Kind: captions
Language: en
there was truth and there was untruth
and if you clung to the truth even
against the whole world you were not mad
1984 by George Orwell is one of the most
impactful books ever written it has been
widely used and misused in political
discourse by all kinds of ideologues
into that discourse it entered terms
like big brother thought crime double
think Newspeak thought police and
orwellian strangely enough as a synonym
for the very thing that the author
Orwell was against it's been translated
in over 65 languages has sold over 30
million copies has been banned in many
countries especially authoritarian
regimes it's been banned under Stalin
and as recently as 2022 in Belarus
in this video I'll give a quick summary
with spoilers
and a few takeaways
I'd like to try to make it somewhat
interesting to people who both have and
have not read the book uh let's see how
it goes
the world in the book 1984 is a
dystopian future Society
Nation maybe you can say super State
named Oceania it's fully controlled by a
totalitarian political party called
inksock it's led by Big Brother who as
we might discuss may or may not be a
real person he might just be as simple
used by the party the party wants only
to increase its power also something we
might talk about it uses technology
telescreens for Mass surveillance it's
creating a new language called Newspeak
which removes words from English that
could lead to Rebellion
it uses doublethink to control thought
by perhaps you could say forcing you to
hold contradictory beliefs and accept
them as true if not the thought police
arrest you for committing a thought
crime
examples of doublethink are Wars peace
freedom is slavery ignorance is strength
and finally the party constantly
rewrites history as the quote goes who
controls the past controls the future
who controls the present controls the
past
there are several Ministries four of
them Ministry of truth it's responsible
for propaganda and like I said rewriting
history Ministry of Love is responsible
for brainwashing people through torture
mystery of Plenty is responsible for
rationing of food supplies and goods and
Ministry of Peace of course is
responsible for maintaining constant
state of War
Society is divided into three levels the
inner party the auto party and the pros
the stands for I guess proletariats it's
the working class
the inner party's tiny the auto party's
a little bit bigger and the majority of
the people I forget what the percentage
is maybe 80 percent is the uh the pros
the working class
there are several key characters Winston
the main character is a low ranking
member of inksock he works at the
ministry of Truth where he rewrites
history like I mentioned Julia is a
dark-haired girl who Winston falls in
love with and she with him
they have sex
and this is maybe a good place to
mention that passionate sex love and
passionate sex are forbidden in this
Society
good sex I think is a term under new
speak hashtag good sex is the kind of
sex that leads to procreation which is
the only kind of sex that's allowed and
the only kind of sex that's good
O'Brien is uh another Central character
he's the member of the inner party that
uh convinces Winston he's part of the
Brotherhood
which is a lie and he eventually is the
man who tortures Winston
and breaks his mind breaks his heart
big brother and Emmanuel Goldstein are
these symbolic characters that will
never actually get to meet they may not
exist big brother is the head of the
party inksock and Emmanuel Goldstein is
the leader of the so-called Brotherhood
which is the supposed mysterious group
that lurks in the shadows and works to
overthrow the party again may or may not
exist will
maybe talk about the importance of that
in a totalitarian state
so a few key takeaways and I'll try to
do my best I have disparate notes that I
took for myself I'll try to do my best
to try to integrate them together
to make some cohesive thoughts and part
of the reason I wanted to do this
while I have read 1984 many times in my
life and many of the books of uh
put on a reading list that I want to
read I read many times
I haven't often really concretized my
thoughts about the books I just take the
journey and just let the thoughts
kind of wander around in the background
as I live my life I wanted to kind of
put on paper and maybe share with others
to see what they think what my concrete
takeaways are from the book what my
thoughts are if I could uh try to
convert them into words
so the first one for me especially later
in life is I've been reading this book
is that when everything else
are most things that make you human have
taken away
by those around you by the totalitarian
state
the last thing that's left
that is the most difficult to take away
is love
love for other human beings love for
life itself
that's the little flame from which Hope
Springs that's the key revolutionary Act
is the act of love
so when the ability to speak is taken
away when the ability to think rational
thoughts is taken away the last thing
that's left and the thing that
ultimately gives hope
is love that's a big takeaway for me and
the note that Julia gets to Winston
the note reading I love you
is the kind of revolutionary Act
that leads to a society beyond the one
