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Nineteen Eighty-Four the book
Has anyone read this book? I think it provides an interesting argument for the beauty of life in its ups and downs. What do you think of it since it conflicts with Buddha's teachings?
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My favorite book...I wonder if it does conflict? The main thought of the book is freedom. And i dont think that conflicts with Buddha's teachings. Freedom is just a quick way of summing it all up..theres more to it than that.
what is the conflict? i read it in high school and even acted in a theatrical version, but for the life of me, i can't think of any contradictions here... elaborate?
I imagine that quite a few of us have read it. I can still remember my reaction to that first sentence. It brings back even the smell of the pages. It must be over half-a-century ago but, from that moment, I was enthralled and my loathing for totalitarianism became visceral. At last I had a picture of what life might be like under such a regime and at perpetual war.
Result? A life defending civil liberties and passionately anti-war. It hasn't stopped me understanding how we may slide, gently, oh so gently, into loss of freedom and conflict, why we need to distrust our leaders before we trust them.
Does it conflict with the Buddha's teaching? I think not, not in the way that, say, Brave New World does. It paints a picture of what becomes of society when benevolence is lost, where solidarity with the disinherited has been eliminated, where all but an elite are those same disinherited, where war dominates the political and economic agenda, and violence and torture are used to impose the will of the strong on the weak. The lack of the medicine of Dr. Gotama in such a society is what enables the sickness to spread.
And, in the end, Blair/Orwell confirms the extreme malleability of mind. What could be more Buddhist than that?
Glad you enjoyed it, RG.
I dont think anyone was truly content as you speak of in the book. Buddhism seems to me to be something that is far removed from any mortification,control or forcing. No one is forcing anything. No thought police. No big brother. Nirvana as i understand it, is not a bad thing at all..it is the absence of bad. Maybe I just dont understand where you are going with this. :P no matter...1984 is a good book..thought provoking.
No, I agree. I do think, however, that those controlled were in content, but in more of an illusory content.
I never claimed this
knock his lights out!!
Welcome to 1984 circa 2010... At least in America. Warrantless wire taps, permanent imprisonment without charge or any semblance of due process, death sentences on citizens without benefit of trial, xenophobia to rival North Korea. Gotta love America.
Mtns
Orwell, thou should'st be living at this hour.