Modern day Britain and 1984.

Matematik   Sun May 23, 2010 9:07 am GMT
Modern day Britain is worrying close to the Britain that George Orwell described in 1984. Prehaps many people who say this are scare-mongers, but I feel there are definately striking parrallels. Political correctness is essentially discouraging people from having an opinion, in the eyes of a PC government, your views on controversial issues are expected to be the views of the state, and anyone who's views do not come in line with the state is deemed to be poltically INCORRECT. That to me is a very worrying phrase, it suggests that ones opinions on something are INCORRECT, invalid, derranged, delusional and in need of re-education. We are also being encouraged to use different language and think about the language we use as not to offened anyone, we always think about politically correct language, and anyone who uses un-PC language gets looked at funny, isolated or even reported to the government (race relations board, etc). This is quote similar to the reaction of people in 1984 when someone uses language that does not come in line with Newspeak.

If anyone does have an opinion which is too out of sync with the offical government position on the subject then this is classified as thought crime, sorry, HATE crime. Anyone who is accused of hate crime will appear before a court, and for the most serious of hate speech will be sentenced to a lengthy jail term for daring to deviate from the official government opinion on the matter.

One other strong parrallel is the citizens of Britain are extremely complacent to the system, or prehaps do not even realise what sort of system the are living in. The majority of British people seem to have a positive view on PC and what is now effectly a police state where you have to be careful what you say to people in fear of arrest. British people often praise what a free country they live in, but I suppose if your thought is the same as the government's, then you are free. British people seem to agree that people who think un-PC thoughts don't deserve freedom.
observer   Sun May 23, 2010 9:31 am GMT
Add to that the surveillance cameras every five metres and you really see the magnitude of it. The Brits don't seem to care about that either...
Carlos I de EspaƱa   Sun May 23, 2010 11:30 am GMT
Yeah, I agree absolutely.

You'll never hear for example how Britain has become a nation of lazy arrogant twits, even though is a reality that screams out by itself.

Whatever happened to the British tradition of criticizing themselves in order to humbly accept one mistakes and try to improve on that knowledge?

Or maybe there was never such a tradition, they just pretended to be that way, but when put to the test then they show their real selves ...