The things you are going to read may not shock you at all. At least nothing shocks me anymore. I feel the capacity for expressing surprise and shock is diminishing in me with every passing day. But, I feel the strong need to revisit George Orwell's classic 1984 and see my present reality through the eyes of those fabulous characters.
I was particularly fascinated by two conversations, one between Winston and Julia and the other conversation between Winston and O'Brien. I've taken the liberty of revising some of the original conversation in the movie with some new stuff.
Part 1:
Winston and Julia first talk to each other secretly and agree to meet away from the Omnipresent eyes of the state. The state 'Ingsoc' has enforced strict rules of celibacy for men and women and civil marriages are prohibited to prevent development of emotional attachments to any person. The next generation is brought forth only through an impersonal artificial insemination system. All this is done to keep people focused on the party's interest and to avoid development of strong personal relations which may jeopardize the party's complete claim over the individual.
Under such terrible circumstances, the two rebels Winston and Julia get attracted to each other and fall in love. They slowly start living together in Winston's apartment.
It is 2014 now. the following conversation happens in Winston's apartment in the US in 2014. Winston and Julia are in some ways stuck in 1984 and are in 2014 in other ways.
Winston: Oh Julia, my love. Listen. There is truth and then there is untruth. The freedom to say 2+2 =4 is freedom.
Julia: Yes, why can't we talk such obvious truths that have been known for millenia? I see two completely contradictory worlds simultaneously existing with in an individual. On the one hand, even school children are allowed to say all these truths.May be it is the way you say it. If you say any truth, however profound it may be, according to social conventions with out strong feelings about its value, people won't mind it. They just think you are talking about one of the billions of truths and untruths people post on Facebook and Twitter every hour. On the other hand, you are punished badly for being truthful. These two values of casually stating truths and at the same time paying heavy penalty for being truthful are confusing to say the least.
Winston:Yes, When you take the liberty of stating certain truths, there are attempts to turn your brain into mashed potato with ridges? Constant confusing gibberish is played in to your head 24/7. Do you think they have stopped talking now? They are still giggling into my head as I'm talking to you.
Julia: I know that Winston. What do you want to do? Time heals everything, remember. Besides that, not many people care about these truths or freedom as they think they already know everything there is to know. Who are you going to talk to Winston? People don't want to hear you read out of your torture diary.
Winston: No, Julia. You are wrong. People are still interested in truths that have economic value. It gives enormous advantage in the rat race people are running all the time.
Julia: Then why do you think they are trying to white-wash your brain for saying things people have known for thousands of years.
Winston: That is the strange quality of human societies, dear. We don't have the freedom to say anything that causes disturbances to already established multi-billion dollar establishments. If what you say comes into conflict with already powerful, to-be powerful or rich folks, you can be crucified right in front of everyone with funny music playing in the background. People will just laugh at it as if they just watched somebody hit Tom with a hammer in Tom and Jerry. How different is this from offending a Ingsoc member in 1984.
Julia: Yeah, I agree to that Winston. What can we do about it? What about your efforts to mount a resistance?
Winston: There is no resistance Julia. I even forgot about it for the past one hour. People know everything we are talking right now. Resistance efforts are crushed even before it is born. They can see you through my eyes and hear every breath I breathe. You shouldn't be here if you want to live longer. There is no future for us and for me. It is all doomed.
Julia: Don't say that Winston. I know there is no future. I've already decided it. In fact they are watching you through my eyes and hearing every breath of mine.
Winston: Then what? How Julia?
Julia: There is still hope,Winston. They can't get to your heart. Hold on to that which matters most.
Winston: You are wrong. This is 2014, 30 years after 1984. They have already built a micro-research station in my heart. It is not just my heart, it is actually every organ in my body. People can make whole labs on micro-chips. With a handful you can set up a micro-research station inside people's bodies.
Julia: How pathetic? Anyways I didn't mean your physical heart. There is more to us than our bodies.
Winston: With a set of electronic devices in the body and vocal cues, organizations can direct what people think and feel. When you feel sad for someone, these people with their gadgets can create pleasant mind states. They can distract you endlessly without letting you think what you want to think and feel what you want to feel.
Julia: Why are people silent about it?
Winston: People will care only if it concerns a large population or if it involves them. These organizations use such advanced tech only on targeted individuals and groups. The general populace don't worry about it as most powers since ancient times have used weird, powerful and horrible technology against targeted people. It is the way they frame individuals and convince others these organizations have the right to treat these people in any manner they deem fit. It is just frightening to think how powerless an individual is against the big machinery of state.
Julia: Yes, a state is a powerful tool that seldom hurts the people who wield it. Hence the aggressive competition for power. It is mightier than millions and millions of individuals taken altogether at a time. Most people are corrupted by that intoxicating power over millions and millions of individuals. What power does an individual or a small group has?
Winston: I just don't know how things will turn out.
Julia: I've no idea either.
And they slip in to a dull sleep after a few minutes of silence out of helplessness and a persistent feeling of weariness.
