Tag: George Orwell

Interesting how reflecting impacts your views and potentially changes you. I quickly read this chapter while I was waiting for my son’s Boy Scout meeting to end. It’s short, only ten pages long so it took me 15 minutes to read through it.

This chapter begins with the unexplained disappearance of Syme who first emerged as a character in 1:5. It remains pretty high level in the style of most of the first section of the book where it covers the activities and attitudes of ‘Hate Week’. A smaller part of the chapter is Winston and Julia’s interaction at the antique store apartment.

Real Understanding Requires Context or Experience – There is a conversation that happens between Winston and Julia where he is trying to convince her that history is being changed. It is hard to tell whether she just doesn’t understand or is being coy with her true intentions. But if we take it at face value, Julia just doesn’t seem to understand the concept that the facts as presented change constantly. And by proxy she doesn’t recognize this is the root of the mistrust in any source.

Winston chalks it up to Julia being born before the revolution and not knowing anything other than facts not being facts. I can buy that to a point however Julia seems to be pretty switched on to many of the other moving components of the movement. So, this lack of understanding is a little bit puzzling. The concept is still true; I think that we have all had conversations with the ‘book smart’ people that can recite the facts but not have a clue about the the emotional or mental impact of an event.

Not ever going through a hurricane, I remember people telling me stories of what it was like when Hurricane Hugo landed (1989). When I lived in South Carolina (2001-2004) there was still damage that lingered from the event. At that time, I think that it was still the second most costly Hurricane to hit after Andrew (1992). With over 100 related deaths and the monetary damage, I am sure that lives were changed forever, but I could not really understand what it was like to go through the event.

Living begins when there is no future – This is the one that intrigues me. Winston says that he feels like he is already dead meaning he knows that he has crossed the line and it is only a matter of time before it catches up with him. Because it seems that it is a foregone conclusion that he is going to get caught and there is nothing he can do about it, Winston is going to live in the moment.

My wife has accused me of living in the future. I know that there is at least a degree of truth to that. For instance, if I spend my entire life preparing for potential disaster, I ignore or miss the events of the present. It is the same concept of the bucket list or even the terms “smoke ’em if you got ’em” and “live like you are dying”.

We see the benefits of Winston’s change of philosophy. His physical health has improved as his mental outlook has changed. I am of course not there yet, but we hear stories about peoples acceptance of mortality and it changes their experience of the present.

It is a hard habit to change. I have always had the saver, delayed gratification mentality. It is the reason I worked from the day school ended to the day that school started (seven days) during the summer. It is the reason I dream of tolerating my circumstances so that one day I will be free to pursue what I want to do. It is the reason I am interested in preparedness. It is the reason why I think before I speak. Heck, it is the reason that I have faith.

You can call it ‘in your head’ if you like. I think that it is mostly harmless and defines my character, but there are times that my not being in the moment effects other people, particularly in relationships. That we are not really going to get into today, I just wanted to point out that there can be consequences to that mindset.

End Your Programming Routine: 1984 continues to reveal more than just a cautionary tale. I don’t think that I have done this kind of analysis since college. Not just that, this was a book that I wanted to read and analyze on my own accord and not assigned or graded. It is kind of like rediscovering something revolutionary. The final thing that I want to say today is analyze your behavior to make sure that you are putting the proper emphasis on today versus tomorrow and definitely yesterday.

Sorry all you 1984 fans, I kind of punked out last week as I had this stubbed out already. I just kind of gave up in the middle of the week. I thought about doing this Monday, but I thought I would get too out of cycle. So here we are.

In this chapter, we have Julia and Winston taking up a more permanent residence at the antique store where Winston bought his diary and paperweight. My grandfather would have said ‘playing house’ or ‘shacking up’ because it is not really fully committed (of course circumstance has a lot to do with it). The old term ‘flop house’ might be a better description.

