I know you get a lot of requests, and honestly every video you choose to do is really amazing, but I’d very much appreciate if you would make a video about Light Yagami from Death Note.
Heya. I love the openings to your vids, when you sync up saying "hello everyone" to someone talking. Your outro is creepily cool, too. Anyway, request time. I wonder what you'd think of doing a character like Terence Fletcher from Whiplash, or Vernon Schillinger from Oz, both played horrifyingly amazing by J.K. Simmons. I think Vernon would be the easier vid of the two, but I wonder what your perspective would be on Mr. Fletcher. Would he make your cut as someone evil enough to do a video on? Thanks for your amazing work man- I've been looking forward to new episodes every week since you've created this channel, and your vids have not only gotten better from an entertainment perspective, but also from a technical perspective- Your older vids had some editing or audio mistakes here and there (certainly forgivable mistakes, not trying to criticize), but I can probably count on one hand the number of mistakes you've made in the vids you've released in the past year... my bad if this isn't coming off as a compliment, but I just wanted to tell you I've noticed how your videos have improved in more ways than one since the inception of your channel. Thank you again!
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” - CS Lewis
People can get away with anything if they can hide behind a mask of good intentions. And, as your quote suggests, even moreso if they believe it themselves.
The thing about Ingsoc is that they have none of those hypocritical delusions; they outright admit that they do what they do for pure power, nothing else. This applies more to A Brave New World''s dystopia
I'm afraid that quote is literally in opposition of what they party is about. They are like the psychopath, the purpose of his evil is to exercise evil. The purpose of torturing and strangling women, is to torture and strangle women. The party enjoys having power, just like the psychopath enjoys having power over his victim. " 'You are ruling over us for our own good,' he said feebly. 'You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore-' He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O'Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five. 'That was stupid, Winston, stupid!' he said. 'You should know better than to say a thing like that.' He pulled the lever back and continued: 'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others ; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were- cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
@@KevinJohnson-cv2no No, they don't. They admitted it to him because he was absolutely powerless and inconsequential. But they repeat propaganda constantly to the people, constant lies until no one questions anymore. So save your admiration for the fascists, would you?
When reading "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" Winston jumps around the book a little and so we learn the deeper meanings of "War is Peace" and "Ignorance is Strength", but not "Freedom is Slavery". In fact Winston is interrupted just before reaching that section and so we don't get to find out. It always bugged me and it wasn't until a 2nd reading that I figured it out. If freedom is slavery, then slavery is freedom. So freedom from...what? O'Brien explains to Winston that he does not exist. A statement which requires doublethink given that "I do not exist" is a paradox but this is the final form of doublethink: complete self erasure. The entire ideology of Ingsoc is based on solipsism reality does not exist only The Party exists. The Party is immortal. The Party is forever. That's the inner meaning of "Freedom is Slavery". If freedom is slavery then slavery is freedom from death. From one's own mortality. Total surrender to the party via doublethink means ceasing to exist and becoming one with the eternal being that is Ingsoc. Through doublethink, they achieve immortality.
Nice. My interpretation of that which I spoke of in my high school presentation was that "freedom is slavery" is that when one gives into the party they are free from the responsibility of the burdens of independence free-thinking, self-awareness, all of that is laid on the shoulders of the Party and Big Brother. So you can have the freedom to just let it carry you through life, but your interpretation is far more powerful and terrifying, indeed.
Reminds me of a passage from World War Z where a Russian soldier says that by submitting to Absolute Authority she was free from responsibility for her actions
I cant think of anything more chilling depressing and soul crushing then when Winston desperately asks Obrien "When will you shoot me" and Obrien responds "It may take a long time. But dont give up hope."
@@ricc4620he doesn’t die? At least not in the literal sense. It just says he loved big brother and the end. I’ve never bothered with the movie, just the book. If he died in the movie they ruined it.
The cool thing about the appendix is that it's really more like an epilogue, part of the story. It takes place in the setting and comes from the perspective of some future historian writing about newspeak and Ingsoc _after the fact,_ something which shouldn't be possible if the party system was still in place. In the end, Winston was right. No matter how totalizing an authoritarian system might be, it can't last forever, and people will be there at the end to survive and build something new.
The thought that no brutal regime lasts forever comes from a popular will for salvation. It's a myth, a wish.Look at China, totalitarian since its inception thousands of years ago. No Chinese has ever known freedom like there is in the US and Europe. And they never will.
@@forrestray9926 and INGSOC actually knows this, and to ensure they leave as much as a damaging mark as they can they regulate the inner and out parties to insanity. INGSOC knows that to forsake everything in the pursuit and application of power, eventually they'll be knocked out by something that is willing to go further than even them.
O'Brian is one of the most terrifying villains I've seen in all of literature, he might have only appeared for like 3 chapters near the end but every line of dialogue had so much power and weight behind it
There's a tiny glimmer of hope in 1984- the appendix for Newspeak. Despite the seeming unassailable power of the party, the appendix for Newspeak is written in past tense.
There's also the theory that Oceania isn't as big as it claims to be. This theory posits that Oceania only consists of airstrip one (Britain) and the rest of the world is outside of Oceanias control.
@@mappingshaman5280 I always had a different view. I wondered if there eve was an enemy. If foreign powers even exist anymore. Only way I could think that the world there could be worse, guess it shows my fatalistic view. That’s an interesting thought I never had, that Oceania was vastly smaller than it claims to be. Kind of reminiscent of North Korea in that sense.
@@mappingshaman5280 If Oceania is deliberately stagnating their military technology at WWII levels, they would have been invaded by NATO long ago with 1984 weapons outclassing them completely.
I always liked the theory that the other super states are fabrications created by the party and that Oceania is a North Korean-style rump state whose borders don't exceed the British Isles while the rest of the world is similar to ours.
They bring this idea up in the book and dismiss it. It's made very clear that Oceania cannot exist without the unique geopolitics that make it possible.
@@doger944 yea but you don’t know has everything Winston and the reader get told about the outside of Britain is through ministry of truth what lies about everything. So we don’t know if Oceania all owns the world, is pertly telling the truth or is just Britain because all information in Oceania is controlled by the party.
What I really liked about this book is the fact that from the start we see Winston as the hero of the story. The moment he joins "the resistance" makes the reader think he's gonna fight with ingsoc and eventually lead freedom fighters to victory. But it turns out that everything was a trap and Winston instead of being a hero is just another victim of The Party being no different than thousands of other people who commited crime against ingsoc
Same , at first I was like , when is the fighting going to commence and if there won't be a fight what grand strategic plan exists that will be enacted. More and more the book was coming to an end and I was wondering what sick quick revolution will defeat the party. Only to the painting to drop and the tele screen revealed. I was imagining Winston meeting big brother or the ruling body of the party , a final showdown ...ugh
When I first read it I was stunned. ‘He capitulated’ I kept repeating ‘he f-n completely capitulated’ it bothered me deeply for longer than I care to remember.
What was always so horrifying to me was that in the end, it wasn’t just enough to kill Winston, they had to make him love Big Brother before they killed him.
@@robirvine6970 I don’t think that was the reason. I’m sure his confession would’ve been recorded ahead of time, so if O’Brien felt it wasn’t believable enough, they would just have a three hour torture session to get Winston motivated to do it right. Besides, it wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t believable, no one was ever going to question it.
No, it's thinking that there's any gaslighting happening. This shit was a warning about the cycles of human history, and somehow the high have pre-empted it and make kids read it in middle and early high school, way before they should, and they don't understand, grow to hate, and refuse to take this kind of thing seriously. The school I went to treated animal farm like a kids story. The Chronicles of Narnia, fairy tales. They leave the very things that would be their undoing right there for anyone to pick up, so great is the arrogance. Yet it seems, again and again, that arrogance is perfectly warranted, cause they are still there, we are still here, and that wheel is not slowing not even a little. And now, in an age where more than ever, we have access to knowledge men like Mr. Blair only imagined in his worst nightmares, and all the things he so desperately warned against are on full display and celebrated and rewarded then at the peak of the ones on displays usefulness, they get stomped on like a rat, and even watching something like this, so carefully crafted to expose the truth without becoming an example, without saying too terribly much, and still people don't get it. They are scared, horrified, and thankful it's not real, when the guy was teaching a history lesson in hopes someone would take steps to break that cycle, and they eat it up, thinking it won't happen because they know the truth, instead of realizing it's been happening over and over for all of history and the warning isn't to stop it, it can't be stopped. It's an invitation to leave the system and the cycle it feeds. It's not meant to be scary. It's nowhere nearly as scary as what happens behind the doors of Parliament and in the minds polluted by TikTok. Nothing could possibly be scary as what you see everyday in this world. And it only grows darker and larger. An invitation to go get some fresh air and keep walking, never look back.
meh we are already beyond it. All you have to do is to say to Americans "terrorist," "freedom," or "national security" and they'll hate whoever the party wants. Just because. The two parties do exactly the same, only that some use the rich as a pretext and the other the rest. Even speaking those words are motive enough to be under survaillaince
I honestly think the most horrifying thing about INGSOC and the world of 1984 is the lack of laws. In my opinion nothing is more terrifying than the unknown. And not knowing what you’ve done, especially in an area as intimate as your own thoughts, is especially scary. Not knowing what your supposed to do or act, eliminates the ability to act along. This shows that every shred of resistance to the monolith of INGSOC’s control over every single aspect of one’s life. That everything you deem yours is not yours but the party’s.
And here we have exhibit A of a thoughtcriminal. A true Party member, someone who loves Big Brother and the Party, would understand what position to have and when, without needing to think, without any kind of stress. It's automatic, robotic, almost skilful how they change and hide the imperfections of truth in their mind. They are slaves to the Party, and have found freedom in it.
Richard Burton's portrayal of him in the movie was especially chilling, as he was depicted as a man with no empathy or human emotion of any kind. He was exactly what he described himself as: a single, unfeeling cell of the body politic.
The novel isn't scary because it says "War is peace" and "Freedom is slavery"... it is scary because it explains these statements so well and in such exquisite detail, that you find yourself (even if just for a fleeting moment) agreeing with them...
I’m just about at chapter 2 but I have really noticed how illustratively he describes the inherent contradictions within, what I would describe as, Ur-Fascism (although Umberto Eco was just a teenager at the time of 1984 being published, and clearly had read 1984 by the time he wrote the essay I’m alluding to). His depiction of the human instinct to conform with the expectations of those around you when participating within an inhuman, dehumanizing, or demoralizing environment is haunting.
@@AlexeiVoronin don’t be a dick, the whole point of 1984 is how oppressive and controlling these ideas and institutions need to be to become so ingrained and pervasive, being able to see the logic in them is the point, these laws are made to sound easy to understand and relate to because that is what the oppressor wants, if the oppressor can get you to surrender without a fight then you are more willing to accept them in totality
God, O’brians speech about power was bone chilling. And your delightfully monotone voice, almost completely devoid of emotion, was enough to elicit feelings of hopelessness in me as well. Great video!
@@nix98zlcy for real on that the God of the Gaps and there's a few gaps left for God to explain it. Religion was a everything practice to was suppose to be a social instruction on how to behave,think,explain,etc basically it was made to explain things like science and get people to obey laws but imposing a all seeing and all knowing non physical being at the helm of all judgement..
