The Dystopian World of 1984 Explained

George Orwell's novel has been brought up recently. Many terms and facts are used. The world he crafted doses have some similarities, but it in itself is dystopian in its own right. What caused this to happen? What made 1984 such a dark novel that Orwellian is now a term? This is one video to explain.

[vaultby]

One of the scariest part of the book for me was when one of the characters describes how people can never know about freedom or liberty if those concepts and words dont exist.

[jonahc]

“You can say whatever you want when you raise generations to worship you.”
Very important statement.

[bigusdickus]

“The Obliteration of Self”

Best emo band name

[miltsockj]

I think the scariest part is by far newspeak. Eliminating anti-party thoughts by restricting and eliminating freethinking capability in itself

[maverick]

Ingsoc: "Eurasia has always been our greatest ally against the evil East Asia in the war against Eurasia with our great ally East Asia."

[bassrocks]

1984 is by far the darkest book I’ve ever read. I felt physically ill reading the last third of it

[kobaltapollodorus]

Orwell: *Publishes 1984* "Yo, guys, totalitarianism is bad. Read this book, it'll scare you shitless."
Me: "Oh my god, this is the most terrifying book I've ever read in my entire life!"
Politicians: "Ooh! Look, an instruction manual!"

[TheSixteen]

Fun Fact: 1984 was an early inspiration for Half-Life 2, and some elements of 1984 are still present in the game as well. Like cities just referred as City XX, like with City 17. And most of the citizens barely remember their past before the Combine invaded earth.

[CteCrassus]

Forget vampires, zombies, werewolves, xenocidal aliens or cosmic horrors; 1984 is the most bone-chilling and terrifying piece of fiction I have ever interacted with in my whole life.

[bleachdrinker]

*This video has been removed by the Thought Poilce*

[georgedrippington]

INGSOC: "Reality can be whatever i want"

[carlireland]

One thing I wish had been in the video is that all of this backstory could be completely made up considering how untrustworthy Oceania is. The characters don’t even know for sure that the year is 1984. The deuteragonist Julia didn’t even think the war was real and believed that Ingsoc only actually controlled England (and just England, not even the entire former UK), with the rest of the world at peace and relatively better off. By the end, the novel neither confirms nor denies her suspicions.

[PassiveSmoking]

One thing you have to bear in mind with 1984 is that literally nothing can be taken at face value. It's entirely possible that the party is a world government and that Eurasia and Eastasia are just fictions to justify a permanent war footing that only exists to suppress the populace. Equally it could be that airstrip 1 is little more than a banana republic with little standing on the world stage and the party is indulging In North Korean self aggrandisement. We don't even know for sure that the year is 1984.

[markmendel]

1984 wasn't necessarily the actual year. It's just Winton's best guess as to the year.

[elektra]

Ingsoc is the government equivalent to the "it has always been" meme

[MrGundawindy]

Given recent history and the way "society" is headed, I think more people need to revive this old classic.

[NewNicator]

Comment section:
10% This is what our world is turning to.
90% Irregular boobs.

[abd-al-kareemqasim]

The thing about 1984 is that we don’t know if much of the information we gather about the world is even correct. O’Brien admits to writing the book that gives a lot of history and background on the world to Winston so it has a good chance of being false. For all we know Oceana only consists of the British isles or the super states of Eurasia and Eastasia do not exist. There is no way to know for sure.

[Froot]

At 2:07 it’s mentioned that a town in England called Colchester was nuked, but London was not. As someone who lives in Colchester I can confirm that we got nuked because Colchester is a military garrison town and so would probably hold some strategic advantage to destroy.

Not important or relevant information but I thought it would be interesting for people to know :)

[legoclonetrooper]

A few years ago I was playing video games and remembered a Subway ad. A bit later I was scrolling a bit through youtube and it was on my recommended. I told my mom how funny it was and said jokingly: "Big Brother is watching you." Later I was scrolling through youtube again and there was the ad again but also with this video right above it...