orwell

In many Western countries say the word terrorist or communist on the phone means you are straight away "Tapped".Where I live in London the whole of Holloway Road some six kilometres long is controlled at every point by hidden cameras. London is mostly like this today but not just cameras but the media in general.Everything you read or here is quite likely not the truth or merely a half truth.
On this point Orwell wrote that

indifference to objective truth is encouraged by the sealing off of one part of the world from another, which makes it harder and harder to discover what is actually happening. There can often be doubt about the most enormous events... .The calamities that are constantly being reported -- battles, massacres, famines, revolutions -- tend to inspire in the average person a feeling of unreality. One has no way of verifying the facts, one is not even fully certain that they have happened, and one is always presented with totally different interpretations from different sources. Probably the truth is undiscoverable but the facts will be so dishonestly set forth in that the ordinary reader can be forgiven either for swallowing lies or for failing to form an opinion 

Because of his experience in the Spanish civil war that media reports of the conflict bore no relation to what was happening, Orwell developed a great skepticism about the ability of even a well intentioned and honest writer to get to the truth. He was generally skeptical of atrocitystories. stories..

Many of the predictions made by George Orwell in his book 1984 in relation to "Big Brother" surveillance, corruption of language and control of history have already come about to a great extent in Communist countries and to some extent in the West. The powers of security police in Western countries to intercept mail and tap phones have often been extended, police agencies keep numerous files on law-abiding citizens, and more and more public officials have the right to enter private homes without a warrant. Many government departments keep computerized information on citizens and there is a danger that this information will be fed into a centralized data bank..
In spring 1947,  on the Island of Jura, Orwell started working on the book that was to make him a legend and this book was directly linked to the rewriting of the truth. 
Attempts by law enforcement agencies to obtain more information through informer schemes, through new law enforcement agencies, and through new techniques such as computerization of information, are understandable, but the cumulative effect of such Big Brother activities is to make countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia increasingly totalitarian societies.But first and foremost is the use of language that is used to control the thoughts of citizens.
 The corruption of language described in 1984 is widespread in the media today, with "Newspeak" terms such as democratic, socialist, fascist, war criminal, freedom fighter, racist and many other expressions being used in a deliberately deceptive, propagandistic way to whip up mass hysteria or simply to ensure that people can never achieve even an approximation of the truth.The fact that almost all media commentary, book reviews and feature articles about the book 1984 have ignored is the crucial role of controlling the past indicates that Orwell's prophecy has already been partially fulfilled. The central theme of his book, the control of history, has already been largely written out of references to his book and has disappeared down the memory hole.
The book's hero, Winston Smith, works in the Ministry of Truth rewriting and falsifying history. The Ministry writes people out of history -- they go "down the memory hole" as though they never existed. On this think Palestine, the greatest open air concentration camp that has ever existed. The Ministry also creates people as historical figures who never existed. Big Brother, who controls the State of Oceania, uses "thought police" to ensure that people in the inner and outer Party are kept under control. Oceania is at perpetual war with either Eurasia or Eastasia. Alliances between these three states change without rational explanation. "Hate weeks" are organized against Goldstein, the leader of an alleged underground opposition to Big Brother, and hate sessions are organized against either Eurasia or Eastasia.  Unfortunately, almost all  media commentary about Orwell's greatest book ignored the importance of the past and control of the past as a theme in 1984. The extent of censorship of history is indicated by suppression of the fact that Orwell originally considered giving the title 1948 to his book because of widespread Big Brother tendencies already in the year 1948, including control of history.2 It is also indicated by the suppression of the fact that Orwell queried the allegation that there were gas chambers in Poland.
Nineteen Eighty-four was both a vision of the future and a collage of his past experiences.
 The futuristic novels he had read, such as Brave New World by his onetime teacher, Aldous Huxley, influenced him to some extent.
 But the world he created also drew on his persecution in Spain, his abhorrence of Stalin's Russia, his experience at the BBC, and the real-life gloom and squalor of postwar England. 
It was a nightmairish world ruled in Fascist form, with the will of the individual erased entirely by the repressive forces of the state. The grimness of Nineteen Eighty-four's vision was summed up by one of its characters, who said, 'If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever'." Originally Orwell was thinking of calling his new novel The Last Man in Europe, but nothing in the process of writing Nineteen Eighty-four, it turned out, went unrevised. Instead, the novel was a struggle for Orwell from start to finish. He was sick and getting sicker, but determined to produce another masterpiece. At the end of 1947, he had finished a first draft but thought it a 'ghastly mess'."

"Orwell was himself in bad shape. He had managed to hold onto the dregs of his health until a draft was completed, but thereafter declined rapidly. Wrenching coughing episodes overcame him, and again he was coughing up blood. He was forced to leave Jura and check into Hairymyres Hospital on the Scottish mainland. There, doctors told him that he had advanced tuberculosis of the left lung. 

