Christopher Hitchens interview on "1984" and Orwell (2008)
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- George Orwell's dystopian novel of the future, 1984, was published six decades ago. Many of the terms Orwell coined have passed into popular usage. Christopher Hitchens, author of Why Orwell Matters, explains the novel's continued significance.
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I know this is a shitty thing to say, but I listen to this radio broadcast from 2008 and the articulacy of the host, guest and callers, and I compare to what I generally see/hear broadcasted today and it feels like another world. Informed, inquisitive conversation is such a rarity (outside of niche podcasts etc.); mainstream public TV and radio discussions usually descend into graceless shouting matches.
This interview was on NPR, which I would argue (as a daily listener) has quite the same tone as what we hear from this interviewer. Hell, many people we hear on NPR today were indeed on NPR then.
Have you ever asked yourself which group marches and screams the most? That introspection will take strength ... an honest answer to the question even more strength.
@@FakingANerveNPR is an elitist state run propaganda outlet.
I was thinking the same thing.
@@hardworker5588hmmmm lol
Hitchen's doing his best Albert Camus impression in that photo lol
yup 👍
Great observation
I thought the exact same thing !!
Crazy to listen to this in the here and now.
How about now?
@@EnergeticGiraffes And now?
And now, he wasn't far wrong.
Just about right as of now
@@EnergeticGiraffes what about now?
"I think it's safe to say that the citizens of the world have overcome the danger of infomation technology being used against us" well that little pearl of wisdom didn't age well.
That was a poignant whining moment. One can only guess at these things. Sigh
Wow, this might be one of few times he was dramatically unprescient.
@@pezushka Who? "Gabe from San Antonio" who's quote that is? Hitchens sure as hell didn't say that. Listen to it again. Or for the first time.
He didn’t think that people would be so thoroughly brainwashed or so stupid.
It’s the pseudo intellectuals thinking they’re in vogue by aligning with the out-of-touch intellectuals.
"Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them." ~ George Orwell
@@jamestown4867 The surveillance technologies alone are a massive danger no matter how deluded or realistic the people using them are.
To the uploader-thank you so much.
First-class work, thank you for uploading this document......
I wish Hitch was still here to address the current political situation
Dont worry ... Here now!
His brother Peter Hitchins is very active in the UK media and he addresses the political situation in a very Hitchian way!
Yes. I never understood the value of debate with integrity.
He would have said the same as Sam Harris: " They can even find children's skeletons on Biden's basement as long as Drumpf is not elected." (and if you think that was a valid observation just because it was soft spoken, you are ignoring the main problem, and no it's not orange maralago man)
@psychologixselfmas Peter is clearly unusually knowledgeable, Intelligent, likeable, but entirely opposite.
Christopher's humanity, humour, vastness of knowledge, warmth, profound integrity, accommodating of others, forgiving of same, and depth, etc etc ...is entirely different - his own - and rare. We need him back to re-engage the world with respectful dialogue and meaningful interaction. ❤
I love this gorgeous bastard, he certainly influenced me with his many thought provoking ideas, he also helped me shed the shackles and delusions of religion and to be a skeptic, to inquire, to think for myself, to know myself.
Tis shot of JWB 🥃 is on Hitch’s behalf, I truly sorely and dearly miss him.
Yes he was a great mind
Christopher had a fine mind.
He in hell now a fool
Thank you for sharing this
the book is more relevant now than ever
Hitch always a great intellect. Wouldn't always agree with him, but a good fair mind and so well educated that listening to him conversing is always illuminating.
He made sense....
While I don’t agree entirely with his Marxist steeped democratic socialistic views, I appreciate the utopia he envisions. Damaging humanistic traits, greed, gluttony pride, lust, I believe, are not given enough weight.
As Hitch thought that technology would assure a well informed public, he may have underestimated the CMMM-controlled major mass media that is so firmly entrenched today; and how it got there.
It seems after his passing the world stumbled on a tiny rock on the roadway that we ignored and that became a boulder.
Also his advocacy of the Iraq invasion to me seemed heavily influenced by the issuance of fatwa-death warrant- against his friend Salman Rushdie. This is one of many major negative points of Islam however the rejection of usury may be a major good in the western world’s struggle against Babylonian Magik Money.
He’s still up there on the top shelf of people I look up to.
@Guhraff christopher was an aitheist so i think when anyone says they dont agree with All hitches veiws they are addresing this perhaps
He was stimulating to listen to... very interesting never boring...i also admire the way he handled death...with absolutely no delusion whatsoever... which told me he was a honest man... true to himself no matter what... integrity is always nice to see when you see it... which i think everyone will agree is in very short supply as time goes on
It’s so interesting to see the optimism about information, sharing and control and capture, with the engagement driven algorithms of 2023, and the fact that out of convenience people have bought microphones and cameras for their own homes in order to teach the microphones and cameras what they like so, those same devices will show you what you want in return. Even 1984 doesn’t assume the population would do it to itself out of a need for convenience. People took the lesson that the government would do it to you, they never took the lesson that companies can be just as dangerous, especially when they merge with government interests.
