What’s in a Name? (1984 Edition)

by Kelson Vibber, 2019-07-22

I always find it weird when someone insists that 1984 is warning about socialism because of the party name. The horrors committed by IngSoc are authoritarian, and have nothing to do with whether the economy is socialist, capitalist or communist, or the state is a republic, monarchy, etc.

You could easily imagine a libertarian state where a big enough corporation has the powers of ubiquitous surveillance, controls communication and information, has violent agents asserting control over people, etc. Same abuses, no socialism.

I mean, Cyberpunk corporate dystopia is an entire genre.

And we don’t even need to imagine giant corporations with microphones in homes (Amazon Echo), tracking people’s every move (Google Maps), mediating their communications (Facebook) and their access to knowledge (Youtube), driving them toward the daily outrage (Twitter).

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