1984 is not an instruction manual

I have blogged before about the ideas in George Orwell's novel 1984 seeming to increasingly be coming into real life in 2008. Devils Kitchen has a fine post on the same subject today. Do read it all.

He includes one of my favourite extracts from 1984, and also one of the most thought-provoking:

"There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—do not forget this, Winston—always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

As Devils Kitchen says - "1984 is a warning, NOT A FUCKING INSTRUCTION MANUAL"