1984 and Philosophy: Is Resistance Futile?Ezio Di Nucci, Stefan Storrie Although the year 1984 is hurtling back into the distant past, Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four continues to have a huge readership and to help shape the world of 2084. Sales of Orwell’s terrifying tale have recently spiked because of current worries about alternate facts, post-truth, and fake news. 1984 and Philosophy brings together brand new, up-to-the-minute thinking by philosophers about Nineteen Eighty-Four as it relates to today’s culture, politics, and everyday life. Some of the thinking amounts to thoughtcrime, but we managed to sneak it past the agents of the Ministry of Truth, so this is a book to be read quickly before the words on the page mysteriously transform into something different. Who’s controlling our lives and are they getting even more levers to control us? Is truth objective or just made up? What did Orwell get right—and did he get some things wrong? Are social media opportunities for liberation or instruments of oppression? How can we fight back against totalitarian control? Can Big Brother compel us to love him? How does the language we use affect the way we think? Do we really need the unifying power of hate? Why did Orwell make Nineteen Eighty-Four so desperately hopeless? Can science be protected from poisonous ideology? Can we really believe two contradictory things at once? Who surveils the surveilors? |
Contents
NonState Enemies of Freedom | |
Excerpt on the Strategic Use of Fallacious | |
Big Brother | |
JASON MATTHEW BUCHANAN | |
The Seduction of Winston Smith | |
Happy in Oceania? | |
Bad Faith and MakeBelieve | |
Through a Telescreen Darkly | |
Thoughtcrime or Feelingcrime? | |
Nineteen EightyFours Religion | |
Wheat Can Become Rye | |
Controlling Thought through Tweets | |
Love Truluv | |
When Cruelty Is Not Enough | |
No Crack in the Wall? | |
Hangings Shootings and Other Funny Stuff in 1984 | |
PostFactual Democracy | |
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Common terms and phrases
actually Adorno argument attention become believe Big Brother bureaucrats citizens claims create Crimestop cultural democracy democratic Doublethink duckspeak dystopian Edited emotions empathy enemy everything example exercise facts fear feel freedom Goldstein Goldstein’s book Hate human humor idea individual Ingsoc Inner Party intellectual interest language liberal live logic markedness mass surveillance means mind Ministry of Love Ministry of Truth Minutes Hate moral nature neoliberalism never Newsleep Newspeak Nineteen Eighty-Four novel O’Brien Oceania one’s opposites oppression Orwell Orwell’s Party members Party’s people’s person Philosophy political possible post-factual post-truth proles question rational reality reason religion Robert Arp scientists sense sexuality simply sleep social society someone Soviet speech Syme telescreens theory there’s things Thought Police thoughtcrime torture totalitarian totalitarian regime true Trump Twitter understand VOLUME what’s Winston and Julia Winston Smith words writing