Today I was reminded that the novel 1984 exists. I was also reminded of its plot, and its proposition of a single, monolithic-eternal world order, propagated by an unimpeachable oligarchy which ruled with an iron fist over its people's minds, souls and hearts. It presents a remarkably pessimistic outlook on the outcome of the human condition, offering a world where privacy is a myth, brutality is exalted, and suffering perfected by means of an ultimate apparatus of governance whose tendrils reach into its citizens at every level...
Except it doesn't. The chief problem with 1984 is that it was written in a time when the full consequences of human activity on Earth were not fully grasped. The universe, while incalculably more vast in the minds of everyone alive at the time, still FELT small, and static. But then came the moon landings. Then came mass extinctions. Then came climate change. While it is a poor substitute for a happy ending, I like to think that for all it's supposed invincibility, the Party of the novel cannot last. This is not because of some universal force of justice. No, the simple answer is that time will consume the Party. Time and space and simple physics. Eurasia, Oceania, and Eastasia; they'll all end, one way or another, because the simple fact is that nothing is permanent. Time runs out. George Orwell didn't know about climate change. He didn't think about the cost of constant warfare to maintain the lie of the Party's false reality. More than that, he didn't think about disruptive technologies. How is a state like INGSOC supposed to progress when all scientific progress is controlled by a single body (much less one with likely no grasp of the principles behind science)? How is innovation supposed to occur? 1984 seems hopeless and disheartening, and it absolutely has much to teach us about the dangers of authoritarianism...but like much science-fiction, its is a thought experiment, displaying features and qualities that circumstances that rely on a limited vision of the universe, fixed in time. These past years have not left me hopeful about the fate of our species. Nor have they given me much confidence that things will be better tomorrow than they are today. My generation will stand to lose much because of our own apathy, and the insufferable, self-inflicted stupidity of those that came before us. But I do take heart that the universe is not static. And that while it is sad that nothing is permanent, sometimes it is also good. No dictator is immortal. No empire is eternal. And no matter what groups like INGSOC or their real-world counterparts think, there are some truths that you cannot outrun.
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