1984 is a wonderful novel penned by Orwell somewhere in the late 1940s.  (1949, I think.)  If you’re unfamiliar, the novel, set roughly 30 years before the date it was supposed to happen, is the birth of the Thought Police, Big Brother, and thoughtcrime, and other words that have (oddly and easily) become part of American vocabulary.

Unfortunately, the meanings of the words have not changed or warped.  The definitions as we know them have the same context as from the novel – again – written 30 years in the future from Orwell’s perspective.

Truthfully, the fiction novel was had to influenced by the same muse who influenced Nostradamus.   Looking back, as hindsight is 20/20, several of the themes presented – such as censorship and surveillance, have become commonplace and widely accepted.

Examples –
—  It’s rather rare for someone to go into an urban area and not be recorded (under surveillance) at least once – it not continually – based upon the location.  This could be seen as an invasion of privacy or a sign that the powers-that-be don’t trust its citizens – or they’re just so scared that everyone is considered to be an ISIS member and worthy of being recorded.

Another theme is newspeak.  Vocabulary is reduced, which limits expression and complex thought.  Sure – new words are added to the American lexicon all the time — but what is America’s reading level?

Info from here:  http://literacyprojectfoundation.org/community/statistics/

• In a study of literacy among 20 ‘high income’ countries; US ranked 12th
• Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children
• 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level
• 45 million are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level
• 44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year
• 6 out of 10 households do not buy a single book in a year

—  In college, Composition courses tend to draw the most anxiety from students are as consequently watered down to where it’s nearly impossible to fail.
—  Text speak continues to become more common place – which is limited to abbreviations that everyone will understand and, maybe even worse, emojis are stating to take the place of text speak.
– Essentially, we’ve ‘evolved’ from:
Laugh out Loud to LOL to ☺️

It’s just a matter of generations until Harry Potter brings the same student trepidation as Romeo and Juliet (… although I pray that doesn’t happen).

Going forward –

From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (1.1.7)  (From Chapter 1)

Everything – to a computer from a website – has an IP address.  The number is unique and cannot be duplicated.  It defines who is gaining access from where so people can communicate effectively.  An IP address is kind of like a computer’s social security number.  It’s what allows certain countries (like China) to prevent it’s citizens from seeing potentially cultural offensive material.

Although the internet is not owned by a country, the ability to assign IP addresses was – America.  A non-government (but monitored) not-for-profit organization kept the IP addresses (i.e. the Spice) freely flowing to a global market.

Well, no more.  As of October 1st, our pal Obama released the IP addresses to the delicate care of the world.  Makes since, right?  The Internet isn’t owned by a particular nation, so every government should have some say in how the IP addresses are managed.

Sounds great on paper, but consider this:
—  Whitehouse.gov has an IP address- and potentially and not so potential hostile nations could have direct access to it – which could be hacked.
—  Public databases, which no one owns, could disappear.
—  What’s to keep another nation from using one of the IP addresses designated to America.  i.e.  who’s to stop Putin from using the same IP address NASA does?  Putin would – not – be responsible for an “out of office” notification.  He could do was he pleased and visitors would have — no idea — the content was compromised.
(Bonus – think of what if the website was classified or military.)

All of this was handed – without restriction – with Obama’s blessing – starting October 1st, 2016.  There’s a year transition and then… who knows what will next year be like.

 

Even before he ever wrote “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER,” Winston knew that he was going to die a painful, painful death. Why? Thoughtcrime. Thinking about doing something wrong is not allowed