I’m only halfway through the book, but I’m feeling the need to write this anyway… As a socialist, I’m pretty disturbed that Orwell tries to make socialism into the same thing as fascism. No wonder people like my mom think socialism is scary. I’d say that it is more of a fascist dictatorship with two separate classes: proles and party members where the government holds all the wealth and power. That’s not socialism! In a socialist society, *the people* hold all the wealth and power. What I mean by government is *the people* governing themselves. In a utopian socialist society, there wouldn’t even be any police because everyone would have all their primary needs met- like healthcare, housing, food, education, and clothing. Anyway, I kind of understand now why people who read 1984 might recoil from the word "socialist" if this is the representation it gets in popular literature.
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I just read your comments. Yes, I have read this book many years ago. It portrays the society I lived in. Socialist society is repressive, it can never be otherwise. I agree with you about Patriot act and civil liberties here but it does not have anything to do with capitalism.
If you give me your email address, I will tell you about my personal experience. I don’t want to post it here for all world to see.
The bottom line is people are right to recoil from the “word” socialism and your mother is right to be scared of. I am quite disturbed that you call yourself socialist.
Notice how the Patriot Act takes away constitutional rights (which I would call unpatriotic) yet it gets named “Patriot Act” as a sort of threat to those against it, as if to question it would call your patriotism into question…
And you have to giggle when you hear the phrase Clean Coal!!
Think of how our constitutional rights are constantly threatened and taken away… Maybe it’s all just semantics, but semantics can be important because words are often used to control people. Make people complacent and they’re easier to manage.
I would like to know more about your experiences, Maria. I didn’t post my thoughts on a book I hadn’t even finished just to make you upset. If as you say the people did not have wealth, then it was not socialism. If the people had no power, it was not a democracy (or a republic). I hope to learn more from you.
Peace
You’re right I don’t know what your experience was, and since you didn’t mention what country you lived in I obviously can’t say. What were your experiences? I’d like to know, I’m not here to fight.
Incidentally, I finished the book (have you read it?) and it actually talks about the exact points I’m making here, that just like the US calls itself a capitalist democracy when it’s really a perversion of those things, repressive dictatorships would call themselves “socialist” when in fact they were oligarchies and UNLIKE in the meaning of “socialism”, the people had no wealth or power. But they would not want to call themselves an oligarchy, because that would be like admitting to the people that thay are being used and robbed by the ruling class.
Just like the US likes to call itself a “free country” when in fact, we are not free, this is not pure capitalism (because capitalism doesn’t work), and it’s not a democracy or a constitutional republic either (notice the part where it specifies a government that rules “according to existing constitutional law that limits the government’s power.” Then think of how
You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. I have lived in socialist/ communist country. It is worse than fascist dictatorship. People do not have any wealth or power. You are delusional because you got your fantastic ideas from some books and never experienced it. I lived in this system for 29 years. Your mother is absolutely right to be scared of socialism. Wake up from you fairy tale story of socialism.