1984 #5

In 1949, George Orwell wrote the novel 1984, as both a prediction and a warning of what society can become. He had visions that are very accurate of what society could become but at the same time, he was completely wrong in other aspects. Despite all his predictions, the room for society to ultimately become what he predicted is still there. A lot can change in a few years. Revolts can suddenly begin and turn Orwell's warning into a reality.

Orwell's predicition of how the facts can be manipulated is accurate in today's society. In the novel, they basically lied about the history of Oceania to prevent the people from learning what it was like before the Revolution. In today's society, facts are still being manipulated. Whether it be the government hiding the facts and creating coverups or whether it be the media, taking something totally out of context and spinning it to hurt the person who said it. Either way you look at it, the facts out there are still not one hundred percent true. I think that Orwell's most accurate prediciton was the different classes in society. In both the novel and today's society, the group with the most power is a small group that governs the country. The group with the least power is the majority. They make up most of the population but still have little power when it comes to the rules on which we live by. The small group at the top is often self-centered due to the fact that they only look for their well being and not of what is in the best interest of the people. Another similarity is the telescreens and the Patriot Act. The telescreens made it possible for the government to monitor the people's every moves while the Patriot Act made it legal for the government to listen to people's phone conversations. Both take away freedom from the person.

Orwell also had a couple of misses when it came to his predicitions. Especially on the language. He thought that the vocabulary would shrink in order to limit what people say but as we know that is not the case in today's society. People are trying to learn new languages and trying to become very diverse because they are interested in other people's cultures. His biggest miss was saying that we would lose our humanity. That is not the case at all as people are still falling in love and getting married everyday. People openly share their emotions with others and are still expressing who they really are, rather than being controlled by someone or something.

While some of Orwell's visions are fairly accurate, there are others that are not even close. But still, this allows us to see the vision that a man had sixty years ago. The potential for is predictions will always be there as one cannot predict what society will do tomorrow.