Part 2:
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth rewriting history according to the Party's mandate. He is a rebel as we know it. He has secret rebellious thoughts which he puts it in his diary. He is deceived by an Inner party member O'Brien who acts like a rebel and leads Winston to reveal his rebellious thoughts to him. The party forces capture Winston and Julia and are put on a process to vaporize their persona and unperson them. The process involves physical and mental torture to break their love and belief in everything. All that remains after this process is a bag of bones and flesh that can be programmed according to the Party's wishes.
O'Brien and Winston have this conversation in a torture table shuttling between 1984 and 2014.
O'Brien: What is 2+2?
Winston: 4.
O'Brien: What if the party says 2+2 is 5, What is 2+2 then?
Winston: 4
O'Brien : Nope. Three thousand volts please After a few moments of silence. "How does one person exert power over another? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation on a person for there to be no person at all. Then you build them back by putting them into shapes of your own choosing. That is power Winston."
Winston: Nope.
O'Brien: "Why is past prohibited? When you cut a man from his past, you cut him off from his family, children and society. For him the present and future is just the party. There is no loyalty besides party loyalty. There is no love for anything except the one he holds for the big brother"
Imagine a boot stomping on a human face. That exactly is the future of humans. "One who controls the past controls the future. One who controls the present controls the past". That is what it is.
An individual is just an insignificant cell in the whole organism. Not important at all. Why bother about the memory and experience of an individual if an individual is not valuable. It is only useful as much as it is to the party.
Winston: This is sheer evil. This hatred against humanity. Against what makes people, people. "You are just spreading hatred. The world needs love. I feel something will defeat you. Life will defeat you. "
O'Brien: "We control life at all levels. There is no life beyond our control."
Winston: "No, it will defeat you."
O'Brien: What will?
Winston: "Something like a spirit that cannot be overcome will defeat you. The Spirit of Man."
O'Brien: What spirit are you talking about Winston? Do you think you are a man?
Winston: The Spirit of Man is the Spirit of the Universe. For some reason or another it is asleep. When that great spirit wakes up to its full splendor, it will defeat and overpower you. This arrogance of yours will lead you to your fall.
O'Brien: Huh, It is a shame you call yourself a man after blabbering some irrational nonsense. Man is the pinnacle of reason. There is no reason whatsoever to believe in any great spirit powerful than the state. What are you, a prophet of doom for Ingsoc? You brain just got fried and your crazy brain is wishing for freedom when it is dying. All this spirit nonsense is just your brain conjuring up a fantasy to make your miserable existence less painful.
Winston: I don't know. I can feel it in my bones. The Spirit of Man.
O'Brien: Yes, sure. Now take this. (Another three thousand five hundred volts to silence Winston).
The conversation ends for the day.
I was particularly fascinated by two conversations, one between Winston and Julia and the other conversation between Winston and O'Brien. I've taken the liberty of revising some of the original conversation in the movie with some new stuff.
Part 1:
Winston and Julia first talk to each other secretly and agree to meet away from the Omnipresent eyes of the state. The state 'Ingsoc' has enforced strict rules of celibacy for men and women and civil marriages are prohibited to prevent development of emotional attachments to any person. The next generation is brought forth only through an impersonal artificial insemination system. All this is done to keep people focused on the party's interest and to avoid development of strong personal relations which may jeopardize the party's complete claim over the individual.
Under such terrible circumstances, the two rebels Winston and Julia get attracted to each other and fall in love. They slowly start living together in Winston's apartment.
It is 2014 now. the following conversation happens in Winston's apartment in the US in 2014. Winston and Julia are in some ways stuck in 1984 and are in 2014 in other ways.
Winston: Oh Julia, my love. Listen. There is truth and then there is untruth. The freedom to say 2+2 =4 is freedom.
Julia: Yes, why can't we talk such obvious truths that have been known for millenia? I see two completely contradictory worlds simultaneously existing with in an individual. On the one hand, even school children are allowed to say all these truths.May be it is the way you say it. If you say any truth, however profound it may be, according to social conventions with out strong feelings about its value, people won't mind it. They just think you are talking about one of the billions of truths and untruths people post on Facebook and Twitter every hour. On the other hand, you are punished badly for being truthful. These two values of casually stating truths and at the same time paying heavy penalty for being truthful are confusing to say the least.
Winston:Yes, When you take the liberty of stating certain truths, there are attempts to turn your brain into mashed potato with ridges? Constant confusing gibberish is played in to your head 24/7. Do you think they have stopped talking now? They are still giggling into my head as I'm talking to you.
Julia: I know that Winston. What do you want to do? Time heals everything, remember. Besides that, not many people care about these truths or freedom as they think they already know everything there is to know. Who are you going to talk to Winston? People don't want to hear you read out of your torture diary.
Winston: No, Julia. You are wrong. People are still interested in truths that have economic value. It gives enormous advantage in the rat race people are running all the time.
Julia: Then why do you think they are trying to white-wash your brain for saying things people have known for thousands of years.