Forbidden to engage in any taxing activity, he was kept in the hospital for seven long months. Denied the use of his typewriter, he begged friends to keep him supplied with pens, and whiled away the hours doing journalistic writing and jotting down thoughts for a second draft of Nineteen Eighty-Four. David Astor, anxious to help his gravely ill friend, arranged to have a new tuberculosis drug, streptomycin, sent over from the United States (antibiotics such as this one were still in the early stages of development and very hard to obtain). The treatment seemed to help. Despite numerous alarming side effects, such as the loss of patches of skin, Orwell finally felt stronger and healthier."

"Soon he was able to go home. Though he had been strongly advised against returning to Jura in his enfeebled condition, he made his way back there anyway, determined to finish his novel at any cost. He worked at it with a frantic intensity that distressed those around him. Not even his sister, Avril, who had taken over Susan Watson's role as Richard's caretaker, was able to slow him down. In November 1948 he finally declared the book finished."

"The manuscript still needed to be typed, however, and Orwell wanted to supervise the task. He told his publisher, 'I can't send it away because it is an unbelievably bad manuscript and no one could make head or tail of it without explanation'. Needless to say, he was unable to get a typist to come to the island to perform the task. Doggedly, he determined to do the job himself and, using the last ounce of his strength, plugged away at his typewriter until it was done."One month later the manuscript was sent to Fredric Warburg in London. In the wake of Gallancz's rejection of Animal Farm, Orwell had asked to be released from his contract with his old publisher. Sensing that his new novel would be as important and controversial as the last, he wanted it to be published by the man who had always stood behind him: Warburg. Gollancz finally decided that it was only fair to let him go, and Warburg became his official publisher."

"The work had left Orwell dangerously ill again, and this time he went to a sanatorium in Gloucestershire, far away from Jura. There, Warburg came to see him and congratulate him on his achievement. He had been so excited about the novel that he had written an appreciative report about it for his office colleagues. Together, Orwell and Warburg decided to call the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It was published simultaneously in London and New York in June 1949, and was an instant success."

"Nineteen Eighty-four is set in a hideously repressive, desolate future world where war is a constant fact of daily life, any form of creativity is suppressed, and gin lunches are served at government canteens to keep employees 'happy'. The story focuses on the demoralizing existence of a character named Winston Smith, who works for the government of Oceania - an immense superpower bloc - in the province of Airstrip One, formerly known as England. The government's inhumanity is summed up by the three Party slogans that justify its daily misdeeds:"

'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength''

"'Big Brother', the sinister Party leader, 'watches' individuals from posters plastered on every available city wall and inspires fear and a slavish love in his subjects by holding 'Two Minutes Hates': political rallies in which his televised image stirs crowds into murderous frenzies directed at enemies abroad."

"Winston's job for the 'Ministry of Truth' is to support the Party by publishing lies that cover up the state's abusive methods. As well as the past, the state controls the present, by monitoring all individuals through two-way TV screens stationed in homes and workplaces. Any evidence of rebellion is follwed up by a visit from the 'Thought Police' and the eventual 'elimination' of rebels. Despite the state's vigilant efforts at mind control, Winston - as he goes blankly through the mind-numbing routine of hate speeches and enforced exercise classes - begins to have rebellious thoughts and looks for others to share his lonely vision of a better world. He finds a partner in Julia, a fellow civil servant, and together the two endeavor to find a way to oppose Big Brother and his oppressive regime. Their quest is ultimately doomed. The Party fiendishly second guesses their actions and tortures them into confessions and mutual betrayal. Orwell's imagination had never been darker, nor more vivid, than it was in this final novel."

"Orwell once said that Nineteen Eighty-four would have been a better book if he had not been so ill while writing it, but the public obviously did not agree with him. The New York Times Book Review called it 'the most contemporary novel of this year', and renowned critics Lionel Trilling and V. S. Pritchett joined in the chorus of praise. Orwell's success as an author was sealed; the news of his fame spread rapidly and publishers around the world were soon clamoring for translations. The Book-of-the-Month Club, following up on its success with Animal Farm, was eager to make Orwell's latest novel one of its selections. But this time they wanted to edit the novel, cutting out the appendix Orwell had written on 'The Principles of Newspeak' as well as 'The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, by Emmanuel Goldstein'...Despite the large sum of money at stake, Orwell refused to make the changes, feeling that they would alter the meaning of his book. Eventually the book club agreed to publish it anyway, much to the writer's satisfaction."

"With the success of Nineteen Eighty-four, Orwell was again the subject of controversy. Various critics accused him of undermining socialism and satirizing the newly elected British Labour Party. Warburg, in defense of Orwell, issued a press statement, bluntly stating that the book was not an attack on socialism. Orwell himself answered queries with equal frankness. In one letter, he wrote: 'I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive. . .Totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.' His novel, in other words, wasnot a prophecy, but a warning."

