Animal Farm 1.5: So That's Where "Orwellian" Comes From!

…on the poor, the oppressed, inequality, domination and exploitation. (He’s not a lot of fun at a party.)

Orwell gave him an earful.

It’s not that he was strictly anti-revolution. [Shoe stomps on soldiers marching on horses]

He just believed that they provide opportunities for power-hungry, greedy individuals to usurp them.

Which is what happened in the Russian Revolution, according to Animal Farm. [Russian soldiers marching]

As if that wasn’t unsettling enough, he wrote 1984, another political satire about

dystopia, that used human characters instead of animals.

If Animal Farm is a fairy tale, 1984 is a nightmare.

It’s just as powerful and influential today as it was when it was published just after World War II. [Tanks riding through a field]

So what is satire?

It’s the use of techniques like humor,

exaggeration and sarcasm to criticize people, ideas, events and behaviors.

If you’ve ever laughed at the painful truth of a political cartoon, you’re familiar with satire. [Cartoon of planet earth watching a show and Uncle Sam telling people to shh]

Orwell was a total master.

In fact, we still use his famous expressions today. Big Brother, Thought Police, Doublethink,

Newspeak and Cold War… they’re all Orwell originals. TM.

What would Orwell write about today? How would he influence society’s thinking if he could? [New York timess square]

Well, his reserved personality wouldn’t make him a the best host for a satirical TV

show, but he could certainly be a writer. And he would never run out of material. [Orwell using a Macbook]

Even though his topics were serious and deep, Orwell never lost his sense of humor.

Satire can be hilarious.

But you can bet that Orwell is up in Sugarcandy Mountain asking,

“So your phone is smarter than you? [Orwell on candy mountain]

It knows everywhere you go…and everything you buy…and everyone you call…and everything

you write…and every word you searched...?

…And you’ve got this thing called the internet where every click is monitored, every movement traced?"

Big....uh, Big Mother? [Orwell looking through an iron bar window]

….Sorry, what? We were too distracted by Facebook to hear your whining about that.