@@endloesung_der_braunen_frage Achtung ! "SS" steckt auch in "VerfaSSungSSchutz" und "SonnenStaatLand", und ist vermutlich eine Abkürzung für "Schwarze Sonne"
@@scathiebaby Ich habe die Initialen "SS" Absichtlich gewählt als Referenz an die Einsatzgruppen Nationalsozialistische Schutzstaffel. Diese Einheiten der SS führten unzählige Massaker in der Soviet Union an Zivilisten aus und leiteten praktisch den Holocaust ein. Ich habe in diese Einheiten angelehnt um meinen genozidalen Hass gegen Nazis zum Ausdruck zu bringen, in dem ich mich selbst als Äquivalent der SS Einsatzgruppen deskribiere. Ja, in der Tat, strebe ich nach einem Holocaust gegen Nazis und alles andere lebensunwerte rechtsextreme Gesindel.
The book really had a chilling description of how Winston was ground to paste by the torture. Whatever was left of him at the end, sitting there drinking the gin was hardly a man at all. No hair, no teeth, no hope. They killed him mind and body. Now that's a fate worse than death.
1984 and Brave New World (I read them basically together) were the first books I ever read in school that genuinely got me to think about society and my views about my place therein, these books legitimately terrified me. Would love to see a video about Brave New World to compliment this one
I was the same as you, I read them one after the other. I’ve always preferred 1984 over brave new world but they are both fantastic books that I recommend everyone read at least once.
@@Joshua_Froschauer Both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are capitalist propaganda written by a moronic bigot. These books only facilitate primitive ideals and in the case of Atlas Shrugged specifically, show us a laughable "future" based upon false pretenses. A bike is not inherently worse than a plane, nor vice versa. Aun Rand disregards any sort of context. The only thing profound about her writings is how brain dead they manage to be. Edit: Just for your own information, this author, someone who's life was essentially saved by "socialist" ideas, I.E, public universities, welfare programs, etc, went on to say the New Deal was the first step towards American totalitarianism. Yes, the same New Deal which brought millions out of the stagnating economic crisis and was almost universally praised, asides from conservatives who felt it was "too big of a spending." She has her life to thank for socialism and yet she is too dull to realize it.
The only reason why Ingsoc isn't reality right now is that Orwell assumes perfection where it just isn't possbile. There is no perfect surveillance nor is there a complete absence of conflict in the upper class. Moreover one can only control the perception of reality, not reality itself. Or in other words: If O'Brien would have to levitate in order to survive, he would simply die.
O'Brien didn't say levitation was real in the sense that you mean, he only said that if they both truly believe it happens, then there is no difference to it actually happening, and thus (to them) the law of gravity is meaningless. Most Dems know the election was fiddled, but they double-think themselves into a place where they 'believe' it was fair and just.
@@1977ajax This only works if O'Brien doesn't really need to fly. My point is: if Ingsoc faces an existential threat that they cannot solve by brainwashing, say an asteroid impact, they are done for. And if the problem is more selective than a crashing stellar object, the supressed population might even survive. Laws of nature can neither be bent or broken, no matter how powerfull one is. As to the election (I assume you mean the 2020 election in the USA): I'm German so I'm clearly missing the inside view. But to my knowledge no election fraud that would have made any impact on the result was ever proven despite numerous attempts and accusations.
True. Even within the rules of this universe it is theoretically possible that someone could infiltrate the party with amazing acting skills and run the rest out as they cannot actually read minds only squeeze with an iron fist.
@@twixtwix2915 they cannot read minds.. yet, a Mind after all is just fatty tissue with electrical impulses running through it, nothing about it is impossible to decipher.
Counterpoint: North Korea exists. It's far from "perfection" but they do damn well at repressing people, and routinely kill people in their own party whenever theres an inkling of doubt in them.
Controversial opinion: the sad truth is that the dystopian vision of 1984 doesn't just apply to modern day dictatorships: some of the methods of INGSOC are also practiced by modern day democracies (ie keeping the masses poor, stupid and spoonfed propaganda, giving the populace an enemy to hate, engaging in constant warfare and glorifying the military, editing history, and attempting to control language/the definition of certain words, and overall ensuring that people are unquestioningly loyal to the country and/or party, and attacking any skeptics as unpatriotic)
Good take. Also; all the things you mention have been at play since before the writer of 1984 was even born, so I wouldn't really say it should be controversial. Just of the top of my head I'm reminded of how car manufacturers shaped public opinion about people dying after being run over during the early 1900s so that people would blame the people that were hit instead of the drivers. Now we all just accept that streets are for cars, despite many city streets being older than traffic.
@@NeroIML before cars, people would be run down by carriages with even less hope, of last minute reprieve although, marketing is directly linked, to 'soft mind control'.
Every single one of those features has been in humanity since the inception of civilization. and in fact most of those we've seen in a much more severe degree in the past than they are now.
The US is every bit as authoritarian and a threat to world peace as the countries that America demonizes in our own ways. 1984 is a socialist critique on authoritarianism, and it applies pretty broadly.
Orwell was an anarchist, so he opposed authoritarianism in all its forms (fascistic, democratic, Stalinist, etc.). 1984 isn't a rejection of socialism, but of Stalinism, so if you see parallels in a liberal democracy, Orwell intended for you to see those parallels, because he rejected the authoritarian elements of liberal democracy too
Sadly good doesn’t always win, but evil will always destroy itself. It’s in its nature. I think there’s a quote out there somewhere along the lines of this but for me it’s inspired by JRR Tolkien, kinda gives me hope that all that this shii will come crashing down one day.
Yes evil is self destructive, and above the choking gasses of Mordor lies purity and hope worth fighting for. Absolutely love Tolkien for his Theology and Philosophy, man had divine intuition greater than Dante and Milton.
That feeling is by design. If you feel progress is inevitable, you're less likely to spend every waking moment and ounce of energy fighting corrupt systems. It becomes like a prophecy, someone else's job. It's the just world fallacy.
I'm impressed. I read this for Honors English as a High school senior. 1984 definitely outclassed any dystopian I've ever read. Most modern dystopian fiction is just a variation of the Hero story arc. The bitter loss at the ending of 1984 is more appropriate. Could you cover the story of Animal Farm? The pigs are interesting villians.
@@beCoCOi The Pigs are the main villians. I know it's more complicated than that but they make the most sense as a focal point of the story. Unfortunately Animal Farm might be too similar to 1984 to make a separate video since it explores similar themes. It's in my top 10 favorite books.
I always thought the way the Inner Party treated the proles was interesting. They keep them poor and dumb, but also give them basic pleasures and don't expect any loyalty or devotion in return.
@@steveconrad8857 by all means, go out and survive completely on your own, away from the evil party that oppresses you so much. Funny thing, nobody would stop you.
@@TheTGOAC Not true. If I go to "public" land and try and build myself a dwelling and try to obtain food by hunting and gathering I would most certainly be stopped.
Frankly it does not sound "right" to my ears. To me it sounds monotonous, droning and hypnotic. There is no significant tonal variation, change of cadence, variable pauses etc.
1984 was the first book I read for "pleasure" when I was a teenager.. it changed my in some ways and sparked my passion for books and reading. Thanks for this analysis, very good!
in 1984 I was just starting High School and one of my friends wore a shirt, "It's 1984, Orwell was WRONG". I'd amend that today, "It's 2022, Orwell was EARLY".
@@steelerfreak1977 See the problem with people who say this is that they always mean that like college sophomores might call them racist or whatever. Universally those who say this believe that wanton exercise of force and cruelty for its own sake is good, and should be employed against the "woke mob" or trans people or whatever their bugbear is. Doublethink, if you will.
The only book/movie to ever have truly terrified me. The ideas that Obrien talks about with winston in the end about absolute control over humanity and even themselves, the revelation of the truth of Ingsoc's motives, and mostly the idea of "if we think it, then it is" just shake me to my core every time i revisit this story. The fact that the party believes so much in the idea of ultimate debasement that they are willing to become part of it is just horrifying.
It reminds me of the unidentified advisor to George W. Bush who once mocked a journalist for living in "the reality-based community". Rumour has it that this "advisor" was actually Karl Rove, Bush's deputy chief of staff. He apparently said "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality-judiciously, as you will-we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
If someone like the Joker were placed in this type of world, he'd be the good guy for once. Chaos would be a virtue against contradicting, cruel tyranny. An ironic way to think about it.
Not necessarily a "good guy", but more of a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", I think. If evil fights evil, good just needs to back away slowly and not disturb them!
1984's Oceania and Bioshock's Rapture couldn't be any more polar opposite, and yet despite the extreme differences, (1984: collectivism, Bioshock: Individualism.) One similarity is that both have a lack of regard for the well-being of the lower classes. The other is the higher classes still having to answer to a figure of importance. (Andrew Ryan, Big Brother) This led to Rapture's downfall. And it's unknown if this also brought about the downfall of Oceania. But the components of Rapture's ideology is man exerting its will upon the universe, Andrew Ryan sought more than what he was given. The same can be said for Frank Fontaine. If such men were placed in the world of 1984, they will never be fully satisfied with what they were given by the Party. The ministry of love may try to keep this in check, but it is only a matter of time before it ends up collapsing because of problems like this. So ironically, greed, ambition, and self-interest were a few key components for the evil occurring in Rapture, it would actually be a good thing to happen in 1984. Anarchy would be the best outcome for a world like 1984. I mean that world seems pretty depressing and lacks the fun parts of life, who would be satisfied with life under Oceania? very few I'd imagine.
I think the most terrifying aspect of 1984 was the education of the children and the reinforcement of it by the introduction to the Red Sash , the idea that the system was going eventually going eliminate all ideas of being an individual and everyone will give credence to Big Brother , that only the System was worthy of praise and the self was simply to be snuffed out
I had this thought. It was so terrifying when that man's own son turned him in and he was so oblivious and yet not about what his son was capable of and yet somewhat proud I think? It's been 11 years since I read the book and it was his daughter not his son who turned him in. He was still a dolt tho lol
Totally agree. That made me really uncomfortable. The book does a good job of capturing the "generational divide". Winston is old enough to have lived at least a good chunk of his childhood pre-Ingsoc, and while his memories are hazy it does seem to have some influence on his personality, and level of commitment to party ideology. But the children are true believers. Once Winston's generation are gone they are what's left: mean spirited little fanatics. No hope for the future and the next generation because they're already captured.
@@pain5835 Have you noticed how colleges and degress have created almost an elitest speach? Where you can only have an opinion on something if you have a degree in that field?
The biggest grin I've ever been given by fiction was in Alan Moore's LOXG: BLACK DOSSIER collection, where we see the beginnings of the fifties in that alternate universe, and the best thing is seeing all the remains of INGSOC being torn down and replaced by a better government, though not really a more kind one, since MI6 and the people who control James Bond are based in the remains of the Ministry of Love. At least there's pieces of INGSOC visible, including a copy of PORNSEC , the hideous remains of porn as the Party sees it. Blackest humor I've ever seen.
That sounds like a hilariously cathartic and unrealistic fanfic. Like it sounds akin to a comic about Johnny sins beating the absolute shit out Kim Jon un.