they exist in
I think a lot of the book
has an interesting
hypocrisy to it
where the main character Winston
is almost in an animalistic way obsessed
with destroying the state
in in rebellion and revolution
but I think
love is the thing that allows you to
believe in a place beyond the state in
believing that you can build
something better versus destroying the
thing you're in
I think you have to be careful as a
revolutionary not to obsess 100 with
destruction
because Beyond destruction there there
could be chaos that leads to something
much worse I think love is the thing
that the basic human thing that connects
all of us uh the messy thing that
connects all of us that allows you to
build a better Society after the
totalitarian one is overthrown
um what else do I want to say there's an
interesting tension there between love
and sex or lust I think there's a quote
that pure love or pure lust was
impossible or forbidden pure love and
pure lust
pure here meaning
sort of unadulterated uncensored
intensity of feeling maybe intimacy
and that was an interesting question
raised by the book both by Winston and
Julia's what is ultimately
the thing the most powerful Act of
rebellion is it between us humans
when everything is forbidden
is it animalistic like sex just lust
lust for another human
or is it love I kind of love you have a
romantic partner but even love for
family love for friends I don't know I
think
the book almost claims that it is sex
but I think of what the book also shows
is if sex is your manifestation of
rebellion that that ultimately leads to
something that doesn't last that
ultimately leads to um
foreign
versus building Beyond
The Horizon when the state Falls
so some quotes from Winston on this
the more men you've had sex with so
Julia admitted to have sex with quite a
lot of people
he says the more men you've had sex with
the more I love you I hate Purity I hate
virtue I want everyone to be corrupt to
the Bone
this kind of rubbed me the wrong way
because again this seems to be obsessed
with the hatred towards the state
versus a longing and a hope which I
think hope is really important here uh a
hope for a better future beyond the
state
again another quote from the book their
Embrace had been a battle the climax of
Victory it was a blow struck against the
party it was a political act so there
again I think sex is a political act an
act of political Rebellion I think
that's not the deeply human thing here
the deeply human thing is again the act
of love
it's a source of hope it's the Catalyst
for
building a better future beyond the
revolution an interesting side note here
and there could be a million interesting
side notes and I'm desperately trying
not to go on million tangent and to hold
myself together here to stay focused is
on family so there's all kinds of uh
love and I think family love is a really
powerful
bond that connects us
and that's one of the things that the
totalitarian States really go after
and I should actually mention sort of
loosely using term authoritarian and
totalitarian
here but I think to me at least I don't
know what others think but to me
authoritarian means
where there's a government a centralized
complete centralized control of
political affairs
and a totalitarian state is a complete
is beyond that is a complete control of
not just politics and the functions of
government the basics of the function of
the government but also social economic
everything it's uh Nazi Germany's
example of that I think to me where
there's just complete control of every
single thing from the war effort to the
um to the social interactions the rules
that govern social interaction to the
press all that kind of stuff
so I think this book is more about at
least in my definition of the term uh
about totalitarianism anyway as I was
saying on family
I think the way they destroy family one
of course uh with your romantic partner
forbidding passion uh passionate sex but
really just passion longing for another
for another human being in that in that
romantic way and they also uh really
reward and encourage children at a young
age they indoctrinate them to turn their
parents in For Thought crime whether
real or not which of course is a silly
notion because it doesn't there's no
nature of truth there's no uh you can
just use anyone of anything and they're
guilty by just existing
so that's a way to attack the family and
I should also mentioned on the topic of
love
is that I think the goal of the party
the Final Destination as used by O'Brien
through the process of torture
is for to break your mind to break your
heart and soul completely so that the
only love you can have
and it could be felt as a pure love is
for Big Brother
this is the kind of thing you see in
North Korea is that the only love you're
allowed to have the the the remaining
inklings of feeling that might still
exist in you you can Channel only not
towards family not towards romantic
Partners not towards friends
but towards this leader this god-like
Messianic figure
in this case who may may not exist in
all cases that figure while there is a
human associated with it it's really
much bigger than the human
and that's the only love you're allowed
to have
so the other takeaway I have is on the
topic of hate
