Was George Orwell A Prophet?

Discussion in 'Philosophy & Psychology' started by Marie Mallery, Oct 1, 2023.

  1. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    He was right about where we were headed,

     
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  2. Julia Curtis

    Julia Curtis Very Well-Known Member
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    I am sorry to say that was way beyond my comprehension.:confused:
     
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  3. Don Roles

    Don Roles Well-Known Member
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    Several of Orwells novels were telling us where our political world was headed way before his time at the end of the second world war and we seem to be heading there even faster today....!
    If you get a chance Julia read it and his novel titled 1984 IF you want to see where our world is headed!
     
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  4. Julia Curtis

    Julia Curtis Very Well-Known Member
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    I'll look for that Mr.Roles.I don't know that I'll understand it,but I'll give it a go.:)
     
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  5. Lambert Regenlöf

    Lambert Regenlöf Well-Known Member
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    The descriptions of Winston Smith's living quarters, smell of cabbage, food rationing, "Victory" products like gin (or, with the allies, "Victory gardens"), careful rewriting of history, adulation of wartime political leadership (Churchill, FDR, Stalin, DeGaul), hatred of enemies, fear of spies, counter-espionage, bombed areas, and much else, were a clear description of the London of ... 1948! 48, 84.

    In a way, Orwell was extending the worst aspects of a war society into a future society in which those aspects, under the excuse of war necessities, have grown almost to perfection.
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    There are lots of dystopian authors who understood the nature of humans, orders of societies, the hunger for power, and the desire to have others controlled. That was the type of sci fi I've read tons of. What's happening these days is kind of familiar to me for having read so many of their writings.

    Orwell and others were insightful. I don't know if that makes them prophets.
     
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  7. Richard Whiting

    Richard Whiting Very Well-Known Member
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    I don't know much about the writings of George Orwell, but I'm sure H. G. Wells was a prophet. In 1913-1914 H. G. Wells wrote a book called "A World Set Free" in which he wrote about atomic bombs. Mind you, that was 26 years before the 1st atomic bomb was created by the Manhatten Project. And it was not until 1938 that German chemists first caused nuclear fission. in their lab.

    How Wells ever came up with the idea of nuclear bombs is a big mystery.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 10, 2023

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