Up until now, I would have said that everything in the book has been plausible, how the characters would act given the situation. This seems clearly to be a mistake. No longer is there an only meet at one location twice strategy, this is the place that they will make their stand. It is interesting how the mind works because when I wrote my notes on this, I had written successful risk taking leads to more risk taking as one of today’s concepts from the chapter.

Last night as I was thinking about what I was going to write I had forgotten I had written the above and I thought my concept was going to be delusion becomes reality. In many ways, the two statements are saying the same thing with two different twists. The words in the book didn’t change but my analysis and view did. I suspect that it is influenced by environmental factors.

As we wander way off the path today, I will say that the project I am working on for my job is making many of the same mistakes I have seen other failed projects make. I am not at the right level to influence, nor do I have the social capital to get close. When I do talk at the level that I am at, I am told that it not my concern. As an aside, I am OK with it as I understand my position but I am simultaneously frustrated because I know where this is leading.

Consequently, my outlook on the chapter has changed since I first wrote the notes. No longer am I cautiously optimistic that Winston and Julia are living happily ever after, they have made a Type 1 Error. Because I have read the book before, euphemistically I was in no mood to beat around the bush with what was happening in the story.

End Your Programming Routine: For a little while, there was a podcast for the Gambler 500 which was supposed to explain how to get involved in the event. What it turned out to be was more of the philosophy of the people that started the event and by proxy understanding them would lead the listener on how to participate. They ended every show with ‘ABG’ (Always be Gambling) which is supposed to mean always live by your values.

This is a light chapter in terms of story and concepts. I don’t think that it takes a lot of analysis or relational stories to get across that Winston and Julia are now in dangerous territory because of complacency. Instead, I would say understand that there is always bias in interpretation of the data, know and understand yours.

Alright, so I tried it the other way and now I don’t know. What am I talking about? I read this chapter last night and while the details are fresh, I have really had time to analyze and think about what I read. But what the heck, let’s give it a whirl.

In this chapter, we get more of the details about how Winston’s relationship is working. I would call it the honeymoon phase as everything seems to be new and exciting. It talks about strategies to avoid detection and how they interracted.

It would seem like this chapter is light if you are just following along with the story. However, within the dialog some of the more hard-hitting points of the book are addressed. Certainly, I agree with the early ideas like without freedom, there is no real happiness. Those were just distractions to what Orwell is really getting to.

Motivation is Driven by Absence: Within the context of the dialog, Julia is talking about how a contented population is much less likely to want to rally to politics and aggression. I think that we have all heard the concept that hunger drives action. It is the same reason why the political dichotomy works.

Victory Without Clear Moral Justification is Empty: This was an interesting one. Winston talks about his opportunity to push his wife off a cliff. But as much as the idea appeals to him, he would never do it because there was nothing that circumstantially would have changed. Within Winston’s speculation, he would have been in the same position that he was in now.

These two things really strike a chord with me. This is what I was trying to write about on Monday, As much as I had what I wanted and proved that my ideas worked, it didn’t change my situation. My passion to prove what I was trying to do kept me going until it was complete. The emptiness of achieving what I set out to do and my situation not changing was too demoralizing. .

I suppose that it was in my deep subconscious, because I really didn’t put these things together fully until I started analyzing it a couple of weeks ago. I knew in my conscious brain that things were not going to change. I knew that I couldn’t gain anything with a victory lap and that it was only for personal satisfaction. But, I wanted the validation that my methods were viable.

Not being educated in psychology, it only seems intuitive that this is a process. Once we have achieved, we can now move on in our mental frame to the next idea or challenge. In my case, I felt trapped and dismayed. I didn’t want to expend the energy to look for a new job while I was working this time.

It is not yet clear to me how this information will drive my future goals. I will say that I can learn from it and try to be aware and not fall into the same traps. I guess that is a wonder in life is that our experiences make us who we are. Those that really analyze these waterfall events probably gain substantially from a personal standpoint.