I think all humans have the capacity
almost an animalistic craving for hate
of the other the enemy whether it's
individuals like Emmanuel Goldstein or
nations like Eurasia and East Asia which
I should say are the two other super
States
describe in this book that are
constantly at war with each other again
the fascinating thing about the way this
book is written is you don't know if you
raise your or East Asia exists you
really don't know what exists or what is
true beyond the local little interaction
local little world of the main character
and that I think is the point when you
don't really know there's no steady
footing on which to uh
construct a world view from which you
can have hope about a better future
that longing for a better future
and so this animalistic uh craving for
hate or the capacity to have hate
especially when we're in crowds I think
is most
uh
powerfully Illustrated in the two
minutes of hate which is practiced by
the society and the quote is
the horrible thing about the two minutes
of hate was not that one was obliged to
act apart
but that it was impossible to avoid
joining in within 30 seconds any
pretense was always unnecessary a
hideous Ecstasy of fear and
vindictiveness a desire to kill to
torture to smash faces in with a
sledgehammer seemed to flow through the
whole group of people like an electric
current turning one even against one's
will into a grimacing screaming lunatic
and yet the rage that one felt was an
abstract undirected emotion which could
be switched from one object to another
like the flame of a blow lamp
that's the point
is you get the crowd together you get
them to hate Goldstein or Eurasia or
East Asia you get them to hate anything
and because that that feeling that drug
that hypnotic uh
isn't that mass hypnosis that you feel
can be directed by the state into any
direction and because you have complete
control history you can direct it on a
day-by-day basis towards any Target and
as long as the hate
is catalyzed to these kinds of rituals
as long as the hate is there
it can overpower the individualistic
feeling of love we have for each other
so that that hate
is a more animalistic desire I don't
know what to make of it
of course it's also important to say
that this book I think I've read many
places that it was an intended
originally by Orwell as a satire
although satire that has quite a lot of
torture at the end and uh doesn't seem
to have much humor but
I think if you read it as a satire
that's the way
it's better to understand its relevance
in our society today because a lot of
things like two minutes of hate is
almost like a caricature of what hate
looks like in a mass Gathering
but if you take it as a caricature it
can now reveal you some of the elements
that already exist in human nature that
are there and that we should be very
cautious about so it reveals the very
thing that if not
monitored by ourselves
uh can result in a slippery slope that
leads to
um yeah destruction of uh the tribalism
destruction of other groups and then
control of the
collective intelligence of our species
through the totalitarian state
I think there's elements of this that
are just under illustration
in social media today I don't want to
overstate it I think just like comparing
things to Hitler comparing things to
1984 I think is a reach in most cases
but social media does reveal this kind
of mass hysteria this capacity of humans
to be outraged of uh outrage based on
tribalism
um so we have to understand it we have
to resist giving into it on the
individual level and I do believe
we have the responsibility to create
technology that helps us resist it that
incentivizes us not to be cruel to each
other just because all the people in
whatever tribe we Define ourselves in
are being cruel to a particular person
or a particular group another takeaway I
have is about power
inksock the totalitarian States wants
only one thing and that is power
Powers both the means and the end
absolute power
that's what Brian describes and there's
a lot of uh quotes about this in the
torture part of the book O'Brien says
the real power
the power we have to fight for night and
day is not power over things but power
over men
power is inflicting pain and humiliation
power isn't tearing human Minds to
pieces and putting them together again
in new shapes of your own choosing power
is not a means it is an end one does not
establish a dictatorship in order to
safeguard a revolution
one makes the revolution in order to
establish a dictatorship the object of
persecution is persecution the object of
torture is torture the object of power
is power
this of course is another aspect of
human nature
the will to power
and the tendency of that power to
corrupt
O'Brien says also
the weirdness of the cell is the Vigor
of the organism
through the torture of the individual
the breaking of the individual through
the death of the individual that doesn't
exist according to the history
all of that doesn't matter
what matters is the organism and um
there's been a lot of brilliant comments
throughout social media and on Reddit I
just want to highlight something about
this because I had the exact same
feeling as I was this time uh rereading
it there's a comment from a Reddit user
whose name is a brave sky 6764.
