George Orwell's '1984'

On a thread it was asked how we chose our screen name. Mine is from the book George Orwell's, 1984.

'Winston Smith' is the protagonist who Big Brother tries to crush.

The book, along with George Orwell's Animal Farm, are required reading IMO for any JW/X-JW.

Actually, the book is a great insight into what can happen when individuals surrender their freedom to any high control group.

 

I just wanted to use this thread to post quotes from the book that I find pertinent to the WatchTower experience.

Any discussion RE: Orwell's warning of the future and high control groups is welcome.

 

A few good quotes to get started:

"Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self- destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.'"

How the WTS views itself above any individual desire and thought is well stated in the above quote.

Whatever the WTS views as truth is truth. There is no other way around it. And for an individual to deny that truth is insanity, a loss of faith in God. One must humble themselves and destroy themselves as an individual to relearn truth.

 

"Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. ?. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.'"

Suffrage on the WTS treadmill is needed. Just going in field service, answering at meetings, or going to conventions is not enough. One must suffer to obey. Suffer by knowing that you can always 'Do More'. You are never doing enough, you are never sure you will make it through the 'Big-A', you have never put in enough hours. And so one struggles in their minds, tearing themselves down and reshaping their own mind to fit the desired mold of the WTS.

Even in the 1000 years of Paradise, you can be snuffed out at any given moment. Just making it through the Big-A is not enough. And making it to the end of the 1000 years is still not enough, there will be more tests from Satan, where many will away and the number will be as the sands of the sea.

 

 

Loved this book!!!  Similarities were startling!!

1. References to THOUGHTCRIME: you don't even have to actually DO anything wrong to be condemned, just thinking about ,or  LOOKING     like you were thinking about something was a SIN

2.Everyone is always watching everyone else to make sure no one is doing or thinking something they shouldn't

3.KUDOS for anyone that turns in a BONAFIDE sinner

4.changing history that no one acknowledges : The alliance with Eurasia -We've always had an alliance with Eurasia and we've always been at war with Eastasia   /Two months later Nooo, we've always had an alliance with Eastasia and always been at war with Eurasia

5.Newspeak- having a Language within a language that immediately identifies Just how IN you are

6.Writing in the paper that there were demonstrations in the streets :

THANKING Big Brother for RAISING the chocolate ration to 20 grams per wk,(Yay to Big Brother)

where yesterday, they announced they were REDUCING the ration of chocolate to 20 grams per wk.     AND THEY BOUGHT IT NO QUESTIONS!!!!!

any of this sound familiar to those who haven't read the book? Ya need to read it because it gets better!!!!

Stephanie

 

No doubt.

I think that this book would be a safe book for "fence riding JW's" to read who may want to read something that gives insight into high-control groups but does nothing to directly attack the WTS.

Once a JW who has detected the hints of high-control ways of the WTS, reading this will open their eyes IMO.

 

BTW, I saw the movie on DVD this weekend.

I liked it, but IMO if anyone would view the movie who has not first read the book, they would miss the intended impact by Orwell.

 

After seeing the movie, I forgot how they would call each other 'brother'  or 'sister', another scary parallel.

"Hi brother, did you hear the good news? The chocolate rations have been raised to 25 grams. Doubleplus good!"

 

Wasn't Animal Farm a reaction to Stalinism? I tried to get my Chinese students to read Animal farm because they had a translation in the book stores there... what a world.

I understand it that way as well.

 

Here is a link to a page that does a good job of breaking down the book:

http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/go-animal_farm.html

And John Wyndham's the Chrysalids, gotta read that one too!

I read Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm when I was a teenager, but I still did not realise the "truth" was the Lie for years.

Still, there's not much hope for someone that would look up the date for the fall of Jerusalem and unthinkingly assume that the entire world of academia, history and theology had got it wrong and the WT had got it right...............

The Handmaid's Tale did provoke few intellectual twinges in me, but not enough to get me out.

I now have those on my 'to read' list

funny though, how works of fiction inspired some of us to begin thinking critically about the WTS. For me it was Frank Herbert's "Dune" series--especially Chapterhouse Dune.

In Dune, religions grow and fail, always seeking control of entire worlds by ensnaring the minds of people with less information. Those that question become outcasts and outlaws, and the few with good intentions who want to change from within either find they become outlaws too, or they will dismantle and destroy the entire system, taking all of its uncomprehending adherents with them.

Darwi Odrade (my screen name ) says:\

She kind of became my hero in thinking for myself. For the first time I realized that the reason so many young people go cuckoo and self-destruct when they leave the WTS is that they have no balance or morals... all they have is a code. And when the code fails them, they become destructive because they haven't developed any commonsense to fall back on.

Finally, how I feel about trying to engage a "true believer" among the Dubs:

How can one ever use either science OR logic with a fanatical JW? They have all of their responses pre-programmed--look at the Creation book. The manipulations are clear (to us) but simple (for them) so they always have a ready answer. And if they do not, they already have a mechanism in place that allows them to just reject the evidence out of hand as "man-made."

Thank dog for fiction!

Odrade

Odrade: Here, Here!!!! (and thunderous applause!)

BTW, Winston, look how much more people have to say about toilet paper than about books - surprised?

 

 

 

Me neither.

There are a lot of miserable-future books that have similar crosscurrents to what we experience as Witnesses and former Witnesses. 1984 is one excellent example. The Mosquito Coast is another that comes to mind. The power of books and free minds in an otherwise safe world: Farenheit 451.

I don't know if Animal Farm (or the often sited Brave New World) really work for me as analogies because they are different scenarios. Probably as many possibly dystopias to write about as they are utopias to wish for. But that's what the New World Society is, in the end, a dystopia.

 

 

Odrade, I ahve to add Dune to my must read book list.

Looking back, I have a REALLY good JW friend who has read this book and enjoyed it greatly. I wonder if he has allowed himself to equate Dune as you have with the WTS somewhere in his mind?

 

Fe2O3Girl

look how much more people have to say about toilet paper than about books - surprised? Me neither.

LOL!

When I made the two topics, I knew which one would get more replys.

 

But I do hope that a lurker would see this thread and then be moved to read the book based on my or other's comments.

Hopefully a more powerful end result if just one JW takes a step out of the high-control group of JW's after reading the book.

 

And I like that others have recommended similar books. Who knows what seeds will sprout in a repressed mind?

 

 

Probably as many possibly dystopias to write about as they are utopias to wish for.

git

Very true.

BTW, Farenheit 451 is another book I want to read.

Farenheit 451 is one of my all time favorites. I've read it many times, and love the steps that Montag goes through on his road to free-thought.

I love the comment Ray Bradbury makes about his book:

What better way to free a mind than lots of reading...and I don't mean automaton written crapola from the WT publishing corporation.

 

Personally I was a fan of big brother. I mean I didnt like the beatin up stuff, unless it had been a hot chick doin it or somethin. But I did like the things like newspeak, thoughtcrime, changing history and so on. Maybe because I could relate to it though.

But I really really am a fan of newspeak. The only language in history that is getting smalller and smaller. And it is an interesting concept that if you remove the ability to use words, to describe crime, then the ability to do it is removed....at least thoughtcrime I mean.

I read George Orwell's 1984 in college, and I immediately drew connections to the WTS.  Then about a year later, I came across a book by (Penton?), an ex-jw couple.  It was entitled "The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses."  Blew me away.  I knew I had to leave.  I think THAT'S a must read for any JW with serious concerns.

As to Animal Farm, I read that in high school.  Wasn't impressed.  I think it had more a political/socialist slant.  Too allegorical for me as well.