Change Your Programming Routine: It is strange because I had no idea that this was going to be the result when I started writing this today. I guess that is the power of journaling. It organizes thoughts and forces connections to seemingly unrelated topics. I don’t think that I am trying to draw a relationship that doesn’t exist, it seems clear to me. I hope that I translated it adequately. Have a good weekend.

We have definitely made the transition from doom and gloom to a new world. I feel like it is echoing what is happening in my own life, but maybe that is a matter of perspective. I kind of gave up on independence and self employment to move to security and the known of employment, at least for now. Everything is new and exciting and tolerable at least for a period of time.

That doesn’t mean that the insidious is still not in the background, it is just veneered for now by the new surroundings and and experience. I keep telling myself that life is about perspective and that you have to want the situation to be good so that you can have the right attitude about the situation. The truth is that I believe that to be true, but where is that line between lying to yourself and and settling in to accepting your reality? I guess that we will have to stay tuned to see the end.

In this chapter, We see Winston rendezvous with the mystery woman that we now know is Julia. It seems like there is a lot of double entendre. Was Julia really interested in Winston? Did she represent her outward appearance and visible interests and commitments. According to her, participation in the Junior Anti-sex league was the best cover for destroying it from the inside.

Seeing is believing, or is it? I guess that you will have to stay tuned to see how it ends, unless you have already read the book. But, everything that we see from Julia is that she is pro-establishment, but everything that we hear from her is that is her cover for being anti-establishment. What basis is there to believer her other than Winston wants to? Sometimes when you want something, it doesn’t matter what the truth is.

I still think that discretion is important. From what I have seen, there is little reason to actually trust Julia, especially given the overall environment. But, I suppose loneliness is a strong motivator especially if you want to believe. The End You Programming Routine today is If you think it is too good to be true, it might be.

Have a great weekend, I am looking to kick Corona and make some more progress on the office.

Happy Friday. I am hoping that you are heading to a restful and fulfilling weekend. I have a lot of irons in the fire myself, not to mention that we are in Covid quarantine which actually may help me keep working on my projects. I got my first wall framed up last night and I am hoping to frame up the second one today or at least this weekend.

Section 2 marks a distinct change in the book. We move from the setup and into the story. Winston gets a surprise interaction of a very non-permissible nature. He is going to meet a mysterious woman on a very different premise than he anticipated.

Jumping into the concepts of the chapter, I would say that they are fairly simple and sort of intuitive. It doesn’t take a lot of digging or interpretation of the chapter to dig these out.

Risk versus reward: For whatever reason, we as humans all have desires. Sometimes the desire is so tempting that it consumes your thoughts. The prudent person would weigh the cost benefit of the decision and assess the risk. In this black and white world of 1984, there is a lot more gray than might meet the eye.

Another way of putting it is that rules are known and clear, but the enforcement or ability to enforce them are not as straight forward. That leaves a crack for the thought to skirt the rules and that is the risk reward calculation in this scenario. Some people of course just do things anyway. I guess that they don’t have the ability to comprehend the penalties for the risks.

Always use discretion: One of the reasons the characters are able to operate in the gray is that there is not as much technology and infrastructure in place as there is today. The ability of a few to monitor the many is limited by the capability of the age. Of course, just like ‘Newspeak’ it is very difficult to know the truth.

In this type of environment, it is best to always act as if you are always monitored. It is a little more difficult to treat people and relationships that way. A constant state of unknown/fear/suspicion can have an effect on the psyche. It is not really a world that I want to be a part of, but that is the state of affairs here.

End Your Programming Routine: My approach to analyzing 1984 lends to making this application fairly easy. You should do the best you can to always make a risk versus reward analysis in new, big or difficult decisions. I think often people don’t really realize the situation until it is too late and a little thing becomes something large. Likewise, I think it is always prudent to use discretion. I guess that is the kind of guy that I am.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions… is that how the saying goes? Anyway, I read this chapter three weeks ago with the intent on writing about it immediately. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out that way.

