Have you ever noticed how freely people in the past wrote in their diaries or letters in a kind of sombre, dramatic tone about their own lives. Whereas people now would find this tone embarrassing and overly serious. I wonder what caused this shift culturally.
I guess people can’t comprehend anything being completely private. Lots of things caused it, reducing the amount of alone (private) time in people’s lives, gradual revealing (and acceptance) of constant government surveillance and the associated mantra of “nothing to hide, nothing to fear”. Alongside that last point, this increasing cultural fear of any outsiders. It’s just the general stranglehold on humanity by the powers at be, tightening and forcing people to capitulate more and more into a generic human completely in line with current ideals until they eventually learn to never express anything daring even to themselves.
While most of the book is overrated, I love how in 1984 it is all about getting him to say 2 + 2 = 5, they don’t care if he believes it (yet), they just need to get him gradually more and more on board with submitting to the system, knowing this outward submission will inevitably make him more submissive even on his own thoughts.
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