**TLDR - The climate of the world today, with lockdowns, surveillance etc has led to a resurgence of references to George Orwell's *1984*, a book which I imagine many who do so have never read. Instead, the terms and themes which have entered the collective consciousness are brandished against any type of government oversight that we do not agree with.** George Orwell's dystopian novel *1984* is one that really needs no introduction. Even those with only the most passing knowledge of the book will recognize terms such as 'Big Brother' to refer to a surveillance-state, or even just recognize some of the surface connotations that mentioning "1984" has. It has quite firmly cemented itself in the cultural consciousness. The wave of lockdowns in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth fresh comparisons between the dystopian world of the novel and our current government enforced locked down society. What is quite clearly an attempt to save lives and stop the virus from spreading is seen as an evil form of control, in the same vein as the antagonistic government from *1984*. And yet, I would argue that the majority of people who chuck accusations of the government becoming like the one seen in *1984* have never actually read the book. Instead, some of the terms and themes contained within the book have transcended the pages and entered our cultural language. We use and understand terms like 'Big Brother' because we live in a society that boiled down the concept from the book into a reality TV Show that features little to no privacy through 24/7 surveillance. I'm not suggesting that there is something wrong with this. The themes of the novel have quite clearly resonated since its release, particularly in an era when trust in the government seems to be low. It is a testament to the timelessness of these anxieties, and a stark reminder that a novel written in the context of the USSR [1] would perhaps find even greater material to criticize in today's always-online world. Instead, I find it interesting that a book can be so heavily referenced and remain so culturally relevant, when it so often tops the list of books that people pretend they have read. [2] And just to prove my point, you should probably know I've never even read *1984* either. REFERENCES 1. https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/orwells-1984-how-misread-classic/ 2. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/05/uk-reading-habits-1984

When comparing modern society to 1984, whether one has read Orwell's seminal 1949 novel should be noted but not the main point of the argument. 1984 is a seminal novel for good reasons. It is about how societies, however democratic, can be totalitarian in their methods of enforcing order and preventing chaos. Many people refer to the novel because its setting is the most basic example of a totalitarian government. Society is governed a single entity known as "Big Brother", and every aspect of their lives observed by the government. And if a human even thinks about committing a crime, it is dealt with. There have been multiple occasions in the past since the book's publication that people compared the society they currently lived in to the book. People have pointed to the Patriot Act in 2001, and the revelation of NSA's surveillance program from Snowden's leaks as evidence we either lived in Orwell's novel, or risked it. It was when Donald Trump assumed the presidency in 2017, when people really pointed out comparisons between their current state of the world and the world portrayed in Orwell's fictional account. 1984 became popular enough during Trump's presidency to become a best-seller on Amazon, and be declared essential reading by New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani as a way to comprehend the current state of the world. But even though similarities between Orwell's fictional account about a future where everything is controlled by an evil dictator, there are also plenty of ways our current world differs. For instance, most of the current issues plaguing the United States has to deal with capitalism. With the rise of companies such as Amazon and Uber driving small businesses obsolete, and the 2008 financial crises, workers have had to take increasingly drastic measures to survive. Many of these culminated for reasons Trump obtained most votes; he portrayed himself as an outsider of the political world that could fix anything. And voters bought his message. Whether or not people making those claims have actually read the novel, to me, is a bit pointless because the world depicted in 1984 is a clear-cut example of a totalitarian government that anyone can point to regardless of having read it. Terms like "Big Brother", "groupthink", and even "orwellian", a term never said in the book, have become common enough to become cliched definitions of a totalitarian government. As someone who has read Orwell's novel, I argue that 1984 is a relevant fiction novel to describe some of our current predicament, but I strongly disagree that it is the only relevant novel. Another one I argue is relevant would be Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, which features a world faced with climate disaster that results in a dictator becoming president with the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again". But when discussing the comparisons between our world and Orwell's, it's a bit pointless if people have actually read the book because most of its ideas are common knowledge. Instead we should argue how Orwell's world is relevant to our modern society. CITATIONS: Grady, Constance. ---“The Cases for and against 1984 as Essential Reading for 2017.” Vox, 28 Jan. 2017, www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/28/14412840/cases-for-against-1984-essential-reading-2017. --- “The Word ‘Orwellian’ Has Lost All Meaning.” Vox, 16 Jan. 2021, www.vox.com/culture/22233197/orwellian-definition-george-orwell-1984-politics-english-language-josh-hawley-donald-trump-jr.

I believe there's a reason the themes that *1984* tackles have become so enmeshed in today's society and mindset that there's not even such great need for some to have read the book. Of course, ideas about surveillance and the Big Brother are connected with the panoptical dystopia of Orwell's novel and it is natural that people who undergo similar situations like the current lockdown measures and the constant surveillance on the streets and sometimes within the neighbourhoods refer to Orwell's thematology. Being watch is a basic characteristic of modern society and something that people live with everyday, even without realising it, so the associations with Orwell's novel is a testament to how relevant it is, even when people have not read it.