older, the act of writing about these books helps me remember what I’ve read, forces me to analyze themes and ideas, and think better by connecting things from my life to the character’s life.

Here are my takeaways, in bullet form. They might not encompass everything, but here are my biggest takeaways: *SPOILERS OF COURSE*

• Make people dumb so they can’t think about how bad they got it. You don’t know what you don’t know.
• Always be in a state of war or stress so you can’t think about anything else.
• Fabricate a fake enemy if you have to i.e. Goldstein. This will bring people together for a cause.
• Always have an enemy. Us versus them.
• Keep stress on all levels but provide some privileges so people can compare themselves to others instead of coming together.
• Thoughts become “at least I’m not in the outer party, they don’t have that.” People will fight tooth and nail for things they have that others don’t.
• All ruling parties are no different. They all want the same thing. Everything said differently is propaganda.
• Keep people at the bare minimum so all they can think about is just existing. Can’t think about overthrowing a regime if you’re always thinking about food.
• Maintaining power is easier to do as a collective. Doesn’t matter who is in charge, only matters that the system is still in place.
• Having control over people; is easier as technology advances — control the message by controlling the medium.
• Create a boundary in which there is protest, but one you control. You get to dictate what gets to be said.
• Don’t let people have a purpose. Easy to do that when you indoctrinate them at a young age. Fill in the gaps for them.
• All beliefs and values can be cracked with enough pain.
• Better to die a free man than to live a mindless slave.
• If you let your government get this far, there’s no hope left.

Midway through reading this book, I concluded it wouldn’t have a happy ending — at least for the reader. It built us up to believe that there was a resistance army to fight back, but just as we’ve learned in the book, it was all false hope. The game was over when it started. Perhaps this is the future if we continue to thrift towards complete government rule. If we let “big brother” do everything and control everything, and if we stop thinking for ourselves, this is a possible future.

On a brighter note, this book made me appreciate the things that we currently take granted for — freedom. We don’t think about it but waking up every day and having options to say or do as we please is a privilege. Even if you hated your job, you have a choice to leave it. If you don’t like where you are living, you can move. The ability to choose and express ourselves is what makes it so worthwhile to be human.

We use to laugh at dystopian theme books, but it’s looking creepily heading towards that path. If being aware of the worse possible outcomes won’t make you change how you live your life, then perhaps we truly will be like Winston in the end — A broken character with nothing to live for. Life is certainly not that, so let’s live it to its fullest.

Happy Easter Everybody!

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