The Orwell Diaries blog publishes entries from George Orwell’s diary daily, 70 years to the day since each entry was originally written. Also included are images of the newspaper articles he refers to. The entry for 17th August 1939 includes a copy of that’s day’s Daily Telegraph article describing preparations for the National Register which was introduced later that year, and finally abolished in 1952.
For a short, readable history of identity cards in the UK during the two World Wars, see Jon Agar’s 2005 article Identity cards in Britain: past experience and policy implications, published in the journal History and Policy.
Orwell would have been impressed by the shrewdness of government ministers who finally realised the advantages of declaring a permanent state of ongoing war. In “1984” there a much more determined attempt to simulate real war conditions. In today’s UK and USA people live perfectly normal peacetime lives, with about as much risk of being harmed by terrorism as of winning the lottery or being struck by lightning. Yet they are apparently prepared to believe that we are threatened by horrid bogeymen who want to kill our families and make us live like Afghan peasants.
Whenever I reflect on “1984” I wonder if Orwell realised that British people might be perfectly content to put up with all the tyranny and repression of Ingsoc, as long as they had their mobile phones, fast food, videos, sport, soft drinks, fancy clothing, parties, and cars. How many of us really care about liberty, apart from the liberty to buy neat things and party? It’s worth a few moments’ thought.
Orwell would have been impressed by the shrewdness of government ministers who finally realised the advantages of declaring a permanent state of ongoing war. In “1984” there a much more determined attempt to simulate real war conditions. In today’s UK and USA people live perfectly normal peacetime lives, with about as much risk of being harmed by terrorism as of winning the lottery or being struck by lightning. Yet they are apparently prepared to believe that we are threatened by horrid bogeymen who want to kill our families and make us live like Afghan peasants.
Whenever I reflect on “1984” I wonder if Orwell realised that British people might be perfectly content to put up with all the tyranny and repression of Ingsoc, as long as they had their mobile phones, fast food, videos, sport, soft drinks, fancy clothing, parties, and cars. How many of us really care about liberty, apart from the liberty to buy neat things and party? It’s worth a few moments’ thought.
The interesting thing about the war on terror, is that the criticism that there is no evidence for it has already been headed off. The lack of evidence is evidence of how dastedly clever they are.
If people haven’t see the BBC, 6-part documentary The Power of Nightmares – catch up with it on youtube. Here is part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOlwbaPe2os.
The interesting thing about the war on terror, is that the criticism that there is no evidence for it has already been headed off. The lack of evidence is evidence of how dastedly clever they are.
If people haven’t see the BBC, 6-part documentary The Power of Nightmares – catch up with it on youtube. Here is part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOlwbaPe2os.
The link doesn’t seem to be working, so here it is again.
The link doesn’t seem to be working, so here it is again.