Dear Neal,George Orwell wrote about malignant Utopias, or dystopias which occurred by intentional design. i.e. 1984. Whilst Aldous Huxley wrote about benign dystopias which developed by accident. (The road to hell is always paved with good intentions)..i.e. Brave New World. Both authors are interesting in their own right, though they are so different in their outlook and backgrounds...they both went to English Public Schools, i.e. Eton, whilst Aldous Huxley enjoyed intellectual adventuring of a more luxurious, impractical and psychological kind using various mind bending drugs such as mescalin, and Orwell participated in a more practical, "Spanish Civil War" type of journalism, BBC world war 2 reporting and eventually gaining solitary isolation on a Scottish island, where he wrote "1984", which was written in 1948, he just transposed the last two digits. Orwell's most famous work, in my view, was "Animal Farm".
Their complete works are dated now, though they were considered quite revolutionary and reflective at the time, by the "avant garde" both writers being accused of everything from being anti-communist, anti-socialist and pro-fascist and all sorts; and like Karl Marx, whose articles and books reflected a particular aspect of the development of capitalism and its economics in Victorian times, and were based on the work of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" amongst other titles; were also revered by certain sections of the intelligentzia; their works looked at the development of technology and the mass media, and its effects upon the masses. They both predicted the rise of dictatorships such as Stalin, Mao Tse Tung or Dong and communism and fascism and capitalism, through the use of technology and the mass media and various spin-doctoring, hype and mass hypnosis through oratory. Their intent in writing the books were about nothing of the sort of course, such terms and criticisms being far too simple.
Utopianism goes back to the Greeks and Plato and Aristotle, whilst Christian values were most famously reflected in a book written by Sir Thomas More, called "Utopia" in the 15th...16th Centuries.
Interestingly the Green Movement in the UK was based on the ideas contained in the book, "News From Nowhere" by William Morris. If you are interested...and have the time...You can find out a lot more by looking at Wikipedia under "lists of Utopian writers". Some of the books are available for free download from Guttenburg and such like. In the 1960s. It was William Morris's book "News From Nowhere" which most influenced my political and ecological thinking, modified by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock
Now that I am older, I have learned that changing the world round to my way of thinking is neither easy...nor desirable...My personal philosophy being far too contradictory, ill thought out or just plain crude and unworkable...
ATB Dougie. On 20/07/14 03:09, Neal Lamb wrote:
I think, now, that 1984 by Orwell was a revealed business plan and maybe why he died at such a young age, and maybe Turing alsohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZV7PDt8Lw On Saturday, July 19, 2014 7:26 PM, coderman <coderman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 5:20 PM, Bryan Starbuck <bryan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:bryan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote: > I like buying a computer in a surprise visit to an apple store or a store> that sells windows computers. agreed; on site ad-hoc cash purchases the best procurement technique. not infallible by any means, but at least avoids some known problems like this amusing scenario. (shipments from the Seattle Amazon warehouse to Kansas before delivery to Oregon was also funny.) repeat for emphasis: - keep chain of custody of sensitive hardware at all times - never procure or ship through mail. at one point, priority same day air would get a pass, but even this no longer suitable. best regards,