@@oceancactusrequiem6232 Friendship is just another word for the hope and coordination between individuals who trust each other. It is extremely powerful, it's what makes units into brothers. It turns a single idea into a revolution. To assume that such a simple thing as "friendship" cannot take down a Nazi regime is to not believe that the allies couldn't defeat the actual Nazis, as it required the will of people to cooperate, strategize, and realign their judgement in consideration of their fellow man. There is a reason why INGSOC wanted to stamp it out, 'cause it's damn powerful alright. If Friendship is cringe, then I'm cringe as hell. But that cringe is worth it if it can create nukes, armies, and ideologies that make 1984 impossible.
To me, this book became truly special when O'Brian explained to Winston that the Party's true motivations weren't some stupid "We're doing this for Humanities benefit" shit, but rather it was purely just a selfish bid for Power. Learning about Orwells IRL life also puts the contents of 1984 into perspective, as Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War for the Anarchists. He was shot by, and himself shot at Fascists, then watched as the Stalin-alligned Communists betrayed the Anarchists. He physically fought and was betrayed by Authoritarians. A lot of the book was literally just Orwell copying what he saw around him from the Nazis and the Soviets. A lot of the stuff that happens in the story are very real things that have happened in the Past, and happen all over the world today.
O'Brien is not a villain. He had been caught by the Party a long time ago. He is responsible for his actions. But, what was done to him to take his rationalizations to this point? A villain, no; a non-silent bystander, maybe.
This book legitimately affected me, and I hope it'll continue to do so, because at its core is an extremely valuable lesson on authoritarianism, power and those who would seek it through any means necessary. To that point, this video is also amazing in the way you've managed to summarize the book's ideas and lay them all out in a condensed format, all the while analyzing what they mean in the context of the real world. Fantastic job!
The one piece of solace you could find in a world like 1984 is that, for all the party's tall of power, they cant halt the March of time within the universe. Eventually the sun would explode and consume the earth, and just as ingsoc would erase history so would the cosmos erase the planet. The comfort comes from knowing that, in time, any totalitarian regime will be humbled by the universe and by entropy
The true solace you can find in 1984 is the fact that that's not how the real world operates on a fundamental level, stemming from the fact that the economy and society operates in completely different ways
@@yoavpekelman7000 it works that way.. in some ways, here and there, there are certain truths you cannot utter in society, you must at all time, exert doublethink over certain topics, and the list of those topics grows by the year.
It's a great day when you're on your lunch break and Vile Eye comes out with an HOUR AND A HALF VIDEO ON INGSOC!!! I'm about to weld the shit out of this container while listening too this.
As utterly horrible as INGSOC is, I've always found "The theory and practice of oligarchical collectivism" to be a totally fascinating read! Thanks for reading that in its entirety!
Jobu Tupaki from Everything Everywhere All At Once would make a fun episode of this series, in my opinion. I understand you have tons of requests, but that’s mine.
Seconded I'm curious if she is considered evil or if the nihilism that consumed her is the evil? Or both? It would be a fun breakdown. It's such a lovely and thought provoking movie.
Though it wasn't intentional, 1984 has some of the best worldbuilding of a story I've ever seen. So much detail into making this society feel truly dystopian in ways that most other novels, especially YA novels, have often failed to even barely approach.
It’s a shame this book isn’t taught as thoroughly in high schools. I’m mine they gave us a watered down packet instead of the real book. After reading a few pages of the packet I asked for the original book in it’s entirety and my teacher was genuinely shocked
The biggest irony is one of the biggest themes of the books is language and information control... Giving a shortened, cherry picked packet of it is just poetic
So many great villains to choose from. Scorpio from Dirty Harry, le Gris from The Last Duel, etc. you never know what you’ll get from this channel but it’s great!
The single factor that makes this story so frightening is the simple observation of the good still existing with it. The fact that no one shall ever escape from their own humanity, from their deepest intuition that must recognize such an unassailable power as evil, something that ought to not be, is a living nightmare. Comparing the world of 1984 to that of Hell, I think that's mere flattery.
Orwell was right to fear this type of future. Not to mention that if Nazi Germany’s level of fascism and the Soviet Union’s level of Stalinism fused together forming what would’ve been known as INGSOC. Their doctrine speaks of freedom. But only in a selective sense. The very notion of individualism has nearly ceased to exist and if you break any laws that Big Brother or the Thought Police has put in place then you will suffer just as bad if not worse then a holocaust survivor or a political prisoner of the Soviet Union.
@@Faeron1984 Orwell critiqued totalitarianism. Never did he equated fascism and socialism though. The point of the book is not a critique of any particular ideology but of a doctrine that can exist all across the political spectrum. If anything stalinism and fascism are complete opposites if one accepts another axis other than the liberty-authoritarian one.
@@Kolokommouna He was probably a very big fan of cold war horseshoe theory. Apparently he wrote lists of suspected communist supporters in England for the police (I guess getting a bullet in the neck by a Stalinist sniper and watching them repress Spanish leftists would really motivate someone towards that direction). But anyways the Stalinists never wanted to genetically alter Europe to create "breathing space for the master race", no matter how repressive the regime was.
I'd choose to live in the Soviet Union under Stalin in a heartbeat than live in Oceania under INGSOC. North Korea today is eerily close to how INGSOC is described.
I’d rather live under Nazis occupation then under Oceania and ingsoc And that’s saying something because I am in one of the groups targeted by the Nazis they didn’t just target Jews they targeted lgbt, other religions, other races and disabled people (like me) and basically everyone that didn’t fit into hitlers “master race” would be killed or enslaved
@@randomarcgunner4543 i am sure they would accept outside takes on how slaving ppl by state is actually bad and would certainly respect personal freedoms and would certainly not brainwash kids to how good the party and the cause is, socialists have never done that for sure
Great video. A random thought occurred as you quoted O'Brien's "confession" about power to Winston; the Party is the closest non-magical, "real-world" equivalent to the philosophy of the Sith from Star Wars that I think I've ever seen or read. Power for power's sake, and demonstrated almost constantly by the forceful domination over others. That said, you may have mentioned this in your video on Palpatine already, which is next on my watch list.
This was very clearly your most ambitious project yet, both in length and depth, and I just wanted to say that you absolutely nailed it. I've been watching since roughly episode 30 and it is insane to see how much bolder you've gotten with the scope of your content
I was right about to do so, but then I watched the movie and now I'm terrified the book adds internal thoughts that remove all the layers the movie has to read into. So many more questions than answers.
I remember when I first read 1984 when I was in high school. I didn't read it for class, but my younger brother did. He came into my room one day, book in hand and said "You've gotta read this book man, it's crazy!"
I gotta say, i never read the whole 1984, only read snippits or wiki articles or watched vids on the topic, but from your rundown, i genuinely felt dread that i pretty much never experienced reading or watching any any horror or thriller, Orwell did an amazing job creating a setting which is scarier than any fictional monster or cataclismic divine force, because it embodies things real humans did and which they would do given the opportunity. Imagining a world like this is scarier than some demons rampaging through our world killing us with their mere appearance or getting killed by some divine whims.
I first read 1984 at Grammar school in the year 1984. My English teacher encouraged me to find a book at the vast library for my interpretation and composition O'Grade. I gave a synopsis to the class about how humanity is merely a candle's flame and why the author went as far as to snuff it out. 1984 is a warning.
Boy does it, look at states like Florida and Texas. Black history is "crt", Slavery is "involuntary relocation", Slavery wasn't apart of America fabric, America isn't racist anymore and you should love America regardless of how much it shows you that it doesn't love you.
No one would beliefe the "ministry of truth"...ohh did the aministrytion of presidend beiden form one? Do they "fact check" stuff? Do they work with bik tek to delete "fake news"?
Correct. More precisely it is a "survival manual". It is also a huge present Eric Blair did to the humanity as he has disclosed in it far in advance the evil plot which the elite were planning to be put in practice in the next future. Don't forget Eric Blair was an insider. He had access to the close circle of the ruling elite
This is one of my favorite modern classic books. I read it in high school, and re-read it several times. In my own opinion, what spelled Winston's doom was the part that you mentioned toward the end, where Winston said that something in the human spirit would rebel against this type of dystopian rule. O'Brien then asked Winston if he believed in God and Winston said No, and that was the beginning of the end for poor Winston. In essence, that is what Ingsoc and all of the historical dictators in the past and present are trying to do. They are playing God. Great video!
I don't know if you've caught up with Better call Saul midseason but it would be cool to see a Lalo Salamanca analysis. He's such a great antagonist in the series. It's great that Lalo's charisma as a main antagonist matches Jimmy's. Just as Gus calm cold and calculated demeanor matched Walter's.
If Lalo didn't seem to care for certain people who were killed and didn't occasionally exhibit outbursts of anger, he'd be a great representation of a psychopath.
@@Wkeiebbd Yeah, but by diagnosis only. His behavior isn't really indicative of even a high functioning sociopath. Saul is a sociopath, which sounds weird but in truth he's actually a very realistic depiction of one. They're not often sinister like media portrays, they usually just can't help themselves but to fall on bad habits.
I think two that would be amazing to cover would be one Nina Myers from "24." a traitor who, according to Jack Bauer, is the worst kind, a traitor who believes in nothing! And another might be Nina Sayers from "Black Swan." She's both the hero and antagonist to her own story, an alter ego, that drives someone to near self-destruction.
The day you published this I realized I shouldn't watch this without reading it first. So in my free time I started listening to the audiobook. I finally finished it. Took longer than planned. But now i can finally watch your vid.
This video reminded me I've always wanted to see a breakdown of another John Hurt adjacent adaption, High Chancellor Sutler from V for Vendetta. Lots of similar themes though.
This is the single most terrifying video you've released to date. Makes my insides churn just thinking about both the fictional world of 1984 and the real-world parallels...
The world that INGSOC creates has one purpose, to foster a certain kind of power which it enjoys experiencing. The kind of power is the one where Stalin gets a death list and upon seeing it adds a few thousand extra lives, just because he can. Just for the sick pleasure of it, no purpose other than his enjoyment. It's the kind of power psychopaths enjoy, where they revel in the suffering of their victims. The kind of power someone feels when they gaslight another person. It's a world created to foster this kind of power. To be a party member you have to rejoice in the humiliation and suffering of other people. The prime purpose of INGSOC can be found in the ministry of love, where room 101 is the ultimate goal of INGSOC. The breaking of people, the torture and all of it, IS THE POINT. They don't want to convert you, in so much as they want to see you recognise the wonderful world they have created, wonderful from the perspective of having an endless variation and opportunities to exercise power of others. How Stalin would have loved Oceania, paradise for a psychopath like him, and being offered this cornucopia of suffering how can you do anything but love Big brother for setting it up.
Stalin who lay for days in his owm excrement because people were too afraid to disturb him when they heard a loud thud in his room. Died in part because he fired his doctors over anti-Jew paranoia.
@@richardarriaga6271 Yeah he was a piece of work. But he also probably enjoyed having, what he as an idiot saw as his "I'm so smart i went to medical school" doctor thrown in the gulag. Like a lot of tyrant he loved getting the upper hand on his betters.
The ending to the film has a very subtle ambiguity which you often only pick up on the repeat. In the book, Orwell categorically states that Winston “loved Big Brother.” This means that he has achieved complete self-erasure and his entire mind has become dedicated to the Party. However, in the film, he just whispers tearfully “I love you.” And it’s ambiguous as to whether he’s referring to the image of Big Brother on the Telescreen, or if he’s referring to Julia, who’s just walked away. It could therefore mean either (if he’s referring to Big Brother) that he’s been fully “rehabilitated” as per the book, or (if he’s referring to Julia), that he didn’t commit what they agreed would be the ultimate betrayal, to stop loving her, and that they didn’t truly break him.