uh he said the conversation between Lex
and Michael Levin
who is a uh a brilliant
uh biologist engineer uh came to mind
when O'Brien made an analogy to an
organism which survives even as the
individual cells pass away
and the great purges are analogous to
The Cutting of a fingernail
if you see society as an organism
and uh which I think is the way a
totalitarian state
sees it
then the destruction of a large
percentage of that Society the murder
the torture all kinds of atrocities and
genocide become justifiable as long as
the organism flourishes
and um
that's how you get to
the ideas that Stalin had it's okay to
break a few eggs to make an omelet
this devaluation
of a human being
as of fundamental importance in a
society
foreign that's a slippery slope into
atrocities
it's not just deeply unethical from our
understanding of morals and ethics it is
also very unproductive it destroys the
human Spirit and the human spirit is
essential for a building of a Great
Society of constant progress I think
that's also one of the other messages of
the book is about Utopia that
totalitarianism results when you chase
perfection
we Chase when you present this idea of
utopia
there is no Utopia there is no perfect
Society I think at least for me that's
takeaway I think the optimal state of
being for an individual and for a state
is a constant
constant turnover constant change in in
the case of a state it's a constant
turnover of leaders of ideas and always
hopefully in the long term making
progress uh towards a better uh a better
world
but it's always going to be messy
um
Perfection only exists in a oppressive
state
Perfection only exists when you remove
the basic Humanity of the individuals
that make up that state when you destroy
the the human Spirit or do you when you
suppress and you destroy all the
freedoms because freedom is going to be
messy it's going to be very chaotic but
that freedom ultimately is at least in
the long Arc of history is going to
create progress
so yes as the the redditor breaks guy
67-64 says that does actually give you a
perspective of a biological system where
it's
a bunch of living organisms each one of
us are made up of a bunch of living
organisms and we take that for granted
of all the atrocities that are happening
there and we don't seem to give a damn I
think that's a really good metaphor for
us to help if if you want to put
yourself in the mind of the inner party
a big brother of the people that are in
power in those uh situations I think a
lot of them if most of them if not all
of them
see themselves as doing good for the
world is doing good for the society and
they're able to justify that the way we
justify the murder of the different
cells in her body you don't even think
of them as worthy of consideration you
don't think of them as as living beings
of having the same value as you and
that's one of the really powerful ideas
that the founding of the United States
that all men are created equal but
there's an equal Worth to a human being
no matter who that human being is that
idea at the very least as flawed as its
implementations have been is a really
really powerful idea and it's a
non-trivial idea and that idea resists
the drug of totalitarianism the drug of
power
I do believe that on the topic of power
and politics
that 1984 as I've mentioned has been
I would say misused by political
ideologues I've seen it for example on
conservatives in the United States have
used
1984 to call left-wing policies
orwellian
I think that's an overstatement of
course used for a dramatic effect but it
should
be at least said that Orwell was a
Democratic Socialist
1984 is not a criticism of socialism
it's a criticism of totalitarianism and
I think the point is a warning against
totalitarianism in all forms
that all political ideologists can
succumb to the Allure of power and be
corrupted by it
and I think people on the left in the
United States and people on the right
can both be corrupted by power
so this kind of one-way
uh criticism of left-wing policies as
orwellian is a is a very kind of
convenient shorthand but the reality is
all
men and politicians are capable of
um
creating an orwellian world
and I think one of the things that is
highlighted in the book very well I
would say
if I interpret it correctly is the
hypocrisy of Winston when O'Brien asks
Winston what he's willing to do to
overthrow the party what he's willing to
do for the Brotherhood
Winston admits that he is willing to do
atrocities he's willing to do evil onto
children uh unto anybody murder anything
and I think this is a really powerful
illustration that both the totalitarian
and the blind immoral resistance
Rebellion against the totalitarian state
can both be evil
and I think that's where I return to
love is the thing that carries hope for
a world Beyond this battle this very
important battle for freedom but you
have to have that otherwise it's the
orwellian state and the resistance door
willing State can both destroy basic
human rights and freedoms I think sort
