Whether you realize it or not, we in Canada, and indeed the western world, all live in a society that is not unlike the frigthening scenario George Orwell paints in his well know novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. This short work will compare today's world with Orwell's

    To begin we must look at the political factions in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In this book there are three 'countries', Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.If we compare this to today, at first, it seems there is no real similarity. When one delves deeper, however, one can see that the three main economic blocks follow Orwell's nations. There is of course the North American / Western Europe bloc, which includes such major economic centres as New York & London. Then there is the East Asian faction with Tokyo as it's capital. Next there is the (not so powerful but nonetheless existent) alliance that exists in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, working out of cities such as Moscow and Prague.

    Since the world today revolves more around economic lines than political or physical ones, it should be easy to see the stunning similarities.

    Second, I will look at perhaps the most prominent figure in Orwell's book, Big Brother. Now it is important to understand that in todays society, Big Brother isn't necessarily one person. Big Brother is a collective, the group of people in society who deem it their responsibility to 'spy' on everyone else, just to make sure no one's breaking the law.

    For those of you who engage in 'grey' activities (you know what I mean) - how many times have you had to duck out of the way when a person walks by, or have had to deal with cops at a party because some righteous citizen thought you were doing something wrong? This is the modern day equivalent of Big Brother - the collective 'concerned citizens' who have to mess up everyone else's lives.

    It's a little unsettling to think that you are always being watched, as you go to the store, drive your car or eat at a restaurant. There are real criminals that everyone should be watching for, not those of us who choose to involve ourselves in victimless 'crimes'.

    Third, is the startling trend of shortening and amalgamating words and the compression of the English language. A perfect example of the first inclination comes from the University I attend. This summer, I received a piece of paper notifying me of a contest to design my faculty's (Arts & Science) crest for my graduating year. The contest was outlined on this sheet, and one of the stipulations was as follows: 'The crest must contain ArtSci NOT Arts & Science'. This is also noticable in the other faculties - Concurrent Education is ConEd, Physical Education is PhysEd. You might argue that this is simply in the interest of conserving space, but it has found it's way into everyday speech around campus. It's not uncommon to hear someone ask 'How was you PolS (Political Studies) tutorial?'. This next example comes from the business world - a good example is Northern Telecom. They have recently shortened their name to NorTel, in the interests of making their name easier to say and remember. This is an indication of how modern society seeks to become more streamlined and thus kill off certain venerated traditions of our existance. In the interest of keeping this piece short, I'll not name any more, but see how many you can spot. It's amazing how many there are once you really think about it.

    The second reference I spoke of deals with the ever shrinking English language. Have you ever read a newspaper or book published around the turn of the century? Or better yet, even earlier? If so, you will understand what I mean. The language we speak today is a far cry from the eloquant speech of yesteryear. This too is done in the interest of making things simpler and easier to understand. But we find, more and more that we are lacking the right words to express how we feel (Ed Note: Orwell says that's why we use so many cliche's). This reveals a situation that is far too much like the one spelled out for us in Orwell's work. Soon, we will not be able to reveal our thoughts for lack of words. Frightened? Thought so.

    To conclude let me say that I'm not advocating a conspiracy theory hatched by our governors. What I'm advocating is the possible ruin of personal self freedom and self expression as we know it. With the ever increasing presence of the three main economic factions encroaching on our lives, the closeness of people always looking over our shoulders and the demise of the English language, we truly do live in 1984. -Jerky