| There is a lot of theories about the intentions of George Orwell when writing the book "1984". Maybe he identified London and the labor party in 1948 after the war. Maybe he represented the communism, the fascism, the nazism or, who knows, he could be even doing a forecast. In my opinion these theories are irrelevant before the problems approached by him, which we live concretely through the perversions of the power (today and in any time). The title itself could be 1964 or 1999, because more than a forecast, the theme is a confirmation, since, in my seeing, some of the subjects approached in the book prove my opinion, as bellow: - control of the individual, - invasion of the individual privacy, - the people's memory annulment, - changing the meaning of words, - people's transformation in no human beings. In function of those conclusions, I decided to do an analogy of the Orwell's work with the nowadays society, in a series of pictures that shows the inertia of the society that permits be manipulated, through the force, by the holders of the power. In this analogy, I painted the people with the faces faceted, to show the human being robotization, who does not question the impositions of the social and political systems and, because of that, they are indirectly responsible for the inconsequencies practiced by their rulers, which are represented in the pictures by the words written in the signs of the stores. Picture IV Picture V Picture VI Picture VII Picture VIII The subjects above mentioned can be exemplified as below: CONTROL OF THE INDIVIDUAL The official organs of information, even of the most "democratic" countries like USA, have complete reports about the actions of many individuals of the society, in a form of "invisible control". Another example of this kind of control happens in Miami, where boxes exist with cameras of internal circuit spread by the streets of intense trade. However, at least, half of the box is empty and because people ignore such fact, they react as if they were being watched. It can be said that it is the beginning of the watched freedom. Already the "relative democracies" of the third world implant the delation in all of the social levels, sacrificing even the innocent ones. Few have courage to help their partners or who suffered injustice, because behind the delation there are the torture and the terror, whose function is to change and to control the conscience of everybody in order to get social "peace". These "democracies" maintain thought's police that, through the totalitarian propaganda and other artifices, control even the illustrious people's opinion. INVASION OF THE INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY Usually, as I mentioned above, the governments possess several information about the behavior of "suspicious" individuals using, among other means, the electronic, the computer science and the mail violation. THE PEOPLE´S MEMORY ANNULMENT One of the means to annul the memory of a nation is the changing of the facts of its history. It is known about the existence of several altered pictures, as much in Soviet Union and China as in western countries, where influential people in the government were extinguished by photographic artifices, because they have turned "personas non gratas", just remaining the official version not the fact. Frequently, encyclopedias and books are altered, annulling or camouflaging the facts with official versions and words' games. Nowadays, the daily history is already done with alterations, by the announcement of facts subtly deformed, according to the official intentions of each country, or government. If the alterations above are made easily, what could be made in electronic libraries whose we are so close? CHANGING THE MEANING OF WORDS Another very common practice of power perversion is the changing of the meaning of words. In the dictatorial regimes it is enough to baptize the despotism as democracy to act arbitrarily against the society. In Algeria, the word "pacification", meant for the French, war and genocide of the people, as well as in Vietnam for the Americans. Intellectual independence in the Soviet Union means mental disease and, in certain countries the unemployed people are called "people in search of job". Who knows, what will come next. NON HUMAN BEINGS For us, Brazilian, the "non beings" could be identified as the seniors, retired people, unemployed people, immigrants without permission to work, Northeastern migrants, black of low income, beggars and so many other. That is because they do not have the basic rights respected. Concluded this series of works, I see that the theme continues extrapolating my studies and unfolding itself in time through new ideas and plans... December/1984 Walter L. L. Miranda Back to texts |
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