Number 4 on the list is Orwell's classic work "1984". I read Orwell's "Animal Farm" in high school but missed this great work. First off, I love a good dystopian future book or movie, "Children of Men," "Blade Runner," "A Brave New World" are some of my favorites. "1984" didn't disappoint my desire to entire a hopeless world. The world of "1984" is run by an entity known as Big Brother, an unknown, ominous figure who controls everything in society via a group of people known simply as The Party. The story centers on Winston Smith, a government employee, tasked with the job of altering historical documents to reflect the government's current ideologies and pursuits. Winston suspects that something is not right in this world and the reader follows him on this road of discovery as to the true nature of his reality.
Winston's story kept my attention from page 1. His discontentment with the world around him and his feelings of powerlessness were highly relatable. I enjoyed his emotional development from a nagging discontentment to rebellion to discovery to...well you'll have to read it to find out what happens. (I hate spoilers)
Orwell created a complete world for Winston to live in, and went to great lengths to help the reader understand the complexity of this world. Almost the first third of the book is devoted to painting the landscape of life under the rule of the Party. I loved that the Party's ideologies could be distilled to 3 slogans:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
I loved this because we live in a world where a good marketing campaign is sometimes all you need to create change. This is unfortunately true of the Church. As one who identifies himself with the teachings of Christ, I see how the Church jumps onto slogans and bandwagons rather joyfully to avoid having to think deeply or act wisely on issues. Which leads me to the most relevant of the 3 slogans, "Ignorance is strength". This idea which Orwell addresses so well in the book challenges me.
As with any piece of art my first question is, "Does it communicate something truthful?" I have to overwhelmingly say that this slogan definitely communicates truth, not a pleasant truth, but a truth within our culture nevertheless. We as a society would rather be told what to think than think for ourselves, we subconsciously desire to remain ignorant on issues. We want to do and believe whatever our political, religious and educational system leaders tell us. I can say this because I've been there and still struggle with this issue. For half of my life I was told by well-meaning people that I can only read one, archaic translation of the Bible, that wearing shorts and thus revealing my scrawny, pasty white legs would lead countless women to adulterous thoughts, and that mere attendance at church gatherings equaled a life of holiness. Like many around me, I didn't question those and other ideas out of fear. For many years my ignorance was a source of strength, I knew it all and no one could tell me different. Then I began a journey like Winston's. Except I moved away, I began to read things for myself, think for myself, standing on my own, believing what I believed because I knew why I believed it. As Dylan puts it, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." In the eyes of many, I became weak. I realized that life is complex, ancient texts are complex, people are complex, God is complex and to pretend that I understand all of those parts of my life and the cosmos is a fool's game. To me that's not ignorance it's a humble acceptance of the truth, the truth that I'm one guy, I don't have all the answers, and I'm trying to figure this out as best as I can with the time I have.
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