Changes

The book is, at its heart, a condemnation of the ultra-liberal menace that arose and threatened Europe during his time. The fictional Oceanic dictatorship is the logical extreme of the liberal attitude towards government Orwell saw creeping in around him, both at home and abroad. The breakdown and perversion of home and family ties, the eradication of religion to make room for secular cult worship, the manipulation of language and history to suit the agenda of the day, and the use of deliberate economic strangulation in order to ensure compliance in the population were all tactics that Orwell predicted would come into play should an ultra-liberal government arise. One need only examine the regimes of [[Stalin]] and [[Kim Jong Il]] to see examples of Orwell-type dictatorships; atheism and state-worship forcibly substituted for religion, the deliberate starvation of all but the most elite members of society, even Orwell's nightmarish vision of sons spying on their parents for the state came true in the Soviet Union, and still persists in North Korea. Thus he uses the book to attack the intrusiveness and arrogance of [[big government]].

The book is, at its heart, a condemnation of the ultra-liberal menace that arose and threatened Europe during his time. The fictional Oceanic dictatorship is the logical extreme of the liberal attitude towards government Orwell saw creeping in around him, both at home and abroad. The breakdown and perversion of home and family ties, the eradication of religion to make room for secular cult worship, the manipulation of language and history to suit the agenda of the day, and the use of deliberate economic strangulation in order to ensure compliance in the population were all tactics that Orwell predicted would come into play should an ultra-liberal government arise. One need only examine the regimes of [[Stalin]] and [[Kim Jong Il]] to see examples of Orwell-type dictatorships; atheism and state-worship forcibly substituted for religion, the deliberate starvation of all but the most elite members of society, even Orwell's nightmarish vision of sons spying on their parents for the state came true in the Soviet Union, and still persists in North Korea. Thus he uses the book to attack the intrusiveness and arrogance of [[big government]].

Despite it condemning totalitarian-style governments, however, some leftists often use the book as a means to promote the exact same hard left policies that Orwell himself tried to condemn, even using the book's descriptions to condemn traditional governments as being "authoritarian" while promoting groups and concepts that were far closer in nature of the Oceanic dictatorship in the book. Examples of this include George Lucas, who claimed he was "a 1984 kind of guy" as well as being self-described as anti-authoritarian, yet at the same time had no qualms with supporting the Vietcong and basing the Rebels on them while basing the Empire on America; as well as the Wachowskis, who used symbolism for the book in the ''Matrix'' trilogy for the Machines, and in particular Agent Smith, yet had no qualms depicting the heroes as nihilistic terrorists.

Despite it condemning totalitarian-style governments, however, some leftists often use the book as a means to promote the exact same hard left policies that Orwell himself tried to condemn, even using the book's descriptions to condemn traditional governments as being "authoritarian" while promoting groups and concepts that were far closer in nature of the Oceanic dictatorship in the book. Examples of this include George Lucas, who claimed he was "a 1984 kind of guy" as well as being self-described as anti-authoritarian, yet at the same time had no qualms with supporting the Vietcong and basing the Rebels on them (with full awareness that the Vietcong were a terrorist group in reality)<ref>https://youtu.be/Nxl3IoHKQ8c</ref> while basing the Empire on America; as well as the Wachowskis, who used symbolism for the book in the ''Matrix'' trilogy for the Machines, and in particular Agent Smith, yet had no qualms depicting the heroes as nihilistic terrorists.

== Plot Summary ==

== Plot Summary ==