In his best and most famous work, "1984", George Orwell describes a vision of a totalitarian state, which uses all possible means to degrade a man, morally and intellectually. In that state, a couple of those who hold the power by wars, police measures and the control of media above all, keep the whole population in fear and submission, cynically decreasing all human values to the lowest possible level. Ray Bradburry once said: "For the most part, the writers of science fiction try not to predict the future, but to forestall it". Orwell, it appears, has succeeded in that attempt, for certain characteristic parts of "1984" are equivalent to our 1996. The following quotations speak for themselves:

"... At the top of the pyramid was Big Brother. Big Brother was infallible and almighty. Every success, every achievement, every victory, all knowledge, all wisdom, all virtue, is considered the sprout from his leadership and inspiration..." (freely retranslated). Don't they bombard us daily with eulogies of the President. everything he has ever done is undoubtedly in the interest and glory of Serbia and its citizens, and we have achieved we owe to his to wise politics and to his adhering principles.

Or:

"...it is impossible to say who was at war with whom, in this or that moment, for there were no documents and no word mentioned any opinion other than the existing one. It is 1984, Oceania was at war with Eurasia, and in alliance with Eastasia. It was never and nowhere acknowledged, privately or publicly that these three powers had ever been aligned in any other way. And it had actually been only four years since Oceania was at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia... ... who controlled the past, the motto of the Party said, controls the present; and who controls the present, controls the past." (freely retranslated) Do you recall the sharp turns the present authorities have taken, how we wholeheartedly supported all aspects of struggle [of Serbs] in Bosnia at first, and afterwards started to disassociate ourselves from those activities? How certain people among our distinguished leaders, by changing the official attitude, turned overnight into war profiteers, or into career-chasers who lead the people into ruin? And it has never been admitted that the political attitude of earlier days is different from the political attitude of today.

We should also mention the slogans of Orwell's totalitarian regime: - FREEDOM IS SLAVERY - WAR IS PEACE - IGNORANCE IS POWER Our present authorities have fully accepted these slogans. They use their power (represented through the control of media) to spread ignorance through among the people; they have already managed to convince the people that war was actually peace. The next thing is to try and convince us that freedom is slavery.

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