'1984' Revisited and Re-Imagined

In 1947, a man named Eric Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, started a novel entitled “1984.”

He described the novel in his own words as “a most dreadful mess.” This novel was published in 1949, the year I was born. Happy birthday to me!

This novel was also made into a movie that I watched on television this past year. Eric Blair had a vision of things to come and at the same time a reminder of things that already had come. He saw not only the possibility but the reality of the nature of the human desire to dominate other humans by the occupying of their minds. Big Brother and the Thought Police were exposed as the greatest enemies of mankind. Every action and thought of mankind was police by Big Brother by cameras, hidden and conveniently placed. What man ate, what he thought, what he did every moment of the day was monitored and controlled. Even sex was frowned upon and considered criminal by Big Brother.

The year 1984 has come and gone. Big Brother and the Thought Police haven’t established themselves as depicted in the novel. After all, this novel was fictional, right? Or was Orwell’s timing too early? Should the novel be entitled “2021” instead? Are we finally seeing the beginning of the Big Brother and thought police era? And are we too late to change the future before it happens? We we really want to live out the novel “1984” in 2021 or sometime in the immediate future?

Just asking.