Changes

Orwell was influenced by Jack London's novel ''[[The Iron Heel]]'', and Yevgeny Zamyatin's ''[[We]]''.  The ideas of the American [[conservative]] James Burnham were especially influential in shaping the political situation described in the book.

Orwell was influenced by Jack London's novel ''[[The Iron Heel]]'', and Yevgeny Zamyatin's ''[[We]]''.  The ideas of the American [[conservative]] James Burnham were especially influential in shaping the political situation described in the book.

Though Orwell was deeply critical of communism, 1984 is not meant to be taken as a condemnation of all left-of-center ideologies, as evidenced by a quote from one of his essays: "My recent novel [Nineteen Eighty-Four] is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the [[British Labour Party]] (of which I am a supporter) but as a show-up of the perversions ... which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism. ...The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasize that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere."<ref>''The Collected Essays: Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 4,'' p. 546 </ref>

Though Orwell was deeply critical of communism, 1984 was not intended as a condemnation of all forms of [[socialism]], as evidenced by a quote from one of his essays: "My recent novel [Nineteen Eighty-Four] is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the [[British Labour Party]] (of which I am a supporter) but as a show-up of the perversions ... which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism. ...The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasize that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere."<ref>''The Collected Essays: Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 4,'' p. 546 </ref>

The book is, at its heart, in fact a condemnation of the ultra-liberal menace that arose in Europe at his time. In keeping with the steady move to a more conservative worldview he began before writing 1984, he uses the book to attack the intrusiveness and arrogance of big government. 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. 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.

The book is, at its heart, in fact a condemnation of the ultra-liberal menace that arose in Europe at his time. In keeping with the steady move to a more conservative worldview he began before writing 1984, he uses the book to attack the intrusiveness and arrogance of big government. 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. 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.