My Soviet Studies professor in the 1980s was a Russian dissident. He would grow angry with they stupidity of the Soviets. “Yes Animal Farm should be banned it’s an attack on the Soviet Revolution. But 1984 is not. The Soviets should have called it a Fascist novel about a Fascist state. Banning the novel only showed their guilt”. A wise man. I miss him.
Gawd...It was about the Soviet Union? Sounds more like the U.S. in the 21st century. 👀
10:40 ish - Yes! East Germany was probably one of the places most like 1984 in the actual year. Interestingly, Brave New World was allowed in the GDR while Orwell's book was banned.
My Soviet Studies professor in the 1980s was a Russian dissident. He would grow angry with they stupidity of the Soviets. “Yes Animal Farm should be banned it’s an attack on the Soviet Revolution. But 1984 is not. The Soviets should have called it a Fascist novel about a Fascist state. Banning the novel only showed their guilt”. A wise man. I miss him.
The GDR was nothing compared to the Covid pandemic.
@@alocinotasor What the ??? Are you kidding?
@@alocinotasor This is in no way not even remotely true. You need to read.
@@alocinotasor I've experienced both. COVID lockdown was like a Cub Scout Jamboree, compared to the DDR police state.
The first caller seems to think that _he_ is the guest.
9:35 my oh my, Gabe from San Antonio. This email did not age well.
He is sorely missed.
8:39 I guess you could say Huxley was even more right. But in all reality both had predicted what was happening then and even more now.
It's funny Orwell described himself as a socialist. I am less concerned with left and right. I am far more concerned with large totalitarian governments regardless of which side of the political aisle from which they hail. Socialism requires, by definition, a large government to enforce an extensive framework upon the citizens to which you supposedly serve, under the ultimate threat of violence. Seems to me a mere stone's throw away from the totalitarian government of 1984.
i think this depends on your definition of socialism. orwell considered himself a socialis but also more of a anacho syndiclism kind of. in this sense what you describe is a state socialism and i think orwell had more anarchism elements in it.
The first caller was driving me crazy with all the “uh”s and “um”s.
7:09 7:12 will to obey? Even any fool 6:36 6:55 why so keen to obey?
George Orwells 1984 Big Brother 👁️ is Watching 📺
0:21 "how do you keep 1984 relevant?" swiftly turn on then off CNN
All MSM falls under that category.
Riiiight. CNN is the best example of that...
Hitchens is just too damn smart for me. Haha
One day, we'll be rich enough to afford socialism. Until then, we have to be on our guard to ensure that capitalism doesn't deplete the world's resources and ruin it in the process.
and on offer from North Korea... exactly as he predicted
"Fascism is dead", not where I'm standing.
I wish I could take him seriously. The thumbnail image portrays a very narcissistic, self obsessed arrogant t-wat. He's the kind of University tutor that impresses teenage girls with his 'cleverness' but is full of self regarding s-hit. His brother, while a bit odd, is less self absorbed and capable of a clearer view of things. CH was wrong about most things for most of his life.
Have you been drinking?!
You may want to re-check those meds, they don’t seem to be helping you.
@@AlcibiadesMD
Well clearly you have your own problems, you seem to think you're a super cool 1960s French actor, instead of just being a twerp.
You my friend are an idiot.
I believe the sequel to this novel is 2024.
It's so weird, I didn't know of Hitchens until after he died. and I saw him in my dream today, it was like I had met him, I felt close to him even in the dream.
Don’t worry you’ll meet him in the afterlife........
Oh wait!
jimmy2k4o I see what you did there haha
I met his brother on the tube in London not long after Hitch died and chatted with him a bit. I told him "I was a big fan of your brother... I know you weren't always". Put my foot in it a bit. Wish I'd have talked to him for longer, should remember for the future that it's worth being late for work to get some more time to do something worthwhile.
He still a Trotskyint, meaning: he would have snitched on you to the authorities so they could kill you because you did not share his opinion on something was it under communism. Trotsky was one of the worst. What he did to anarchists was despicable.
It’s both and had always been both. It’s happening right in front of you.
The book keeps itself relevant!
Still not read 1984... shame on me..big time
Always fascinated how Hitchens always ditch the communism question, his only weakness
Don’t think he ditched it at all, he just knows there’s a difference between socialism and communism. It’s only the marketing from The Soviets and the Americans over the last hundred years which has convinced people there was never a difference. Socialism existed long before communism ever did.
@@conors4430
I agree
This is double plus good.