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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Stefan Stern

At war with ourselves: 1984 and the struggle against our digital demons

Winston Smith Andrew Garfield Cynthia Erivo George Orwell Andrew Scott Audible Tom Hardy Party
Collage of photos of faces cut into slices

You don’t need to be an agent of the Thought Police to have adopted some of the chilling modes of repression and surveillance in George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, 1984.

You don’t need to churn out fake news stories for the Ministry of Truth, or peddle spurious economic data for the Ministry of Plenty. You don’t need to pledge allegiance to 1984’s notorious Big Brother or fawn over the ubiquitous posters depicting him.

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