of in the character of Winston
that's Illustrated well
I should also mention that there's
interesting writing no I'm not obviously
a scholar of Orwell and there's a lot of
books been written and I should probably
recommend them somewhere there's just
great books written on the on 1984 on on
Orwell on the historical context in
which he was operating and all that kind
of stuff
but as far as I see Orwell also with
1984 and himself politically he was not
espousing the complete opposite of
totalitarianism there is a again with
Democratic socialism that there is value
to the connection between human beings
that you have to lean on each other help
each other that Society is fundamentally
a cohesive Collective
than a
completely
sort of
disparate set of Sovereign individuals
is both
and I think he was torn about that idea
because in order to resist the
totalitarian state you have to fight for
those basic individual freedoms but at
the same time a society a
well-functioning society allows for that
freedom to manifest as uh as
collaboration and so that's the
difficult challenge there again that's
why he was a Democratic Socialist and
the the criticism of the book was
against totalitarianism of a centralized
state that controls speech thought you
know the press and all the basic human
basic basic human freedoms controls
truth
and I think a lot of people would ask
the question and I hear this tossed
around you know do we live in the world
of 1984 today and I think that's used as
a shorthand to sort of criticize
different policies and different
governments
I generally don't like the use of that
kind of language because it's basically
crying wolf if everything is 1984 if
everybody is Hitler then you're not
going there's there's no way to kind of
uh
properly normalize the discussion of
what's uh of the lesser of two evils
kind of thing which is ultimately
democracy is about you have you have a
collection of things you're picking they
all kind of suck but you want to pick
the one that sucks the least that's
that's that's human society you know
that's human nature it's messy and so I
don't think we live in uh 1984 state but
there's a lot of elements that this book
reveals about human nature and about the
operation of a totalitarian state that
we should be on the watch for so
surveillance uh state of double think
of controlling language
um of being in a constant state of War
as a way to control the population and
the flow of resources all those things
have elements
of uh almost like a useful tools for the
establishment of complete control of a
populace and the moment you notice those
elements it's our job to resist those
elements so I think the point is we have
to be vigilant to the slippery slope of
the will to power in centralized
institutions
another thing I I want to mention is
that
I think a lot of people rightfully
complement Orwell to have predict some
of the elements of future Society
especially with technology
technological capabilities
that are with for example telescreens
used by the state to control the
population maybe I can make a few
comments on technology in general
people who criticize technology will
often use 1984 as an example that
you know technology is a tool for
totalitarian state it's a way they can
achieve full control it should be
extremely cautious of it and I think
that's there's a kernel of Truth to that
but it's not obviously to me that on the
whole technology
is a a tool for totalitarian control
that I think it is also a tool for
freedom
the internet is an incredible tool for
freedom and so of course we have to
fight for that freedom but I believe in
general the greater let's just take the
internet broadly as an example and
there's a lot of sub elements of that
and like a more sort of platonic sense
of what the internet is which is digital
inter connectivity
we have to fight for the freedom but in
general the greater reach and access
that the internet has the more powerful
the resistance of totalitarianism
technology
is a double-edged sword
it provides the tools for oppression and
the tools for the ongoing fight for
freedom
and as long as the will to fight arises
in the human heart technology I think
helps Humanity win
and of course there's been a lot of
discussion about free speech and the
freedom of thought and there's a lot to
be said there that's much more nuanced
than the book 1984. provides I think
1984 just shows the end horrible
conclusion of complete totality and
control over speech over thought over
feeling over everything uh but in
general
my view of it is this kind of
inspiration to in order to prevent
ourselves from slipping into an
authoritarian until uh totalitarian
state
you know orwellian type of dystopias to
avoid them we have to Value critical and
independent thought
I think thought first before speech just
thought
I think you have to learn to think
deeply from first principles independent
of whatever tribe you find yourselves in
independent of government independent of
groups and depending of the people
