On the 75th Anniversary of Orwell's '1984', Five Predictions From The Book That Came True

Big Brother Watch on the case

75 years ago, George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ was published. In the book, writing became the ultimate act of subversion and we started to see that happening in real life during the pandemic. Fortunately, enough people fought back and a few places, such as Substack, remained where we could express our opinions.

Professor Jean Seaton, Director of The Orwell Foundation, said:

“In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell posed the most terrifying of all questions: could people be brought to really believe (rather than merely pretend to believe) the lies they are told? Seventy-Five years later we are at the start of a roller-coaster experiment with our minds as we battle, rather feebly, to manage the information technologies that already do much to control us and our societies, alongside the resurgence of authoritarianism”.

The pandemic certainly showed us that people could be brought to really believe the lies that they were told.

Big Brother Watch, a non-party British civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation, does a stellar job at holding authorities to account. To celebrate ‘1984’s birthday they have produced a list of five predictions, that Orwell made, that seem all too familiar today.

5. The Telescreen - Everyone in 1984 is required to have a television set in their home. It pumps out state propaganda and watches and listens everything they do. There was no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. Today a vast surveillance network system monitors and tracks you. Your phone and smart tech records every decision you make and archives it.

   CCTV watches you wherever you are and now live facial recognition is tracking your movements.

4. Ministry of Truth - This state department manipulates and alters facts and information to serve the interest of The Party. “Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past”.

   During the pandemic, the UK Government’s secretive counter-disinformation unit was monitoring and recording opposition to government policies. Politicians, the press and the public should all be free to scrutinise the Government, without their speech being logged in government reports.

3. Thought Police - A thought crime, in 1984, is the act of thinking outside the limits of what is accepted by The Party. The Thought Police stamp this out and crack down on freedom of thought. Now, government’s are finding novel ways to police dissent through obscure technologies, for example, cutting off their banking.

   What we spend our money on offers deep insights into who we are and what we think. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will allow anyone with access to see what we have spent our money on or stop us spending if we go against government policy.

2. Big Brother - This totalitarian leader created fear and enforced discipline through constant surveillance. Digital ID could have one of the biggest Big Brother surveillance effects on our society. They can be used for mass surveillance, to curb liberties and to shape people’s decisions.

   Tied with facial recognition, digital ID would mark a whole new era of surveillance by getting rid of any privacy we have left.

1. Newspeak - The regime used newspeak to restrict freedom of thought and control the population. The language is used to hide the truth by creating false realities which serve to confuse and censor the public. This is happening today under the guise of public safety. In reality, public safety is used for state overreach.

“1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual but so much of Orwell’s writing rings true today”.

Can you think of any more predictions from 1984 that have come true?