Winston: That is the strange quality of human societies, dear. We don't have the freedom to say anything that causes disturbances to already established multi-billion dollar establishments. If what you say comes into conflict with already powerful, to-be powerful or rich folks, you can be crucified right in front of everyone with funny music playing in the background. People will just laugh at it as if they just watched somebody hit Tom with a hammer in Tom and Jerry. How different is this from offending a Ingsoc member in 1984.
Julia: Yeah, I agree to that Winston. What can we do about it? What about your efforts to mount a resistance?
Winston: There is no resistance Julia. I even forgot about it for the past one hour. People know everything we are talking right now. Resistance efforts are crushed even before it is born. They can see you through my eyes and hear every breath I breathe. You shouldn't be here if you want to live longer. There is no future for us and for me. It is all doomed.
Julia: Don't say that Winston. I know there is no future. I've already decided it. In fact they are watching you through my eyes and hearing every breath of mine.
Winston: Then what? How Julia?
Julia: There is still hope,Winston. They can't get to your heart. Hold on to that which matters most.
Winston: You are wrong. This is 2014, 30 years after 1984. They have already built a micro-research station in my heart. It is not just my heart, it is actually every organ in my body. People can make whole labs on micro-chips. With a handful you can set up a micro-research station inside people's bodies.
Julia: How pathetic? Anyways I didn't mean your physical heart. There is more to us than our bodies.
Winston: With a set of electronic devices in the body and vocal cues, organizations can direct what people think and feel. When you feel sad for someone, these people with their gadgets can create pleasant mind states. They can distract you endlessly without letting you think what you want to think and feel what you want to feel.
Julia: Why are people silent about it?
Winston: People will care only if it concerns a large population or if it involves them. These organizations use such advanced tech only on targeted individuals and groups. The general populace don't worry about it as most powers since ancient times have used weird, powerful and horrible technology against targeted people. It is the way they frame individuals and convince others these organizations have the right to treat these people in any manner they deem fit. It is just frightening to think how powerless an individual is against the big machinery of state.
Julia: Yes, a state is a powerful tool that seldom hurts the people who wield it. Hence the aggressive competition for power. It is mightier than millions and millions of individuals taken altogether at a time. Most people are corrupted by that intoxicating power over millions and millions of individuals. What power does an individual or a small group has?
Winston: I just don't know how things will turn out.
Julia: I've no idea either.
And they slip in to a dull sleep after a few minutes of silence out of helplessness and a persistent feeling of weariness.
Part 2:
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth rewriting history according to the Party's mandate. He is a rebel as we know it. He has secret rebellious thoughts which he puts it in his diary. He is deceived by an Inner party member O'Brien who acts like a rebel and leads Winston to reveal his rebellious thoughts to him. The party forces capture Winston and Julia and are put on a process to vaporize their persona and unperson them. The process involves physical and mental torture to break their love and belief in everything. All that remains after this process is a bag of bones and flesh that can be programmed according to the Party's wishes.
O'Brien and Winston have this conversation in a torture table shuttling between 1984 and 2014.
O'Brien: What is 2+2?
Winston: 4.
O'Brien: What if the party says 2+2 is 5, What is 2+2 then?
Winston: 4
O'Brien : Nope. Three thousand volts please After a few moments of silence. "How does one person exert power over another? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation on a person for there to be no person at all. Then you build them back by putting them into shapes of your own choosing. That is power Winston."
Winston: Nope.
O'Brien: "Why is past prohibited? When you cut a man from his past, you cut him off from his family, children and society. For him the present and future is just the party. There is no loyalty besides party loyalty. There is no love for anything except the one he holds for the big brother"
Imagine a boot stomping on a human face. That exactly is the future of humans. "One who controls the past controls the future. One who controls the present controls the past". That is what it is.
An individual is just an insignificant cell in the whole organism. Not important at all. Why bother about the memory and experience of an individual if an individual is not valuable. It is only useful as much as it is to the party.
Winston: This is sheer evil. This hatred against humanity. Against what makes people, people. "You are just spreading hatred. The world needs love. I feel something will defeat you. Life will defeat you. "
O'Brien: "We control life at all levels. There is no life beyond our control."
Winston: "No, it will defeat you."
O'Brien: What will?
Winston: "Something like a spirit that cannot be overcome will defeat you. The Spirit of Man."
O'Brien: What spirit are you talking about Winston? Do you think you are a man?
Winston: The Spirit of Man is the Spirit of the Universe. For some reason or another it is asleep. When that great spirit wakes up to its full splendor, it will defeat and overpower you. This arrogance of yours will lead you to your fall.
O'Brien: Huh, It is a shame you call yourself a man after blabbering some irrational nonsense. Man is the pinnacle of reason. There is no reason whatsoever to believe in any great spirit powerful than the state. What are you, a prophet of doom for Ingsoc? You brain just got fried and your crazy brain is wishing for freedom when it is dying. All this spirit nonsense is just your brain conjuring up a fantasy to make your miserable existence less painful.
Winston: I don't know. I can feel it in my bones. The Spirit of Man.
O'Brien: Yes, sure. Now take this. (Another three thousand five hundred volts to silence Winston).
The conversation ends for the day.
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