It's referring to Big Brother. The book has pretty much the same exact scene; he weeps joyfully upon seeing a picture of Big Brother in the cafe and the narration describes how Winston now feels he was foolish for rejecting Big Brother the whole time.
Reading 1984 without first reading Homage to Catalunya drives people into misunderstanding Orwell so fucking bad, it makes me wish they've read a different book instead.
You don't have to go that deep into him, understand how his life went and the events that paved for writting 1984 At the end of the day he was an hypocrite that wrote a list of several "suspected communist sympathizers" to the British government.
@@miguelpadeiro762 Yeah, I know. He also denounced a couple of his neighbors as homosexuals to the British government which had them arrested for that. However, it's less about Orwell himself as a person and more so about his experience in what he went through and what helped shape some of his works and the message behind. That and the historical context which is also important.
Never imagine you would do a video about 1984. One of the few books that i've actually read through many many times, even got a big fanmade poster of Big Brother above my bed lmao. I hope that this video inspires people to read it or listen to the audiobook (Narrated by Andrew Wincott).
@@robirvine6970 You have to admit that this is something of a departure, for this channel. Normally, the Analyzing Evil series focuses on individual characters- not complete ideologies.
In all socialist and communist societies education and torture are the same thing. They train their victims with pain and fear to conform, so it is a brittle and easily compromisable system.
Indeed, Orwell created this masterpiece as a cautionary tale... but I'm pretty sure it's been used as a manual all over the world. Terrible, but I guess the book and the horrible system he details works so well, that people with no morals could help themselves.
@@RaderizDorret Here's an interesting theory I heard once: These books were pushed into the public eye (being required reading in some schools, for example) as a way for those who would do such things to laugh in the face of their victims. Just some food for thought.
@@ZacHawkins42 I think it's more like "oh, that's just a story. There's no way it can happen to me". Or "well, our officials wouldn't do that to us". More denial than anything else. How often has a crime gone down in a "nice" neighborhood and people are shocked that criminals can and do move out of the rough areas of town to do their thing?
I think Orwell wrote a manual because in many ways he was an authoritarian and a former colonist himself. He pretty much wrote what he knew from his experience in Burma and the BBC.
I order Huxley, but Orwell was a strew observer the the rising totalitarian movements of his time. As someone who lived among an anarchist society, he sought to make known the vigilance needed against authoritarian tendencies that arise from revolutionary movements, completely making the revolution redundant. His vision of a totalitarian dystopia remains the most striking among sci-fi literature. However Huxley perfected the dystopia, as force isn’t necessary, merely a false peace and control by private entities and shadow governments.
I love that in the end Ingsoc was never going to last. The party is flawed, corrupt and no matter how tight their iron grip they will always lose. Because the only thing that absolute power fears is losing its power, and it is that fear that will never leave. That fear that will cause the omnipotent to fall.
There’s a good chance that they collapsed in universe. There’s a theory that much of the explanations in the book come from some sort of future in universe documentary where Ingsoc wasn’t successful. Even if that isn’t true the lack of cleaning and supplies from Ingsoc’s enforced scarcity would make some plague and thus their collapse inevitable.
Phenomenal video! The Theory and Practice also provides a good insight into Ingsoc’s nihilistic worldview, basically saying that a society like theirs was inevitable, and destined to happen eventually, so there’s no point fighting against it. Also you should totally check out Yoshikage Kira from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventru
The government entity of 1984 operates like in that one movie about the crazy manipulative mom who gave all these meds to her daughter that made her disabled so she’d be entirely dependent on her.
That one is so obvious, i wasn´t expecting it. I remember readining it and brave new world together at age 14 and beeing paranoid for months to follow...awsome stuff
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Please do a video about Donquixote Doflamingo from One Piece or Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul
I know you get a lot of requests, and honestly every video you choose to do is really amazing, but I’d very much appreciate if you would make a video about Light Yagami from Death Note.
Heya. I love the openings to your vids, when you sync up saying "hello everyone" to someone talking. Your outro is creepily cool, too.
Anyway, request time. I wonder what you'd think of doing a character like Terence Fletcher from Whiplash, or Vernon Schillinger from Oz, both played horrifyingly amazing by J.K. Simmons. I think Vernon would be the easier vid of the two, but I wonder what your perspective would be on Mr. Fletcher. Would he make your cut as someone evil enough to do a video on?
Thanks for your amazing work man- I've been looking forward to new episodes every week since you've created this channel, and your vids have not only gotten better from an entertainment perspective, but also from a technical perspective- Your older vids had some editing or audio mistakes here and there (certainly forgivable mistakes, not trying to criticize), but I can probably count on one hand the number of mistakes you've made in the vids you've released in the past year... my bad if this isn't coming off as a compliment, but I just wanted to tell you I've noticed how your videos have improved in more ways than one since the inception of your channel.
Thank you again!
@@Ehrenhaider_Akainu Gus would make a very good video and Saul Goodman!
My suggestion for an episode would be Harlan DeGroat from "Out of the Furnace".
Just saying
Would be good and probably pretty easy
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” - CS Lewis
People can get away with anything if they can hide behind a mask of good intentions. And, as your quote suggests, even moreso if they believe it themselves.
The thing about Ingsoc is that they have none of those hypocritical delusions; they outright admit that they do what they do for pure power, nothing else. This applies more to A Brave New World''s dystopia
I'm afraid that quote is literally in opposition of what they party is about.
They are like the psychopath, the purpose of his evil is to exercise evil. The purpose of torturing and strangling women, is to torture and strangle women. The party enjoys having power, just like the psychopath enjoys having power over his victim.
" 'You are ruling over us for our own good,' he said feebly. 'You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore-'
He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O'Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five.
'That was stupid, Winston, stupid!' he said. 'You should know better than to say a thing like that.'
He pulled the lever back and continued:
'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others ; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were- cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
Good quote. Never read Lewis because of his religious beliefs. Maybe I should.
@@KevinJohnson-cv2no No, they don't. They admitted it to him because he was absolutely powerless and inconsequential. But they repeat propaganda constantly to the people, constant lies until no one questions anymore. So save your admiration for the fascists, would you?
When reading "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" Winston jumps around the book a little and so we learn the deeper meanings of "War is Peace" and "Ignorance is Strength", but not "Freedom is Slavery". In fact Winston is interrupted just before reaching that section and so we don't get to find out. It always bugged me and it wasn't until a 2nd reading that I figured it out.
If freedom is slavery, then slavery is freedom. So freedom from...what? O'Brien explains to Winston that he does not exist. A statement which requires doublethink given that "I do not exist" is a paradox but this is the final form of doublethink: complete self erasure. The entire ideology of Ingsoc is based on solipsism reality does not exist only The Party exists. The Party is immortal. The Party is forever.
That's the inner meaning of "Freedom is Slavery". If freedom is slavery then slavery is freedom from death. From one's own mortality. Total surrender to the party via doublethink means ceasing to exist and becoming one with the eternal being that is Ingsoc. Through doublethink, they achieve immortality.
Well hot damn, you really hit the nail with this one...
Nice. My interpretation of that which I spoke of in my high school presentation was that "freedom is slavery" is that when one gives into the party they are free from the responsibility of the burdens of independence free-thinking, self-awareness, all of that is laid on the shoulders of the Party and Big Brother. So you can have the freedom to just let it carry you through life, but your interpretation is far more powerful and terrifying, indeed.
Reminds me of a passage from World War Z where a Russian soldier says that by submitting to Absolute Authority she was free from responsibility for her actions
The law of Gravity is nonsense. If I think I float and you think I float, then I float.
No bitches
I cant think of anything more chilling depressing and soul crushing then when Winston desperately asks Obrien "When will you shoot me" and Obrien responds
"It may take a long time. But dont give up hope."
That scene in the film devastated me when I saw it at 14 or so
The end when he loves the big brother and dies it’s so fucking horrific that i can’t even represent it with words.
@@ricc4620agreed
@@ricc4620he doesn’t die? At least not in the literal sense. It just says he loved big brother and the end. I’ve never bothered with the movie, just the book. If he died in the movie they ruined it.
@@franciscvmpbellHe didn’t die in the movie
The cool thing about the appendix is that it's really more like an epilogue, part of the story. It takes place in the setting and comes from the perspective of some future historian writing about newspeak and Ingsoc _after the fact,_ something which shouldn't be possible if the party system was still in place. In the end, Winston was right. No matter how totalizing an authoritarian system might be, it can't last forever, and people will be there at the end to survive and build something new.
I never noticed that! that brings a nice little bit of hope for 1984's world after such a tragic ending for Winston
The thought that no brutal regime lasts forever comes from a popular will for salvation. It's a myth, a wish.Look at China, totalitarian since its inception thousands of years ago. No Chinese has ever known freedom like there is in the US and Europe. And they never will.
There is a single constant in this world, and that is change. That is why INGSOC is doomed to fail
@@forrestray9926 evil is inherently self destructive
@@forrestray9926 and INGSOC actually knows this, and to ensure they leave as much as a damaging mark as they can they regulate the inner and out parties to insanity. INGSOC knows that to forsake everything in the pursuit and application of power, eventually they'll be knocked out by something that is willing to go further than even them.
O'Brian is one of the most terrifying villains I've seen in all of literature, he might have only appeared for like 3 chapters near the end but every line of dialogue had so much power and weight behind it
The fact he wins helps
@@seeker296 Does he?
@@larindanomikos crushingly
for-ever!
The last chapters of 1984 was the first time a book actually scared me
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face - forever”
- O'Brien
Powerful.
+AI
😬
One of the most depressing and horrific images that in fiction.
That an orwell quote.
There's a tiny glimmer of hope in 1984- the appendix for Newspeak. Despite the seeming unassailable power of the party, the appendix for Newspeak is written in past tense.
That is interesting, I never noticed that.
There's also the theory that Oceania isn't as big as it claims to be. This theory posits that Oceania only consists of airstrip one (Britain) and the rest of the world is outside of Oceanias control.
@@mappingshaman5280 I always had a different view. I wondered if there eve was an enemy. If foreign powers even exist anymore. Only way I could think that the world there could be worse, guess it shows my fatalistic view. That’s an interesting thought I never had, that Oceania was vastly smaller than it claims to be. Kind of reminiscent of North Korea in that sense.
T
@@mappingshaman5280 If Oceania is deliberately stagnating their military technology at WWII levels, they would have been invaded by NATO long ago with 1984 weapons outclassing them completely.
I always liked the theory that the other super states are fabrications created by the party and that Oceania is a North Korean-style rump state whose borders don't exceed the British Isles while the rest of the world is similar to ours.
Funny, this is kind of what The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen did
They bring this idea up in the book and dismiss it. It's made very clear that Oceania cannot exist without the unique geopolitics that make it possible.
@@doger944 yea but you don’t know has everything Winston and the reader get told about the outside of Britain is through ministry of truth what lies about everything.
So we don’t know if Oceania all owns the world, is pertly telling the truth or is just Britain because all information in Oceania is controlled by the party.
I never heard this theory but it's entirely possible, we'll never know how much of that book was the truth.