"In recent years, reports have surfaced that Orwell was so wary of the possibility of totalitarianism in England in the 1940s that he sent a list of possible communist sympathizers to the British Foreign Office stating that those on the list 'should not be trusted as propagandists'. Clearly, Nineteen Eighty-four was his one-man effort at counterpropagandaGeorge Orwell warned that the corruption of public life begins with the corruption of language. Nowhere is this more evident in today's public life than in the 'peace process' between Israel and the 'Palestinians.' Rick Richman looks at some of the distorted terms in which that 'process' is described.

“Peace process,” “peace partner,” “intifada,” “side by side in peace and security,” “accelerating” — these are all Orwellian terms designed to mask the fact that the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected a state in order to pursue the Orwellian “right of return” — an alleged “right” not given to the millions of other 20th century refugees (including the 820,000 Jews expelled from Arab lands), much less to those whose refugee status resulted from their decision to reject a two-state solution in 1948 and start a war instead.

We drive for almost an hour along the perilous eastern coast of Jura along a gnarly track, known as “The Long Road,” that has even Charles holding his breath from time to time as the car dances on the edge of one precipice after another out over the sea. Finally we come to the end of the paved road and a gate with a sign forbidding vehicles to venture any farther. Waiting for us on the other side of the gate, leaning against a very beat-up and muddy Land Rover, is Mike Richardson.

“I’ve got to put the bloody sign up to keep igits from taking their rental cars up here,” says Richardson, who will turn 74 in September. “There’s no way they can make it on this road and then I end up having to tow them out.”

The road Richardson refers to is really nothing more that a nasty rough track full of gouged holes a foot or more deep and grass knee-high in places. As we bounce along at 5 miles per hour, Richardson says, “This road is exactly the way it was when George drove his Army BSA motorbike over it 60 years ago. In fact, it might have been better back then

The George he is referring to is George Orwell, who came to Jura in 1946 to write his last novel, a book with the working title The Last Man in Europe (which ended up being published as 1984). According to Richardson, Orwell was looking to get as far away from civilization as possible—which is why he picked the wild and unpopulated stretch along Jura’s eastern coast.

“He was a wounded animal looking for someplace to hide,” says Richardson of the author and war correspondant, one of the first journalists to enter the German concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. “What he saw there made him lose faith in mankind. He couldn’t comprehend the horror. And shortly thereafter he wife, Eileen, died, quite suddenly after a botched operation, and he was quite ill from the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life at the age of 46 in 1950. So he was a man at the end of his rope, in a way—a bit of the last man in Europe himself as he saw it.”

After about 40 minutes or so we make it the five miles to Barnhill, the old white stone house built in the 1850s, where Orwell lived from May 1946 to January 1949. Richardson takes me upstairs to the bedroom just above the kitchen where Orwell spent most of his time at Barnhill hammering away on his typewriter.

“It was his bedroom,” Richardson says as I look around at the cramped space, “but he didn’t sleep here. He preferred sleeping in an army tent in the garden. Thought the fresh air would do him good. More likely it made things worse.”

Later we sit on an old wooden bench in front of Orwell’s house looking out at the stone field walls, probably erected during the Bronze Age some 3,000 years ago, and the cherry trees Orwell planted and the bay from which he launched a 14-foot dinghy and tried to circumnavigate the island only to capsize just up the coast at the treacherous Corryvreckan whirlpool where he almost drowned. Or at least that’s the conventional version of the story. Which Richardson says with a wave of his hand is nonsense.

Later we sit on an old wooden bench in front of Orwell’s house looking out at the stone field walls, probably erected during the Bronze Age some 3,000 years ago, and the cherry trees Orwell planted and the bay from which he launched a 14-foot dinghy and tried to circumnavigate the island only to capsize just up the coast at the treacherous Corryvreckan whirlpool where he almost drowned. Or at least that’s the conventional version of the story. Which Richardson says with a wave of his hand is nonsense.

Later we sit on an old wooden bench in front of Orwell’s house looking out at the stone field walls, probably erected during the Bronze Age some 3,000 years ago, and the cherry trees Orwell planted and the bay from which he launched a 14-foot dinghy and tried to circumnavigate the island only to capsize just up the coast at the treacherous Corryvreckan whirlpool where he almost drowned. Or at least that’s the conventional version of the story. Which Richardson says with a wave of his hand is nonsense.

“Bullocks. He wasn’t anywhere near the Corryvreckan,” he says. “He was with his son and they were headed for a small island along the west coast to collect puffin eggs and when they stepped out of the boat, it capsized and they were stuck on the island for three hours until a fisherman picked them up. That’s the real story.”

Then why, I ask him, do people always talk about Orwell almost drowning at the Corryvreckan whirpool?

Richardson says, “Makes for a better story, I suppose.” He gives me a wink. “And you know how the Scots are with their stories.”

I do.