1984

So I have started reading 1984, im not really sure what lead me to finally start to read it, but I have always been vaguely aware that I should. Its part of my new thing you see, I got a kindle a few weeks back and so with the added ease of acquiring books combined with (despite what some people may say) the new found ease of reading from a pad instead of an actual book, I thought I would start to read all the books I always wanted to, and even a bunch I didn't know I needed to. This is not going to be so much a review, more just some ramblings. I also plan to start updating the blog again, even if nobody reads it, the simple act of having written what I wanted to write is somehow satisfying.

So 1984 then. Written in 1949 you can't deny it is really in a lot of ways ahead of its time. Take the newspeak as an example. You could argue this is in many ways similar to the internet speak we have adopted. But that's not what I really think about when I read the book. Its the way the government has its claws in every aspect of your personal life. And while 1984 paints a considerably bleaker picture than what we already have, its still scary to think just how much of our lives can be observed without our knowledge.

Will there ever come a day when there will be a camera in everyone's  house that can be viewed at any time by persons unknown to us, its hard to imagine it, but there are people out there that listen to your phone calls so perhaps its not as far fetched as we like to think.

In any case, that's not the thing that really bothers me, ok so people watching your life is unthinkably scary, but not being able to hold the hand of a woman you love in plain view, or even in your own home. That really scares the shit out of me. The loss of control, the inability to say and do as your feel fills me with a cold dread, and you have to wonder would we even see it coming. We slowly concede more and more liberties and one day we might wake up and realise they are all gone, and we did nothing to stop it.