So you haven't read the book. Or if you read it, it's been a while. The book mentions party members who hail from New York from America.
What I really liked about this book is the fact that from the start we see Winston as the hero of the story. The moment he joins "the resistance" makes the reader think he's gonna fight with ingsoc and eventually lead freedom fighters to victory. But it turns out that everything was a trap and Winston instead of being a hero is just another victim of The Party being no different than thousands of other people who commited crime against ingsoc
Chilling
Agreed
And the way it happens so quickly too, literally out of nowhere he’s captured, tortured, then forced to submit.
Same , at first I was like , when is the fighting going to commence and if there won't be a fight what grand strategic plan exists that will be enacted. More and more the book was coming to an end and I was wondering what sick quick revolution will defeat the party. Only to the painting to drop and the tele screen revealed. I was imagining Winston meeting big brother or the ruling body of the party , a final showdown ...ugh
When I first read it I was stunned. ‘He capitulated’ I kept repeating ‘he f-n completely capitulated’ it bothered me deeply for longer than I care to remember.
What was always so horrifying to me was that in the end, it wasn’t just enough to kill Winston, they had to make him love Big Brother before they killed him.
It wasn't to make him love BB it was to make him believe in his own guilt and admit it so after he is killed he can't become a martyr.
@@robirvine6970 a matyr for who? That civilisation was lost.
@@robirvine6970 No, it was because torturing him was what the inner party liked to do. The purpose of torture is torture. Nothing else.
@@robirvine6970 I don’t think that was the reason. I’m sure his confession would’ve been recorded ahead of time, so if O’Brien felt it wasn’t believable enough, they would just have a three hour torture session to get Winston motivated to do it right. Besides, it wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t believable, no one was ever going to question it.
@@jco156 Exactly. There was no way to start any serious movement in that society, and the party knew it.
1984 is one the most terrifying novels I ever read in my life. Gashlighting to horrifically Extreme level.
Gashlighting? Is that like convincing a woman she doesn't have a vagina?
No, it's thinking that there's any gaslighting happening. This shit was a warning about the cycles of human history, and somehow the high have pre-empted it and make kids read it in middle and early high school, way before they should, and they don't understand, grow to hate, and refuse to take this kind of thing seriously. The school I went to treated animal farm like a kids story. The Chronicles of Narnia, fairy tales. They leave the very things that would be their undoing right there for anyone to pick up, so great is the arrogance. Yet it seems, again and again, that arrogance is perfectly warranted, cause they are still there, we are still here, and that wheel is not slowing not even a little. And now, in an age where more than ever, we have access to knowledge men like Mr. Blair only imagined in his worst nightmares, and all the things he so desperately warned against are on full display and celebrated and rewarded then at the peak of the ones on displays usefulness, they get stomped on like a rat, and even watching something like this, so carefully crafted to expose the truth without becoming an example, without saying too terribly much, and still people don't get it. They are scared, horrified, and thankful it's not real, when the guy was teaching a history lesson in hopes someone would take steps to break that cycle, and they eat it up, thinking it won't happen because they know the truth, instead of realizing it's been happening over and over for all of history and the warning isn't to stop it, it can't be stopped. It's an invitation to leave the system and the cycle it feeds. It's not meant to be scary. It's nowhere nearly as scary as what happens behind the doors of Parliament and in the minds polluted by TikTok. Nothing could possibly be scary as what you see everyday in this world. And it only grows darker and larger. An invitation to go get some fresh air and keep walking, never look back.
I was just wondering how things like this book have existed for so long and literally nothing has changed. Are we just stupid or what
meh we are already beyond it. All you have to do is to say to Americans "terrorist," "freedom," or "national security" and they'll hate whoever the party wants. Just because. The two parties do exactly the same, only that some use the rich as a pretext and the other the rest. Even speaking those words are motive enough to be under survaillaince
And now we get to live through it yay
I honestly think the most horrifying thing about INGSOC and the world of 1984 is the lack of laws. In my opinion nothing is more terrifying than the unknown. And not knowing what you’ve done, especially in an area as intimate as your own thoughts, is especially scary. Not knowing what your supposed to do or act, eliminates the ability to act along. This shows that every shred of resistance to the monolith of INGSOC’s control over every single aspect of one’s life. That everything you deem yours is not yours but the party’s.
The Party read about Hammurabi's Code as a guide on what not to do.
And here we have exhibit A of a thoughtcriminal.
A true Party member, someone who loves Big Brother and the Party, would understand what position to have and when, without needing to think, without any kind of stress. It's automatic, robotic, almost skilful how they change and hide the imperfections of truth in their mind.
They are slaves to the Party, and have found freedom in it.
I remember reading this in school. The line "He loved Big Brother" still sends chills down my spine.
DO YOU HAVE "1984" IN YOUR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM?!
@@Tindovich I don't know if it's commonplace in the UK, but we did at my school. We also did Animal Farm!
@@ChrisMuzz Ok.
@@ChrisMuzzLucky
Ooof
O'Brian gives me chills, he's such a well written and realistic villain.
Richard Burton's portrayal of him in the movie was especially chilling, as he was depicted as a man with no empathy or human emotion of any kind. He was exactly what he described himself as: a single, unfeeling cell of the body politic.
The novel isn't scary because it says "War is peace" and "Freedom is slavery"... it is scary because it explains these statements so well and in such exquisite detail, that you find yourself (even if just for a fleeting moment) agreeing with them...
If your a fool
@@LargeInCharge77 First of all, it's YOU'RE.
And second, you've obviously never read the book, so why even bother commenting here?
I’m just about at chapter 2 but I have really noticed how illustratively he describes the inherent contradictions within, what I would describe as, Ur-Fascism (although Umberto Eco was just a teenager at the time of 1984 being published, and clearly had read 1984 by the time he wrote the essay I’m alluding to). His depiction of the human instinct to conform with the expectations of those around you when participating within an inhuman, dehumanizing, or demoralizing environment is haunting.
@@AlexeiVoronin don’t be a dick, the whole point of 1984 is how oppressive and controlling these ideas and institutions need to be to become so ingrained and pervasive, being able to see the logic in them is the point, these laws are made to sound easy to understand and relate to because that is what the oppressor wants, if the oppressor can get you to surrender without a fight then you are more willing to accept them in totality
im shocked if anybody thought concepts like “doublespeak” were good and agreeable lol whaaaat
God, O’brians speech about power was bone chilling. And your delightfully monotone voice, almost completely devoid of emotion, was enough to elicit feelings of hopelessness in me as well. Great video!
Gods name is too good to be used in vain
@@jackbloomer1334 No-one cares. Not relevant what-so-ever to the post. Poster doesn't even say "God" in vain.
@@jackbloomer1334 It has been used in vain for more than two millenia, it means nothing.
@@nix98zlcy for real on that the God of the Gaps and there's a few gaps left for God to explain it. Religion was a everything practice to was suppose to be a social instruction on how to behave,think,explain,etc basically it was made to explain things like science and get people to obey laws but imposing a all seeing and all knowing non physical being at the helm of all judgement..
@Jack Bloomer Judeo-Christian God's name isn't God thus you can't use it in vain.
1984 is pure horror. Scarier than most horror films.
Ingsoc is nice, but it did Not Go far enough
@@endloesung_der_braunen_frage Achtung ! "SS" steckt auch in "VerfaSSungSSchutz" und "SonnenStaatLand", und ist vermutlich eine Abkürzung für "Schwarze Sonne"
@@scathiebaby Ich habe die Initialen "SS" Absichtlich gewählt als Referenz an die Einsatzgruppen Nationalsozialistische Schutzstaffel. Diese Einheiten der SS führten unzählige Massaker in der Soviet Union an Zivilisten aus und leiteten praktisch den Holocaust ein.
Ich habe in diese Einheiten angelehnt um meinen genozidalen Hass gegen Nazis zum Ausdruck zu bringen, in dem ich mich selbst als Äquivalent der SS Einsatzgruppen deskribiere.
Ja, in der Tat, strebe ich nach einem Holocaust gegen Nazis und alles andere lebensunwerte rechtsextreme Gesindel.
@@endloesung_der_braunen_frage you’re hopeless.
@@petarmilich8684 why?
The book really had a chilling description of how Winston was ground to paste by the torture. Whatever was left of him at the end, sitting there drinking the gin was hardly a man at all. No hair, no teeth, no hope. They killed him mind and body. Now that's a fate worse than death.
The last two sentences read, „He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.“ 😮
In the end he was just like the man he saw in that same pub, drinking and pissing himself before eventually being hanged
Napoleon from Animal Farm would be a good subject for The Vile Eye.
Analyzing Evil: Joseph Stalin
Analyzing Evil: Mao Zedong
Analyzing Evil: Pol Pot
Animal farm was fucking stupid
Analyzing Evil: Idi Amin
1984 and Brave New World (I read them basically together) were the first books I ever read in school that genuinely got me to think about society and my views about my place therein, these books legitimately terrified me. Would love to see a video about Brave New World to compliment this one
I was the same as you, I read them one after the other. I’ve always preferred 1984 over brave new world but they are both fantastic books that I recommend everyone read at least once.
Anthem, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand were very profound for me, as well... especially Atlas Shrugged...
@@Joshua_Froschauer Ayn Rand the hypocrite
@@Joshua_Froschauer Both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are capitalist propaganda written by a moronic bigot. These books only facilitate primitive ideals and in the case of Atlas Shrugged specifically, show us a laughable "future" based upon false pretenses. A bike is not inherently worse than a plane, nor vice versa. Aun Rand disregards any sort of context. The only thing profound about her writings is how brain dead they manage to be.
Edit: Just for your own information, this author, someone who's life was essentially saved by "socialist" ideas, I.E, public universities, welfare programs, etc, went on to say the New Deal was the first step towards American totalitarianism. Yes, the same New Deal which brought millions out of the stagnating economic crisis and was almost universally praised, asides from conservatives who felt it was "too big of a spending." She has her life to thank for socialism and yet she is too dull to realize it.
@@Joshua_Froschauer yikes
The only reason why Ingsoc isn't reality right now is that Orwell assumes perfection where it just isn't possbile. There is no perfect surveillance nor is there a complete absence of conflict in the upper class. Moreover one can only control the perception of reality, not reality itself. Or in other words: If O'Brien would have to levitate in order to survive, he would simply die.
O'Brien didn't say levitation was real in the sense that you mean, he only said that if they both truly believe it happens, then there is no difference to it actually happening, and thus (to them) the law of gravity is meaningless.
Most Dems know the election was fiddled, but they double-think themselves into a place where they 'believe' it was fair and just.
@@1977ajax This only works if O'Brien doesn't really need to fly. My point is: if Ingsoc faces an existential threat that they cannot solve by brainwashing, say an asteroid impact, they are done for. And if the problem is more selective than a crashing stellar object, the supressed population might even survive.
Laws of nature can neither be bent or broken, no matter how powerfull one is.
As to the election (I assume you mean the 2020 election in the USA): I'm German so I'm clearly missing the inside view. But to my knowledge no election fraud that would have made any impact on the result was ever proven despite numerous attempts and accusations.
True. Even within the rules of this universe it is theoretically possible that someone could infiltrate the party with amazing acting skills and run the rest out as they cannot actually read minds only squeeze with an iron fist.
