How "1984" Will Save You Years of Research | An (Audio)book Recommendation

In alternative media circles the book 1984 is often referred to as 'dystopian roadmap' for where our society is headed. We read about "Orwellian" measures being put into place and we are often warned about the "levels of present-day surveillance even Orwell himself could not have dreamed of".

After a while I found out that a lot of people who mention 1984 often have never actually read it. Many assume to know the story and its ramifications solely from what they have heard, and some have seen the movie which is a grotesque oversimplification of the story and its gruesome societal details... but ever since getting into the book for myself I have found no comparable crash course in learning about the propaganda mechanisms of our society.

And in case you are not a bookworm... there's an audiobook!

One book to save you years of research

It might be a fictional story, it might have been written under different pretenses (factoring in Orwell's odd connections) but when it comes to learning how a society under complete government control would turn out there is no better angle then the truly hellish vision Orwell has delivered here.

We learn about the established mechanisms (the new defaults) of a mind-control society and we slowly get a feel for the fine intricacies of a world where surveilleance has become the norm and is no longer up for debate unless you want to die.

Children have been utterly swallowed by the media mind control and get medals for outing even their own parents' "strange thoughts" to the authorities. Trust has become but a dim memory for those old enough to remember it, and as readers we are thoroughly sucked into a world and its bleak outlook for humanity that paints a picture worth years of research in our contemporary society.

You might think it's depressing but in the long run I feel many of these scenarios won't have to play out in "the real world" if we make use of the luxury to treat it as a fictional "what-if scenario" that we can explore through the story without recreating it by accident through our own ignorance.

Normalizing the inhumane

Many examples in the book serve as reminders how the control-society is constantly under psychological attack through narrative manipulation and the willingness of even the smartest people to become part of the machine that subdues anyone and anything. We get to experience how resistance can be fostered and how a true control structure is always keen on undermining or even instigating many "alternative narratives" in order to retain complete control over society's few aware members on the search for the truth.

We get to experience the shift of mind by some characters who had belonged to the control structure all their life but eventually remember that human beings are not supposed to live under constant threat of imprisonment or death for speaking their minds. And the bitterness that comes from a realization that came too late in order to change things for the better.

We get to taste the despair of a society that has long surpassed the point of hope for a return to egalitarian ways of daily conduct.

Government narratives are constantly changed on purpose and the people have become used to the theme that the present message of the government will always be closer to the truth than what the people themselves remember the truth to be.

We get to hear about the controller's bottom line motivations to enslave their own society and why it has become the goal of power itself to seek power for its own sake.

In short, reading or listening to 1984 may greatly sharpen your awareness to pick up on all sorts of manipulation tactics authorities and media outlets in our societies use on a daily basis under the pretense of educating the public, when in actuality they are building and maintaining a fictional worldview.

Familiar patterns

Whenever I hear a political speech nowadays memories of the book jump right back into my awareness and the similarity of the patterns is immense! Having grasped the vision of 1984 will train your discernment greatly, will give you the luxury of analysing the most established notions of our society with courage and strength and make any official narrative reveal its hidden motivations quickly.

You are no longer of victim of big words like "democracy" and "freedom", as you are now familiar with the ministry of truth and its operations.

You no longer trust a narrative claiming to be "the resistance" just because it is called that. You look deeper, you learn to discern shiny packaging from actual content, you ask questions that need to be asked. A slogan is no longer enough for you because you have discovered that words are coined by people with vested interests in order to foster a certain effect in society, and that society will often just run with such terms without discerning what nefarious agenda they might actually be serving.

You develop a keen sense about how unanimously promoted technologies can ultimately become such essential parts of our lives that getting rid of them will not be easy for most people, even when they see that these devices are slowly beginning to be used for nefarious purposes and the people's own enslavement. We learn how humanity can become enslaved by its own tools and methodologies without ever quite noticing it.

So in all honesty, if you haven't read 1984 go get a used copy today, it will be totally worth your time. You may also find the book online as a free ebook due to its age. Just search "1984 pdf" on a search engine of your choice.

I am not a huge fan of reading books as my focus tends to shift too quickly when I read. Fortunately the audiobook of 1984 has long been made available on youtube and is a real pleasure to get into, especially if you are out and about a lot or want someone else to read to you.

Our society is headed towards a cliff, and the control mechanisms are amped up significantly these days. In the spirit of being prepared and finding a way out, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any freethinker and researcher out there, and have hereby done so for my awesome Steemit community.

Dig in, you will not be disappointed!

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