around you the people you love that love
you you have to learn at least sometimes
to think independently
now this is the niche if you gaze longer
to the abyss the abyss gazes into you if
you think too independently you can
break your mind I mean we are social
creatures we need that connection but I
think
it's like uh with the Tom Waits I like
my Tom a little Drop of Poison I think
of Truly Deeply independent thought as a
little Drop of Poison that's necessary
for your mind most of your life you live
you kind of assume most things around
you are true and that's very useful we
stand on the shoulders of giants but you
on a regular occasion have to question
question your assumption question your
biases question everything question the
things you've taken for granted question
what everybody's telling you but not too
much it's a it's a it's a tricky balance
but the act of rebellion against the
Italian State against the slippery slope
into that state is is that independent
thought and of course speech is a
manifestation of that thought So to
avoid Echo Chambers in both thought and
speech like I said you have to question
your assumptions challenge your biases
I think that's the way out or maybe
that's a resistance mechanism to uh
slipping into
authoritarianism and maybe I have a few
more things to say about the latter part
of the book the part
where there's torture where there's room
101 that has
the thing you fear the most
which is different for all of us and for
Winston that's rats
makes you wonder what that thing is for
each of us
I left a mental note for myself to do
more research into uh
into the historical context the
psychology of the Neuroscience the
the effectiveness of torture
I think there's probably a lot of really
good work I had a brief conversation
with Andrew huberman
on the phone about this topic Andrew
huberman the brilliant Andrew huberman
host of The huberman Lab podcast that
you should listen to and then he
mentioned to me there's a bunch of
papers in these topics this has been
studied sort of the the carrot and the
Stick of the ability of incentives and
disincentives to control the perception
and the mental state of people and
animals
um and he mentioned to me a few folks
that I could talk to on a podcast about
this topic and a few books so I'll
definitely look into this more I think
1984 is probably it uses torture as a
philosophical
description
as a caricature of the operation
of um a totalitarian state but at the
same time a lot of those
elements were all done under Stalin in
the Soviet Union so it's not
it's not like it's very different or
very far from reality it's very very
real the question is
about the actual effect it has on the
human mind
which I really have to think because
um torture in this case breaks Winston
in fact I'd like to believe that many
people in the most fundamental ways
can't be broken in this way
I've seen science
again without extensively reading so
please correct me if I'm wrong but I've
seen science that shows that torture for
the purpose of intelligence gathering is
not effective
it's not effective to get accurate
information because people will tell you
anything really to stop the torture stop
the physical and the mental uh the
emotional suffering
so that but I think this book is about
the use of torture to completely break
your ability to think and to perceive
the world
one of the things
I uh talked to Andrew about is whether
it's possible to control perception
through to these kinds of things and it
seems that there is literature that
shows it's possible to literally change
your perception of the world like uh in
this case in 1984 it's when you're
holding up four fingers can you actually
make the person believe
that you're holding up five fingers not
because of some weird illusion or uh
just because your vision is blurry or
any of that but you literally when you
look I'm holding four fingers and what
you see is five fingers not because your
vision is poor no your visual cortex the
way you're processing that information
something about the processing changes
completely your perception if I tell you
there's a straight line
came through incentive or disincentive
can you start seeing like a a crooked
line or something like that anyway I
think that there's literature that
supports that which is by the way
terrifying
but the thing I'd like to research into
more
is if that can be long lasting
is that I just don't believe it can be
if you're not
pushed to your death
yes maybe perception maybe your
willingness to think but your ability to
think your actual ability to think
independent thoughts maybe you're
terrified I understand if you're
terrified of any any more
um
any more kind of
thinking that leads to rebellious
thoughts like the book mentions the idea
of face crime where you can reveal your
thoughts
the inner work is your mind by the
subtleties of your expressions in your
face
and
I think also like Winston O'Brien says
if you want to keep a secret you must
also hide it from yourself
