Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The ideas in this book are ones that are as appropriate now as when Orwell first wrote them. In this time (2001), we have our "Two Minutes Hate" with Osama bin Laden. Many of the principles that Orwell writes about (e.g., thought control) are done in a quite blatant way in the book. In the real world of the 20th/21st century they're done, only much more subtly. That way, we don't know they being perpetrated on us. Here's how 1984 applies to current events: WAR IS PEACE The new "War on Terrorism" is being sold as a guarantor or our safety. While this war is being waged, we're to accept permanent war as a fact of life. As the unavoidable slaughter of innocents unfolds overseas, we are told to go back to "living our lives." FREEDOM IS SLAVERY "Freedom itself was attacked," Bush said. He's right, though here's the twist: Americans are about to lose many of their most cherished freedoms in a frenzy of paranoid legislation. The government wants to tap our phones, read our email and seize our credit card records without court order. Further, it wants authority to detain and deport immigrants without cause or trial. To save freedom, we have to destroy it. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH America's "new war" against terrorism will be fought with unprecedented secrecy, including press restrictions not seen for years, the Pentagon has advised. When you read this book, you'll be better able to see the signs around you. The world portrayed by Orwell may well come to pass by the end of this century.