just about everyone I've ever known has had to read 1984. in high school i had to read that and animal farm. if someone does believe in the theory that people are being dumbed down in public schools, maybe the reason students are made to read these books is to paint a picture for them of what could absolutely never happen (lol). for the record i went to high school in south carolina.

A curricular fixture

George Orwell was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. 1984 is his best-known work but not necessarily his best: read Animal Farm, Coming Up for Air, Burmese Days and The Road to Wigan Pier to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of his work.

1984 does not 'expose the NWO agenda'. It is a warning and a polemic against totalitarianism, in particular the regime of Joseph Stalin.

Orwell, a former Communist, was disillusioned and disgusted by the turn events had taken in the USSR under Stalin. He was further infuriated by the fact that British leftists continued to support the Soviet dictator even after it became clear how much Stalin oppressed the people of the Soviet Union and dictated terms to the Communist Internationale. Orwell wrote 1984 partly in reaction against all that.

However, he was wise enough to see that totalitarianism, not Communism itself, was the ultimate enemy of freedom. He was writing in 1948 (he just reversed the last two digits of that year to get his title), when memories of Hitler and the highly efficient Nazi apparatus of tryanny were still very fresh. There's a lot of Nazism in 1984, especially in the Goebbelsian invention of Newspeak. In 1984, Orwell exposes the workings of this totalitarian apparatus and describes its effects on ordinary people.

Both 1984 and Animal Farm have been fixtures on secondary-school curricula all over the world since the 1960s at least. They are books that educate young people on politics and civics, in particular on freedom and the various threats to which it is vulnerable. They are placed on the curriculum by educationists who want, like the rest of us, to see a better future for our children.

i've just finished year 12 and would you believe for the english subject, we had 1984.......we had talks in class about our points of view on it, and how it might be possibly happening now.....eg cameras everywhere

Yes at my school we are required to read 1984, and Anthem. They both great books. I think its great we read it. The books expose us to conspiracy and opens our eyes. If anything this does not promote a big brother society, it actually prevents one. In class everyone's opinion is negative towards the big brother type society.

i know, most school show that stuff to promote anti communist ideas.

De-sensitizing the population , one classic at a time.

Listen to the news and inocuous things get comments from vapid reporters "Sounds like something out of 1984"

"A gas station gets security cameras installed that can see cars stopped at the intersection, wow Mary Von Wunderslut. That sounds like something right out of 1984."

"Sure does, Pablo Del Reado-newso."

But then you get, "The Orlando Police Department has installed cameras at all intersections in the metro area and on various heavily trafficked walkways. Captain Political Appointee of OPD says 'we hope that this will act as a deterrent to criminals and redlight runners.' It makes me feel safer already, back to you Julie Von Huffensnatch."

So a gas station getting security cameras is like 1984. Well I guess 1984 was not so bad. We live in America. It could never get like that anyway..

or

Oh, we live in Britain in 1980. We are a free Anglo nation. The idea that we would have cameras watching us 24 hours a day everywhere we go is rubbish..... this Great Britain for chrissakes! It could never happen here!

The truth has been mangled in so much disinfo I believe the gov't doesn't really care what's put out. Why bother denying something when the masses will argue amongest themselves over it? Just easier to say "I don't know" and let the public go wild with imagination, that's enough of a screen.

[edit on 22-12-2007 by Tomis_Nexis]