so I can understand that
I can understand that maybe that is the
basic mechanism that torture leads to
that you just learn
your body your mind learns to hide
uh
the truth from yourself like you're not
you don't even allow yourself to think
it because you know if you think it is
going to lead to face crime and thought
crime and that's that's going to lead to
more torture
that's possible that's possible but I
just can't imagine the
the capacity for love in the human heart
to be extinguished Through Torture
finally extinguished temporarily yes but
finally
irrecoverably which I think is the basic
claim of the book
that they break so because through the
worst of the torture
Winston gives up Julia
the object of his love
he says that
some things like that
the fact that you said torture her not
me anything to make this stop the fact
that you said that the fact that you
thought that is a is is a is a statement
is a thought you can't walk back to
yourself so it's irrecoverable you just
destroyed your
Faith In Love
I don't think so I think it's possible
we have to remember that this is one
particular character this is one
particular story I think there's a lot
of people in which the um the capacity
to love cannot be broken no matter the
torture but that's an interesting
scientific question but it's also a
human question it's just I I think man
search for meaning there's a lot of
books that explore this kind of question
in the worst of conditions that humans
had to suffer through what still
persists what is the source of meaning
um and I just think that the the the
flame of Love persists through through
atrocities Through Torture through
suffering through all of it
but the claim of the book that yes the
totalitarians they can use torture to
break even that
even that uh which leads to the only
love you're allowed to have which is the
love for Big Brother
so I think the
practically speaking
from the party perspective
I think the point of uh O'Brien's
torture Winston
was to
suffocate The Hope in his mind and heart
so there is no hope by completely
destroying the knowledge of what is and
isn't true so being betrayed and this
kind of uh
goldstein's book about the society and I
don't know if that's true not knowing
anything about Julius basically having
no emotional or intellectual ground to
stand on it's very difficult to have a
like a a sense of where you are like to
have hope you have to have a sense of
where you are and where things could be
and that and then you also portray
yourself like to force you to be a
hypocrite on your own deepest feelings
of love I think that basically
puts you in a place where there's no
hope there's no point it's um
it's apathy it's nihilism
and their hard-working member of society
that is nihilistic is probably what the
party wants
because that human will not Rebel
but on the point of Hope
I should mention that there's kind of a
long-running theory
that since the appendix
the appendix is about the details of
Newspeak the language that the party is
creating and forcing because that
appendix was written in the past tense
and it's talking about new speak in the
past tense and it's written in English
sort of non-newspeak
that means the party and you speak and
all of its elements that we see in the
story is in the past
that the world from which the book is
created has escaped that
and that's a message of hope that
whatever whatever the Rebellion against
the party whether it's passionate
lust and sex whether it's love whether
it's
um
the seeking truth
in a world
full of lies
whatever it is
there's a way out again to me the way
out is love
but that's a hopeful message in this
dystopian novel that even these
perfectly executed totalitarian States
will fall I took a few random notes here
that maybe I'll comment on
I wrote a quote the masses cannot Rebel
until they become conscious
uh there might be either a Winston
observation or an O'Brien statement I'm
not sure but yes so you have to think
eighty percent plus our pros of the
working class they have the power if
they want it but they don't want it they
don't want to take it that's the whole
point of the totalitarian state is to
break your will for Freedom you desire
for Freedom uh break your ability to
know that you're not free
and that's where all of it the changing
of History the double thing the thought
crime all of that uh comes into play
that the torture in the ministry of love
all of that is um
is about preventing the populace from
becoming conscious and again as as per
the cells discussion earlier I wrote
down the O'Brien quote the death of the
individual is not death the party is
immortal
and this is just a interesting
observation about the operation of a
totalitarian state
that it's the idea
and a kind of
amorphous symbol
of the Messianic figure in big brother
is all you need for the party to persist
that person doesn't actually have to
exist and you one individual doesn't
have to exist it's just the uh division
of society into high middle and low
