On yesterday and Orwell,
Younger, I wondered what a citizen of a communist country would think reading "Animal Farm". As I read the allegory from an outsider point of view, everything seemed abstract, distant, impossible, funny. They did not have the book, could not have that reference for their own reality. That day-to-day was theirs, and even if they did not like it, they were embedded in that. I never discussed with anyone from an eastern block country that had read the book, but I suspect that fiction was as foreign to them as their reality was to me.
After 9/11, a disfunctional world became suddenly closer to us all. The countdown to "1984" started, as every year, every month, we discovered the big eyes and ears from governements. The simple put question of the balance between freedom and security was abused. There is no easy answer of course, and I remembered my meditations about "Animal Farm" and communist citizens. Even if it is in front of our noses, we still reason as there is a separate world called "1984" that is not the one we live in.
After the attack to Charlie Hebdo yesterday, I got this feeling that dystopia got us. I learned today of the open declaration of hostilities between Anonymous and Islamist Fundamentalist. A global gang war is coming to age, hackers against terrorists, and suddenly we are in a different world. I relate more and more to that communist citizen that could not refer to Animal Farm. At the end, we will get used to this brave new world, and I don't see any Orwell to lay it bare.
Younger, I wondered what a citizen of a communist country would think reading "Animal Farm". As I read the allegory from an outsider point of view, everything seemed abstract, distant, impossible, funny. They did not have the book, could not have that reference for their own reality. That day-to-day was theirs, and even if they did not like it, they were embedded in that. I never discussed with anyone from an eastern block country that had read the book, but I suspect that fiction was as foreign to them as their reality was to me.
After 9/11, a disfunctional world became suddenly closer to us all. The countdown to "1984" started, as every year, every month, we discovered the big eyes and ears from governements. The simple put question of the balance between freedom and security was abused. There is no easy answer of course, and I remembered my meditations about "Animal Farm" and communist citizens. Even if it is in front of our noses, we still reason as there is a separate world called "1984" that is not the one we live in.
After the attack to Charlie Hebdo yesterday, I got this feeling that dystopia got us. I learned today of the open declaration of hostilities between Anonymous and Islamist Fundamentalist. A global gang war is coming to age, hackers against terrorists, and suddenly we are in a different world. I relate more and more to that communist citizen that could not refer to Animal Farm. At the end, we will get used to this brave new world, and I don't see any Orwell to lay it bare.
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