@@twixtwix2915 they cannot read minds.. yet, a Mind after all is just fatty tissue with electrical impulses running through it, nothing about it is impossible to decipher.
Counterpoint: North Korea exists. It's far from "perfection" but they do damn well at repressing people, and routinely kill people in their own party whenever theres an inkling of doubt in them.
Bruh thats literaly like 1984
ikr literally 1984
You don't say?
Houston, we have an idiot
@@deletdis6173 It's a meme.
this reminds me of 1984
Controversial opinion: the sad truth is that the dystopian vision of 1984 doesn't just apply to modern day dictatorships: some of the methods of INGSOC are also practiced by modern day democracies (ie keeping the masses poor, stupid and spoonfed propaganda, giving the populace an enemy to hate, engaging in constant warfare and glorifying the military, editing history, and attempting to control language/the definition of certain words, and overall ensuring that people are unquestioningly loyal to the country and/or party, and attacking any skeptics as unpatriotic)
Good take.
Also; all the things you mention have been at play since before the writer of 1984 was even born, so I wouldn't really say it should be controversial.
Just of the top of my head I'm reminded of how car manufacturers shaped public opinion about people dying after being run over during the early 1900s so that people would blame the people that were hit instead of the drivers. Now we all just accept that streets are for cars, despite many city streets being older than traffic.
@@NeroIML before cars, people would be run down by carriages with even less hope, of last minute reprieve although, marketing is directly linked, to 'soft mind control'.
Every single one of those features has been in humanity since the inception of civilization. and in fact most of those we've seen in a much more severe degree in the past than they are now.
The US is every bit as authoritarian and a threat to world peace as the countries that America demonizes in our own ways. 1984 is a socialist critique on authoritarianism, and it applies pretty broadly.
Orwell was an anarchist, so he opposed authoritarianism in all its forms (fascistic, democratic, Stalinist, etc.). 1984 isn't a rejection of socialism, but of Stalinism, so if you see parallels in a liberal democracy, Orwell intended for you to see those parallels, because he rejected the authoritarian elements of liberal democracy too
Sadly good doesn’t always win, but evil will always destroy itself. It’s in its nature.
I think there’s a quote out there somewhere along the lines of this but for me it’s inspired by JRR Tolkien, kinda gives me hope that all that this shii will come crashing down one day.
Yes evil is self destructive, and above the choking gasses of Mordor lies purity and hope worth fighting for.
Absolutely love Tolkien for his Theology and Philosophy, man had divine intuition greater than Dante and Milton.
cope
Every human political system contains the seeds of it's own destruction, you just need to nuture them to fruition.
That feeling is by design. If you feel progress is inevitable, you're less likely to spend every waking moment and ounce of energy fighting corrupt systems. It becomes like a prophecy, someone else's job.
It's the just world fallacy.
@@kingkoi6542 idk about Dante, that seems a step too far towards jerkoff land in terms of praising Tolkien
I'm impressed. I read this for Honors English as a High school senior. 1984 definitely outclassed any dystopian I've ever read. Most modern dystopian fiction is just a variation of the Hero story arc. The bitter loss at the ending of 1984 is more appropriate.
Could you cover the story of Animal Farm? The pigs are interesting villians.
I like that you deem then all pigs at that table, whick they all are.
@@beCoCOi The Pigs are the main villians. I know it's more complicated than that but they make the most sense as a focal point of the story.
Unfortunately Animal Farm might be too similar to 1984 to make a separate video since it explores similar themes.
It's in my top 10 favorite books.
@@antidotebrain69 Mine too.
@@antidotebrain69 It could be interesting looking at Squeeler
1984 outclassed any book I've ever read period.
I always thought the way the Inner Party treated the proles was interesting. They keep them poor and dumb, but also give them basic pleasures and don't expect any loyalty or devotion in return.
Does this remind you of anything?
@@steveconrad8857 by all means, go out and survive completely on your own, away from the evil party that oppresses you so much. Funny thing, nobody would stop you.
It is a thing that is also very true for normal dictatorships, that the masses are not required to be loyal but to be apathetic.
bread and circus. beer and football. weed and music festivals, what have you
@@TheTGOAC Not true. If I go to "public" land and try and build myself a dwelling and try to obtain food by hunting and gathering I would most certainly be stopped.
I would pay $$$ to have 1984 as an audio book read by this guy. His voice suits the book in my opinion.
It’s not a human being. It’s a computer generated voice.
@@ArmyJamesno dude he’s a person
Frankly it does not sound "right" to my ears.
To me it sounds monotonous, droning and hypnotic.
There is no significant tonal variation, change of cadence, variable pauses etc.
@@Kavala76 perfect for when Winston's reading the manifesto at the end 😂. Loved the book but that was the only part I disliked.
@@user-Nice-Rice_2468 No it’s not.
Clicked on this without realizing that it's long enough to be a movie in theatres.
Mr. Eye, you've really outdone yourself on this one.
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face, forever"
That was the quote that stuck with me the most when I read it for the first time
Based
As Long as it is my boot doing the stomping.
@@endloesung_der_braunen_fragenerd
@@endloesung_der_braunen_frage troll
@@thatoneguyonyoutube4897 Nope. I am Genuine
1984 was the first book I read for "pleasure" when I was a teenager.. it changed my in some ways and sparked my passion for books and reading.
Thanks for this analysis, very good!
Hehe, same ))
I love 1984, it perfectly describes anyone I disagree with.
Funniest comment
How ironic
@@TheSkyGuy77 the great irony of 1984 is that in the real world people of all stripes actually believe what the original poster is joking about
@@christianweibrecht6555 😪 it's a hurtful truth, the things people will justify doing to the sentience, of humans for the ends, they desire
@@8thhousemoonrabbit205 sentience?
in 1984 I was just starting High School and one of my friends wore a shirt, "It's 1984, Orwell was WRONG". I'd amend that today, "It's 2022, Orwell was EARLY".
Dude, Tee Spring a design and sell that shit. That's a great idea.
Yeah, the worlds nowhere as vlbad as 1984 and never will be. Calm down.
@@robirvine6970 Society is miles closer to 1984 than it ever should’ve been.
@@steelerfreak1977 See the problem with people who say this is that they always mean that like college sophomores might call them racist or whatever. Universally those who say this believe that wanton exercise of force and cruelty for its own sake is good, and should be employed against the "woke mob" or trans people or whatever their bugbear is.
Doublethink, if you will.
@@steelerfreak1977You must not be very intelligent lmao
The only book/movie to ever have truly terrified me. The ideas that Obrien talks about with winston in the end about absolute control over humanity and even themselves, the revelation of the truth of Ingsoc's motives, and mostly the idea of "if we think it, then it is" just shake me to my core every time i revisit this story. The fact that the party believes so much in the idea of ultimate debasement that they are willing to become part of it is just horrifying.
Well said
It reminds me of the unidentified advisor to George W. Bush who once mocked a journalist for living in "the reality-based community". Rumour has it that this "advisor" was actually Karl Rove, Bush's deputy chief of staff.
He apparently said "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality-judiciously, as you will-we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
If someone like the Joker were placed in this type of world, he'd be the good guy for once. Chaos would be a virtue against contradicting, cruel tyranny.
An ironic way to think about it.
🤓
Not necessarily a "good guy", but more of a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", I think. If evil fights evil, good just needs to back away slowly and not disturb them!
@@AnomalyINC Yeah, the Joker is usually the greater evil. But Ingsoc makes the Joker the lesser evil in my opinion.
1984's Oceania and Bioshock's Rapture couldn't be any more polar opposite, and yet despite the extreme differences, (1984: collectivism, Bioshock: Individualism.)
One similarity is that both have a lack of regard for the well-being of the lower classes. The other is the higher classes still having to answer to a figure of importance. (Andrew Ryan, Big Brother)
This led to Rapture's downfall. And it's unknown if this also brought about the downfall of Oceania.
But the components of Rapture's ideology is man exerting its will upon the universe, Andrew Ryan sought more than what he was given. The same can be said for Frank Fontaine.
If such men were placed in the world of 1984, they will never be fully satisfied with what they were given by the Party. The ministry of love may try to keep this in check, but it is only a matter of time before it ends up collapsing because of problems like this. So ironically, greed, ambition, and self-interest were a few key components for the evil occurring in Rapture, it would actually be a good thing to happen in 1984. Anarchy would be the best outcome for a world like 1984. I mean that world seems pretty depressing and lacks the fun parts of life, who would be satisfied with life under Oceania? very few I'd imagine.
@@antibritish_anarchsim1547 what bro Lmao
An almost 2 HOUR episode of Analyzing Evil. Yes, yes, all of it, into my veins
The guy who's explaining the eventual plan of INGSOC sounds like a Sith Lord explaining his plans for the galaxy.
I think the most terrifying aspect of 1984 was the education of the children and the reinforcement of it by the introduction to the Red Sash , the idea that the system was going eventually going eliminate all ideas of being an individual and everyone will give credence to Big Brother , that only the System was worthy of praise and the self was simply to be snuffed out
I had this thought. It was so terrifying when that man's own son turned him in and he was so oblivious and yet not about what his son was capable of and yet somewhat proud I think?
It's been 11 years since I read the book and it was his daughter not his son who turned him in. He was still a dolt tho lol
Totally agree. That made me really uncomfortable. The book does a good job of capturing the "generational divide". Winston is old enough to have lived at least a good chunk of his childhood pre-Ingsoc, and while his memories are hazy it does seem to have some influence on his personality, and level of commitment to party ideology. But the children are true believers. Once Winston's generation are gone they are what's left: mean spirited little fanatics. No hope for the future and the next generation because they're already captured.
@@michaelbuick6995 always thought that once Winston was gone , would there EVER be anyone like him again ??
@@pain5835 It's a direct model of Austrian(?) Factory model created in the 1800s to create drones.
@@pain5835 Have you noticed how colleges and degress have created almost an elitest speach? Where you can only have an opinion on something if you have a degree in that field?
The biggest grin I've ever been given by fiction was in Alan Moore's LOXG: BLACK DOSSIER collection, where we see the beginnings of the fifties in that alternate universe, and the best thing is seeing all the remains of INGSOC being torn down and replaced by a better government, though not really a more kind one, since MI6 and the people who control James Bond are based in the remains of the Ministry of Love. At least there's pieces of INGSOC visible, including a copy of PORNSEC , the hideous remains of porn as the Party sees it. Blackest humor I've ever seen.
That sounds like a hilariously cathartic and unrealistic fanfic. Like it sounds akin to a comic about Johnny sins beating the absolute shit out Kim Jon un.
That just sounds cringey as hell. By any chance, was the bid bad INGSOC Nazi commies defeated with the power of 'friendship?'
Sounds shit
@@oceancactusrequiem6232 it’s got a pretty low rating so that’s not unfounded
@@oceancactusrequiem6232 Friendship is just another word for the hope and coordination between individuals who trust each other.
It is extremely powerful, it's what makes units into brothers. It turns a single idea into a revolution. To assume that such a simple thing as "friendship" cannot take down a Nazi regime is to not believe that the allies couldn't defeat the actual Nazis, as it required the will of people to cooperate, strategize, and realign their judgement in consideration of their fellow man.
There is a reason why INGSOC wanted to stamp it out, 'cause it's damn powerful alright.