This was one of the longer chapters in the book to date. Despite the length, it is also one of the lighter chapters in terms of heavy hitting content. This chapter has Winston out and about in the ‘forbidden’ world. The sights are the everyday life of the Proles; from the constant danger of errant explosions to the daily routine of the pub. As Winston said, it is not expressly prohibited to walk amongst the Proles, but highly suspicious.

History is Grounding- Let it be said that history is an interpretation of the facts from the perspective of the person writing it. It is no different than today’s news or this blog. That means that there is an inherent bias but that is not really important. Just like adopted people search for their real parents or siblings, there is something to knowing where you came from. It gives us perspective on why we are who we are, why we look and act the way that we do. Once we can reconcile our history to our current position, there is a certain inner peace.

Tokens Complete Our Picture- Trinkets sometimes bridge the gap between our history and the present. In the case of Winston, he become infatuated with a glass ball. His speculation was that it was paper weight but regardless, Winston was infatuated with it. So much so, that he would risk his safety to buy it and take it home. We all have those items that usually have sentimental value or for some reason we are drawn to it. Fortunately, in most cases we are not risking our lives to hold on to such things.

This is the final setup into Winston’s life changing decisions. Using the English term it is foreshadowing. The urgency to discover the historical truth has been growing in frequency and importance over the last couple of chapters. I tried to relate the role of history to our understanding above. The fundamental questions of Who are we, How did we get here, What are we supposed to be doing require context to satisfactorily answer.

I am developing a different opinion of this book than I had after the first time I read it. My plan is cover that more in-depth at the end when I summarize all of these entries in the final closure. When you look at the book from different perspectives, it may be this chapter is more important depending on the lense the reader is viewing the story.

Back to the grind here, today we are taking another look at George Orwell’s ‘1984’. Chapter 5 is an interaction between Winston and some co-workers at lunchtime in the cafeteria. The significance of this chapter reveals Winston’s opinions about some of his closer relationships and the constitution of his character.

The best description that I would give is that Winston tolerates his co-workers by circumstance. Meaning, he begrudgingly accepts the company of others even though it seems like he cant stand being around them. Not only does Winston have difficulty empathizing with their opinions but also it seems that the general scarcity has caused some self-protectionist behaviors. There are several questions about the availability of razor blades for instance where Winston denies having a few.

As we dive a little deeper into the subtext of this chapter, we see the betrayal of human emotion on the goals of Big Brother eradicating descent and non-conformity. I will talk a little more about those things when I analyze the chapter concepts below.

Chesnut Tree Cafe- It seems like there is a place in the allowable world that decenters are permitted to gather. Of course, there is risk in associating with such a place. I find it a little strange that such a place is allowed even though in all totalitarian societies venues are underground. My speculation is that it is easier to monitor the activity by permitting it.

Face Crime- Just as it says, the face implicates a person for a crime. The truth is, you don’t even have to be guilty but facial expression is probable cause for a crime. It would seem that guilt or innocent is irrelevant to the act, but rather suspicion. Even worse than that, anyone can report a person for suspicion based on appearance.

Newspeak Dictionary 11th ed- Another reference to changing the language. A sort of silly, sort of make sense discussion takes place about the elimination of idioms and the peculiarities of the English. The stated goal is to simplify the syntax but the reality reinforces language as a tool of freedom and self expression.

Our New Happy Life- This is the current propaganda campaign. With this slogan, it signifies everyone’s struggle together to achieve a higher plane and stated goals. Once again, propaganda is used to simplify and summarize Big Brother’s goals.

As we get to the end of the chapter we see some foreshadowing. This woman with the dark hair seems to be appearing frequently. Not only does it seem like she will play a bigger role in the future, but I cant help but think these are references to loneliness, sexuality and repression. I guess that we will have to keep reading to see.