4. Society: George Orwell and 1984
4
When World War II was
ended, many people
believed a World War III
was inevitable.
The idea of three
superstates came from
the 1943 Tehran
Conference, where Stalin,
Winston Churchill, and
Franklin D. Roosevelt
discussed global “areas
of influence” and how
they should exercise their
influence on the rest of
the world.
When 1984 was
written, World War II had
ended only a few years
prior, making the wars of
the novel feel not just
realistic but unavoidable.
Additionally, 1984 was written three years after the U.S.
dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and
Orwell references nuclear-powered wars happening in
different parts of the world.
5. 5
Society:
Consequences of the Theory of Evolution by Darwin and Spencer
The theory of Social
Darwinism was used to justify
acts such as colonialism,
where the people of one
territory will claim the territory
of others, suppressing the
indigenous people.
It also excused the similar act
of imperialism, in which one
country extends control and
power over another
Darwin believed that the strong
survive and will outlive the
weak. Spencer took these
ideas further, claiming that
human beings with financial,
technological and physical
power will live on, while others
are inferior and will die out.
Even the Holocaust was
defended by the ideas of Social
Darwinism. Adolf Hitler justified
the mass murder of the Jewish
people during World War II as
purging inferior genetics.
6. Privacy: George Orwell and 1984
6
1984 remains an important novel for its penetrating analysis of
the psychology of power and the ways that manipulations of
language and history can be used as mechanisms of control.
The phrase "Big Brother" is often used to refer to
the advancement and expansion of technology
used to observe and record behavior, such as
video cameras placed on city streets and
government monitoring of phone and Internet
communication.
But do we have the
technological
infrastructure needed
to support Big
Brother's totalitarian
state where, as
Orwell put it: "Nothing
was your own except
the few cubic
centimetres inside
your skull"?
Technology is an extremely important tool that the
Party uses to maintain control over its citizens.
Without telescreens, the Thought Police would not
be nearly as effective, and propaganda would not be
so widespread. The constant supervision of the
telescreen effectively imprisons citizens of Oceania
in their daily lives: they are always under
observation.
8. 8
Pros & Cons: is technology good or
bad?
• Access to more information.
• Save time by using technology.
• More efficient communication.
• Medical advancements.
• Renewable energies.
• Genetically modified foods.
• Nuclear bomb.
• Human cloning.
• Weaponization of viruses.
• Risky experiments may go wrong.
• Climate change.
• Undesirable tool of control.
10. 10
Limits: the Individualism of John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill is known to be a defender
of liberty, against the tyranny of social
norms and political oppression. He writes
about the importance of protecting an
individual’s ability to act freely, and about
the likelihood that a government interferes
in the lives of citizens will cause more harm
than good.
Is the limit linked to our neighbor’s liberty?
11. Technology is a useful servant
but a dangerous master.
Christian Lous Lange, Historian
”
11”