If Friendship is cringe, then I'm cringe as hell. But that cringe is worth it if it can create nukes, armies, and ideologies that make 1984 impossible.
To me, this book became truly special when O'Brian explained to Winston that the Party's true motivations weren't some stupid "We're doing this for Humanities benefit" shit, but rather it was purely just a selfish bid for Power. Learning about Orwells IRL life also puts the contents of 1984 into perspective, as Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War for the Anarchists. He was shot by, and himself shot at Fascists, then watched as the Stalin-alligned Communists betrayed the Anarchists. He physically fought and was betrayed by Authoritarians.
A lot of the book was literally just Orwell copying what he saw around him from the Nazis and the Soviets. A lot of the stuff that happens in the story are very real things that have happened in the Past, and happen all over the world today.
Half of the comments *really* need to read or at least get a summary of Homage to cantalonia.
Lies are bought and sold each and every day. A competition of who can be the best Liar, the Best GasLighter.
I never expected you to do 1984, but O'Brien is definitely one of the most chilling literary villains, so it is welcome.
O'Brien is not a villain. He had been caught by the Party a long time ago. He is responsible for his actions. But, what was done to him to take his rationalizations to this point? A villain, no; a non-silent bystander, maybe.
@@michaeltowslee4111 Most definitely someone who believes in torture.
This book legitimately affected me, and I hope it'll continue to do so, because at its core is an extremely valuable lesson on authoritarianism, power and those who would seek it through any means necessary. To that point, this video is also amazing in the way you've managed to summarize the book's ideas and lay them all out in a condensed format, all the while analyzing what they mean in the context of the real world. Fantastic job!
The one piece of solace you could find in a world like 1984 is that, for all the party's tall of power, they cant halt the March of time within the universe. Eventually the sun would explode and consume the earth, and just as ingsoc would erase history so would the cosmos erase the planet.
The comfort comes from knowing that, in time, any totalitarian regime will be humbled by the universe and by entropy
The Party would destroy itself and the Planet before that could occur.
@@thomasjorge4734 the whole point of the Party is to prevent destruction, rather, only destroy enough to regulate supply.
@@jacknewell1847 If you truly believe that the party is truly that benign, then you have failed the lesson
The true solace you can find in 1984 is the fact that that's not how the real world operates on a fundamental level, stemming from the fact that the economy and society operates in completely different ways
@@yoavpekelman7000 it works that way.. in some ways, here and there, there are certain truths you cannot utter in society, you must at all time, exert doublethink over certain topics, and the list of those topics grows by the year.
It's a great day when you're on your lunch break and Vile Eye comes out with an HOUR AND A HALF VIDEO ON INGSOC!!! I'm about to weld the shit out of this container while listening too this.
I used to spray the shit out of truck beds with bedliner while listening to these
Every aspect of Ingsoc is extremely well thought and, and that's what makes it chilling.
As utterly horrible as INGSOC is, I've always found "The theory and practice of oligarchical collectivism" to be a totally fascinating read! Thanks for reading that in its entirety!
Jobu Tupaki from Everything Everywhere All At Once would make a fun episode of this series, in my opinion. I understand you have tons of requests, but that’s mine.
Seconded
I'm curious if she is considered evil or if the nihilism that consumed her is the evil? Or both? It would be a fun breakdown. It's such a lovely and thought provoking movie.
I think you spelled it incorrectly, It's name is actually Juju Chewbacca
Excellent suggestion from an excellent movie.
Though it wasn't intentional, 1984 has some of the best worldbuilding of a story I've ever seen. So much detail into making this society feel truly dystopian in ways that most other novels, especially YA novels, have often failed to even barely approach.
Uh it's not a YA novel
@@sn1000khe never said it was 😢😢😢😢
It’s a shame this book isn’t taught as thoroughly in high schools. I’m mine they gave us a watered down packet instead of the real book. After reading a few pages of the packet I asked for the original book in it’s entirety and my teacher was genuinely shocked
The biggest irony is one of the biggest themes of the books is language and information control... Giving a shortened, cherry picked packet of it is just poetic
Its shocking its taught at all
Schools are actively indoctrinating people these days so why would they help you spot it?
I hope you got one.
and then the president came to your classroom and clapped
I would love to see you talk about John Fitzgerald from the Revenant. One of my favorite villains from one of my favorite movies.
So many great villains to choose from. Scorpio from Dirty Harry, le Gris from The Last Duel, etc. you never know what you’ll get from this channel but it’s great!
love that movie so much! 10/10
Great choice, also Vought and Homelander from The Boys (the show)
The single factor that makes this story so frightening is the simple observation of the good still existing with it. The fact that no one shall ever escape from their own humanity, from their deepest intuition that must recognize such an unassailable power as evil, something that ought to not be, is a living nightmare. Comparing the world of 1984 to that of Hell, I think that's mere flattery.
John Hurt did such an amazing portrayal of Winston.
John Hurt is just great in everything he’s in. Underrated actor.
Oh I adore political dystopia stories, especially Orwell's, going to enjoy this one.
You should also watched the movie Soylent Green since the movie is like a capitalist version of 1984 but with contamination.
@@Gamer-ry6xy 1984 and soylent green compliment each other well, different sides of totalitarianism but both very evil.
Orwell was right to fear this type of future. Not to mention that if Nazi Germany’s level of fascism and the Soviet Union’s level of Stalinism fused together forming what would’ve been known as INGSOC.
Their doctrine speaks of freedom. But only in a selective sense. The very notion of individualism has nearly ceased to exist and if you break any laws that Big Brother or the Thought Police has put in place then you will suffer just as bad if not worse then a holocaust survivor or a political prisoner of the Soviet Union.
Well he saw the failure of right wing socialism, Hitler, but probably realised full well that left wing English socialism (obviously) still existed
@@Faeron1984 Correct he had the right type of fear and now far left wingers are in truth just as bad as the far right wingers as well.
@@Faeron1984 Orwell critiqued totalitarianism. Never did he equated fascism and socialism though. The point of the book is not a critique of any particular ideology but of a doctrine that can exist all across the political spectrum.
If anything stalinism and fascism are complete opposites if one accepts another axis other than the liberty-authoritarian one.
@@Kolokommouna He was probably a very big fan of cold war horseshoe theory. Apparently he wrote lists of suspected communist supporters in England for the police (I guess getting a bullet in the neck by a Stalinist sniper and watching them repress Spanish leftists would really motivate someone towards that direction).
But anyways the Stalinists never wanted to genetically alter Europe to create "breathing space for the master race", no matter how repressive the regime was.
Now we have democrats
I'd choose to live in the Soviet Union under Stalin in a heartbeat than live in Oceania under INGSOC. North Korea today is eerily close to how INGSOC is described.
Yeah if Kim had access to this technology the he’d easily make himself “big brother”
I’d rather live under Nazis occupation then under Oceania and ingsoc
And that’s saying something because I am in one of the groups targeted by the Nazis they didn’t just target Jews they targeted lgbt, other religions, other races and disabled people (like me) and basically everyone that didn’t fit into hitlers “master race” would be killed or enslaved
well, if stalin was capable of doing a INGSOC level shit, he would, any socialist would
@@Nword2000 Orwell was a socialist.
Also the Zapatistas don't resemble INGSOC in the slightest, despite being openly socialist.
@@randomarcgunner4543 i am sure they would accept outside takes on how slaving ppl by state is actually bad and would certainly respect personal freedoms and would certainly not brainwash kids to how good the party and the cause is, socialists have never done that for sure
I'd love to see you do an analysing evil: Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
Missing out on Tuco from Breaking Bad!
Hell, I'd love to see both.
@@personanongratis Yes. I would be honored to have a vid .. (reads comment again). I'll let myself out
heck everyone in BB even
You gotta have Lalo. He took over for two seasons.
Great video. A random thought occurred as you quoted O'Brien's "confession" about power to Winston; the Party is the closest non-magical, "real-world" equivalent to the philosophy of the Sith from Star Wars that I think I've ever seen or read. Power for power's sake, and demonstrated almost constantly by the forceful domination over others. That said, you may have mentioned this in your video on Palpatine already, which is next on my watch list.
A term for that is Lawful Evil
Amazing video. 1984 is probably one of the scariest of humanities possible outcomes, you really did the topic justice.
can't believe Vile Eye is making a whole episode about modern politics
Facts
Why can't you?
@@SpicyTexan64 he's not saying he can't, he's just pointing out that modern politics are like 1984
He's not.
Bruh you’re on the internet openly making silly statements, I wonder if INGSOC let people do that lmao
This was very clearly your most ambitious project yet, both in length and depth, and I just wanted to say that you absolutely nailed it. I've been watching since roughly episode 30 and it is insane to see how much bolder you've gotten with the scope of your content
I recommend that everyone who hasn't bought the book yet to do so. It is absolutely amazing and a chilling warning for what we can never let happen.
I was right about to do so, but then I watched the movie and now I'm terrified the book adds internal thoughts that remove all the layers the movie has to read into. So many more questions than answers.
"never let happen" looks at north korea, china, england, etc.
You failed
@@supergobgoblin424 Nah, it's getting bad but we're not quite there yet.
@@supergobgoblin424musk vapitalism chips i n thw brain
I remember when I first read 1984 when I was in high school. I didn't read it for class, but my younger brother did. He came into my room one day, book in hand and said "You've gotta read this book man, it's crazy!"
I gotta say, i never read the whole 1984, only read snippits or wiki articles or watched vids on the topic, but from your rundown, i genuinely felt dread that i pretty much never experienced reading or watching any any horror or thriller, Orwell did an amazing job creating a setting which is scarier than any fictional monster or cataclismic divine force, because it embodies things real humans did and which they would do given the opportunity. Imagining a world like this is scarier than some demons rampaging through our world killing us with their mere appearance or getting killed by some divine whims.
Read the book bruh
I've been wanting someone to do a long deep dive on Ingsoc for a long time. So happy it's you. Love the book 1984.
As a kid, I always thought Stephen King novels were horror and to be feared. Now I’m an adult; 1984 is true horror and the thing i now fear.
King himself has said that he considers the world of 1984 "far scarier than anything I've ever written."
I agree 1000%
I first read 1984 at Grammar school in the year 1984. My English teacher encouraged me to find a book at the vast library for my interpretation and composition O'Grade. I gave a synopsis to the class about how humanity is merely a candle's flame and why the author went as far as to snuff it out. 1984 is a warning.
A historical dystopian fictional piece that becomes more non-fiction every day.
Right next to DEMOLITION MAN and IDIOCRACY.
We live more in Brave New World than 1984, which Vile Eye MUST make a video on.
You're both wrong - in the States at least you're living in Gilead or heading that way.
Boy does it, look at states like
Florida and Texas.
Black history is "crt",
Slavery is "involuntary relocation",
Slavery wasn't apart of America fabric, America isn't racist anymore and you should love America regardless of how much it shows you that it doesn't love you.
@@EmoBearRights I Don't live in the States.
While 1984 is supposed to be a cautionary tale, turns out it is actually an instruction manual.
No one would beliefe the "ministry of truth"...ohh did the aministrytion of presidend beiden form one?
Do they "fact check" stuff? Do they work with bik tek to delete "fake news"?
