If only George Orwell could see us now
What would George Orwell think if he could come back to life now? In his hugely influential dystopian novel 1984, Orwell extrapolated from trends he could see in his own times (the book was published in 1949) to imagine where these trends might take the world in the future. A future where the world’s nations coalesced into three main blocs; the presumed Anglosphere of Oceania, the possibly Russian dominated Eurasia and the possibly China-centric Eastasia. Oceania was ruled by “Big Brother”, a figurehead who demanded total loyalty from all citizens in deed, word and even thought…