1984

Just a simple essay I wrote up in high school about the most dull, but most fascinating novel I've ever read.

“Freedom is Slavery” - Nineteen Eighty-Four

Life of mankind is all from the mistakes we have made. From the horrors of World War Two to the scientific theory of Darwin, it is proven that men are always bound to mistakes and to advance, men must make mistakes. Mistakes are what drives us and what warps us into the beings we are today. George Orwell with his novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, hits dead on the basic nature of human beings. The year 1949, when he wrote his novel, is the very year the Cold War and the Iron Curtain engulfed the world and a nuclear war was imminent. Even though the Second World War was a mere half a decade ago, it seems men once again did not fully learn the mistakes of war and aggression. Orwell on the other hand fully understood the concept of mistakes and how not to make them. He was able to penetrate into the future with the observations he had made and came up with this.

“Freedom is Slavery”

Though in his novel it is used as propaganda by the antagonist faction to reduce the population into thinking that having too much liberty is restraining, as of today, it is an irony. The freedom of thought, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of doing as one pleases is now destroying the very thing men practice and enjoy, freedom. Freedom of speech has created the opportunity for men to express themselves as they wish. On the other hand, men may now preach the speech of hate against another individual all under the name of freedom. It is very possible that Orwell knowingly made the very quote for an evil communist regime of his time and at the same time for a mostly democratic world of today. This means the idea of freedom, which millions of men and women had died trying to raise and protect, is self destructing. Men learn from their mistakes, but the rate of comprehension varies.

The Theory of Evolution of Darwin has shown again and again that men are not so different from other creatures even with all their morals and ethics. When an animal finds no need for a particular object, whether it be their fangs or the weakest of their kind, animals will abandon it: the survival of the most adaptable. Men also try to abandon the negative drag. When the world saw the horrors of genocide and war crimes, the United Nations was formed to fight it. When men saw the need for freedom for all individuals, they laid their lives down for it. However, there is a new generation who hasn’t seen the horrors of genocide, the horrors of war crimes, nor had to fight for their rights and freedom.

The new generation does not understand what had to be taken away to obtain the freedom. Abuse and rape of the concept is far and wide in the modern world. One protesting another’s idea turns violent and results in injury and death such as the ones at the G8 summits. Religious men and women show up at funerals of dead soldiers and picket, claiming they “died for fags.” Many politicians or even ordinary people will say and do anything to destroy the reputation, respect, and integrity of other honorable men just to feed off from the popularity. Freedom is no longer freedom. As Orwell said, “freedom is slavery.” Again, men have made the mistake of giving out freedom liberally to those who do not understand the value of it.

A novel, Starship Troopers by Robert Anson Heinlein, depicts the idea that voting is only reserved for the “citizens” in the future. To become a “citizen,” all one must do is to serve in the armed forces for a set period of time. Juxtaposing this idea to the modern world would sound like a military dictatorship, but because men seem to have made a mistake, in the future, it is very likely freedom won’t be so free. Heinlein states that although the freedom of speech and freedom of thought is mostly retained, only those who know the price of freedom may vote. Orwell would’ve agreed and I would agree no less.

Evolution changes men and men learn from change. Freedom is certainly an ideal which is glamorous and beautiful, but nothing is free in this world. The past has taught men that freedom is important equally to all of mankind, but at the same time, men had made more mistakes. The new generation who hasn’t seen the horrors and treachery must know the price it took or all the million of lives lost would count for nothing. There is no other reason why Nineteen Eighty-Four, though it’s one of the dullest novels I read, it’s my favorite. Like an engineer, Orwell has dissected and rebuilt the brains of not only men in his days and the men of today. One day, I hope I can be at least as half of him.