I'm 12 and this is deep
Ironic that this pithy statement is parroted on the internet so often that it makes the people saying it sound like braindead robots
Correct. More precisely it is a "survival manual". It is also a huge present Eric Blair did to the humanity as he has disclosed in it far in advance the evil plot which the elite were planning to be put in practice in the next future. Don't forget Eric Blair was an insider. He had access to the close circle of the ruling elite
And the horrifying thing is that those who aspire to turn the world into this hellscape, invoke the novel when people call them out.
This is one of my favorite modern classic books. I read it in high school, and re-read it several times. In my own opinion, what spelled Winston's doom was the part that you mentioned toward the end, where Winston said that something in the human spirit would rebel against this type of dystopian rule. O'Brien then asked Winston if he believed in God and Winston said No, and that was the beginning of the end for poor Winston. In essence, that is what Ingsoc and all of the historical dictators in the past and present are trying to do. They are playing God. Great video!
Now I absolutely need to see one of these analyzing the World State from Brave New World, which sits on the opposite side of the same coin to INGSOC
"you will own nothing and be happy"
-Klaus Analschwab
He'll be remembered as the most evil person in history.
Fuck he dresses like Dr. Evil
1984 is one of the most unsettling and depressing books I've ever read.
I don't know if you've caught up with Better call Saul midseason but it would be cool to see a Lalo Salamanca analysis. He's such a great antagonist in the series. It's great that Lalo's charisma as a main antagonist matches Jimmy's. Just as Gus calm cold and calculated demeanor matched Walter's.
If Lalo didn't seem to care for certain people who were killed and didn't occasionally exhibit outbursts of anger, he'd be a great representation of a psychopath.
@@Wkeiebbd Yeah, but by diagnosis only. His behavior isn't really indicative of even a high functioning sociopath.
Saul is a sociopath, which sounds weird but in truth he's actually a very realistic depiction of one. They're not often sinister like media portrays, they usually just can't help themselves but to fall on bad habits.
I think two that would be amazing to cover would be one Nina Myers from "24." a traitor who, according to Jack Bauer, is the worst kind, a traitor who believes in nothing! And another might be Nina Sayers from "Black Swan." She's both the hero and antagonist to her own story, an alter ego, that drives someone to near self-destruction.
Every girl called Nina is the impersonation of evil.
24 haven't heard about that TV show in a long time!
Black Swan, that would be interesting.
@@larindanomikos one of my fav movies also!
Jack Bauer would be a good pick as wlwl
The day you published this I realized I shouldn't watch this without reading it first. So in my free time I started listening to the audiobook. I finally finished it. Took longer than planned. But now i can finally watch your vid.
This video reminded me I've always wanted to see a breakdown of another John Hurt adjacent adaption, High Chancellor Sutler from V for Vendetta. Lots of similar themes though.
Yes
Yeah I think it was definitely meant to be a deliberate reference, having said that hurt knocked it out of the park either way 😊
This is the single most terrifying video you've released to date. Makes my insides churn just thinking about both the fictional world of 1984 and the real-world parallels...
Can’t shit in the local pool? Literally 1984.
As much as I've read 1984, I still watched it because you have an amazing reading voice Vile. Thank you for your work
I normally like shorter videos, but this one, I think, requires that much time to analyze. Thank you
The stuff regarding the manipulation of language and thought control is so strikingly relevant today.
The world that INGSOC creates has one purpose, to foster a certain kind of power which it enjoys experiencing.
The kind of power is the one where Stalin gets a death list and upon seeing it adds a few thousand extra lives, just because he can. Just for the sick pleasure of it, no purpose other than his enjoyment. It's the kind of power psychopaths enjoy, where they revel in the suffering of their victims. The kind of power someone feels when they gaslight another person.
It's a world created to foster this kind of power. To be a party member you have to rejoice in the humiliation and suffering of other people.
The prime purpose of INGSOC can be found in the ministry of love, where room 101 is the ultimate goal of INGSOC. The breaking of people, the torture and all of it, IS THE POINT.
They don't want to convert you, in so much as they want to see you recognise the wonderful world they have created, wonderful from the perspective of having an endless variation and opportunities to exercise power of others. How Stalin would have loved Oceania, paradise for a psychopath like him, and being offered this cornucopia of suffering how can you do anything but love Big brother for setting it up.
I do love me some suffering ngl.
@@joeschmoe9412 fitting profile pic
Stalin who lay for days in his owm excrement because people were too afraid to disturb him when they heard a loud thud in his room. Died in part because he fired his doctors over anti-Jew paranoia.
@@richardarriaga6271 Yeah he was a piece of work. But he also probably enjoyed having, what he as an idiot saw as his "I'm so smart i went to medical school" doctor thrown in the gulag. Like a lot of tyrant he loved getting the upper hand on his betters.
Your scripts, your cadence, your insight, is all perfection I love this channel so much thank you for all your hard work
The ending to the film has a very subtle ambiguity which you often only pick up on the repeat.
In the book, Orwell categorically states that Winston “loved Big Brother.” This means that he has achieved complete self-erasure and his entire mind has become dedicated to the Party.
However, in the film, he just whispers tearfully “I love you.” And it’s ambiguous as to whether he’s referring to the image of Big Brother on the Telescreen, or if he’s referring to Julia, who’s just walked away. It could therefore mean either (if he’s referring to Big Brother) that he’s been fully “rehabilitated” as per the book, or (if he’s referring to Julia), that he didn’t commit what they agreed would be the ultimate betrayal, to stop loving her, and that they didn’t truly break him.
They completely broke him and he was 110% referring to Big Brother when he said “I love you”.
It's referring to Big Brother. The book has pretty much the same exact scene; he weeps joyfully upon seeing a picture of Big Brother in the cafe and the narration describes how Winston now feels he was foolish for rejecting Big Brother the whole time.
Reading 1984 without first reading Homage to Catalunya drives people into misunderstanding Orwell so fucking bad, it makes me wish they've read a different book instead.
Yeah it's honestly kind of wild. Dude was a anarchist militant and is now being quoted by trumpists lmao
@@ennuiii Ironic how the word "Orwellian" lost it's actual meaning by being misused and thrown round frequently, isn't?
You don't have to go that deep into him, understand how his life went and the events that paved for writting 1984
At the end of the day he was an hypocrite that wrote a list of several "suspected communist sympathizers" to the British government.
@@miguelpadeiro762 Yeah, I know. He also denounced a couple of his neighbors as homosexuals to the British government which had them arrested for that.
However, it's less about Orwell himself as a person and more so about his experience in what he went through and what helped shape some of his works and the message behind. That and the historical context which is also important.
@@LaRavachole Do you have a source for that statement, I can't seem to find anything about his neighbours. Thanks.
Never imagine you would do a video about 1984. One of the few books that i've actually read through many many times, even got a big fanmade poster of Big Brother above my bed lmao. I hope that this video inspires people to read it or listen to the audiobook (Narrated by Andrew Wincott).
@Dani What I've always loved about 1984, is that no matter how many times I read it, it always manages to feel fresh.
You're surprised a hugely popular and successful book has videos on it? Dont you use Google or UA-cam?
@@robirvine6970 You have to admit that this is something of a departure, for this channel. Normally, the Analyzing Evil series focuses on individual characters- not complete ideologies.
A big thing that struck me as terrifying. Is that Winston's torture is, in essence, education.
In all socialist and communist societies education and torture are the same thing. They train their victims with pain and fear to conform, so it is a brittle and easily compromisable system.
@@rozzgrey801 scary shit.
@@rozzgrey801Found the ignorant capitalist
Why do you think it says 101 on the door
@@SgtMajorSkull I listened to the book last week, and man I didn't realize that but yeah that makes complete sense now.🤯
Indeed, Orwell created this masterpiece as a cautionary tale... but I'm pretty sure it's been used as a manual all over the world. Terrible, but I guess the book and the horrible system he details works so well, that people with no morals could help themselves.
Another book that was a cautionary tale but seemingly is used as a manual: Huxley's "Brave New World".
@@RaderizDorret Here's an interesting theory I heard once: These books were pushed into the public eye (being required reading in some schools, for example) as a way for those who would do such things to laugh in the face of their victims. Just some food for thought.
@@ZacHawkins42 I think it's more like "oh, that's just a story. There's no way it can happen to me". Or "well, our officials wouldn't do that to us". More denial than anything else. How often has a crime gone down in a "nice" neighborhood and people are shocked that criminals can and do move out of the rough areas of town to do their thing?
I think Orwell wrote a manual because in many ways he was an authoritarian and a former colonist himself.
He pretty much wrote what he knew from his experience in Burma and the BBC.
@@ShinigamiInuyasha777 So because Orwell was an Englishman in Burma and the BBC, he wants to establish IngSoc? Are you serious?
I order Huxley, but Orwell was a strew observer the the rising totalitarian movements of his time. As someone who lived among an anarchist society, he sought to make known the vigilance needed against authoritarian tendencies that arise from revolutionary movements, completely making the revolution redundant. His vision of a totalitarian dystopia remains the most striking among sci-fi literature. However Huxley perfected the dystopia, as force isn’t necessary, merely a false peace and control by private entities and shadow governments.
My only problem with A brave New world is that the premise was completely decimated by automation
Huxley was Orwell's teacher....imagine that
I love the sound design in this one. It's so perfect for the context
Syncing "Hello everyone" with the character talking in the intro caught me off guard lol
For this cute Easter egg, check out the begining of nearly every video he made.
Over hour long Vile eye? On my birthday? Thank you for the birthday gift 😊
Happy birthday, many happy returns!
I love that in the end Ingsoc was never going to last. The party is flawed, corrupt and no matter how tight their iron grip they will always lose. Because the only thing that absolute power fears is losing its power, and it is that fear that will never leave. That fear that will cause the omnipotent to fall.
There’s a good chance that they collapsed in universe. There’s a theory that much of the explanations in the book come from some sort of future in universe documentary where Ingsoc wasn’t successful.
Even if that isn’t true the lack of cleaning and supplies from Ingsoc’s enforced scarcity would make some plague and thus their collapse inevitable.
Phenomenal video! The Theory and Practice also provides a good insight into Ingsoc’s nihilistic worldview, basically saying that a society like theirs was inevitable, and destined to happen eventually, so there’s no point fighting against it.
Also you should totally check out Yoshikage Kira from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventru
have you thought about doing V for Vendetta? you could probably do both V himself and or the main villan
I'd like to see more anti-heros on this channel
Ironically V would be an absolute hero if he were in the world of 1984
The government entity of 1984 operates like in that one movie about the crazy manipulative mom who gave all these meds to her daughter that made her disabled so she’d be entirely dependent on her.
This was done by the Church of the Holy Innoculate as well.
"Munchausen by proxy" is the syndrome you're thinking of, and yeah it's a real thing and absolutely despicable
That one is so obvious, i wasn´t expecting it. I remember readining it and brave new world together at age 14 and beeing paranoid for months to follow...awsome stuff
It's not paranoia when they're actually out to get you.
It would be cool to see you analyze Angel Eyes from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. He’s literally called “The Bad.”
As Horrifying as 1984 and INCSOG are, there’s something I always found hilarious.
The idea that Oceania un-ironically has holiday called “hate week”.
I'd LOVE it if you covered Lalo Salamanca, from Better Call Saul. Arguably a better true villain than even gus fring or Walter white
Or Chuck.
Walter White wasn't a villain.
@@saulgoodmansentme1992 hahaha