Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984) is an English dystopian novel by George Orwell, written in 1948 and published in 1949. The main character, Winston Smith lives in a post-WWIII England ruled by a harsh totalitarian regime - a blantant caricature of SovietStalinism - whose official ideology is "Ingsoc" (a contraction of "English Socialism").
Despite its criticism of the excesses of communism, 1984 was still required reading for students around the globe on the pretext that it was a critique of capitalism. Most instructors, when pressed by their students, argued that "Ingsoc," though called English Socialism, was not true socialism, but rather an exercise in "mystification". Comrade Pellagrini, for example, compared Ingsoc to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which used socialist concepts to mystify its followers, but was not truly socialist.[1]
Over supper one evening, Colin Ferguson, his son Marshall along with Colin's second wife Kelly got into a discussion of tyranny, revolutions, and their aftermaths. Kelly quoted "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others" which Marshall was surprised to be able to identify as coming from Animal Farm. He failed to identify George Orwell but said it was by the same guy who wrote 1984. Colin said that while real 1984 wasn`t great, it was better than Orwell's.[3]
Colin had read 1984 recently and while the politics were out of date, he did find the way the book had corrupt and narrow politics produce a corrupt and narrow language more important than ever and a reflection of reality.[4]