and the oppression of the low uh by the
high
by the centralized inner party that's
all you need and
the individual does not matter in that
and again the way to fight that is to
fight for the individual freedoms
interesting side note is just the quote
I wrote down
from Julia I think
if you keep the small rules you can
break the big ones
and so she in the book is somebody that
follows did the T all the all the rules
of the party she attends all the
committee meetings and all that kind of
stuff and just as like the model citizen
from the perspective of the party and so
that allows it to break the big rules
like have passionate sex
with people like the the really or fall
in love all the all the Forbidden things
and I think that's actually a good way
to exist in the world I think for a lot
of us there's probably a bunch of things
that bother us
in the in the local world around us in
the bigger world I think you have to
pick your battles you have to
not get lost in the muck
of small battles if you want to
um have at least one or a few big
victories in your life that make for a
better world
I think at least in my
sense it's easy to get distracted by the
little things that bother you in life
and I think staying focused on the big
things again picking your battles and
staying with that for as long as
possible working your ass off to solve
one problem for as long as possible not
giving up in against impossible odds
against all the criticism all of that
that's the way to solve those big
problems and of course that's not what
Julia is talking about but in a sense
she is also because in that particular
case a totalitarian state is the problem
and the way to Rebel is to plant that
seed
of uh
rebellion in each of the people she has
sex with
that uh that we are human that we have
lust for each other that we have the
ability to love each other and that is
the necessary Act of rebellion there
that that is the big leap for her at
least uh in that kind of society
I should also mention that
there's a lot of interpretations of the
different the small and the big things
in this book so it's very possible in
the case of Julia that Winston was
played he was set up with Julia
he was set up to feel all those things
he was set up to have that little Secret
Cove where he can write on his desk in
the diary and dream of rebelling against
the the uh the state dream of the
Brotherhood
it's unclear to me why
an oppressive state would want people to
have that little
journey of Desiring freedom in all its
manifestations I'm not sure but maybe
O'Brien's statement that the
the purpose of torture is torture hold
some wisdom
that
to attain absolute power
you also have to have
a willingness
and a mechanism to attain absolute
suffering in the populace
and maybe this is a way to maximize
suffering
is to give them hope before you crush it
again
the way out
to me
and the takeaway from this book
the way out is love
perhaps this is a good place to also
mention
a little bit of a fun
Little controversy that evolved over
Twitter so I posted a reading list
quickly before heading off to a New
Year's party of books that I hope to
read in 2023 and these are based on
books that I asked people to vote on and
these are the ones uh many of the ones
they selected and they happen to be many
of the books I've read many times
throughout my life and really enjoyed
and they were they were like old friends
that I love visiting and revisiting and
every time I read them I get something
new and they they're just
read different uh throughout life
you know the way in my teens when I read
The Stranger by Camus was very different
than it was in my uh 20s and different
in my 30s I'll say my favorite book Now
by kamu is probably the plague and all
of that has evolved
I read the idiot several times I read
Brothers karmazov both in English and
Russian uh not from underground I mean I
loved Dostoyevsky and a lot of these
books are just
uh yes they are Classics but they're
also deeply profound and they move me on
a intellectual level but also just as a
human being they're like travel
companions they're like old friends
uh old to dead friends
so yeah so I was wanted to celebrate my
love for books and it was very strange
to me that
um and if I'm just being honest for a
second is kind of painful that
um some prominent figures uh that I
respect
were kind of cruel about the list and
they they responded they mocked it and
all that kind of stuff
and basically taking the worst possible
interpretation
and
I have to be honest and say it was um
it wasn't fun because uh
it was just it was just a silly kid me
kind of in a joyful New Year's mood
sharing with the world books I love
and
I think what was happening and this
seems to be happening a bit more
is there's a bunch of people that are
just almost waiting or hoping that I
fail or maybe that
I'm some kind of bad human being and
they they're looking they're trying to
discover things about me
that reveal that I'm a bad human being
and maybe somehow
um
this reading list reveals that I don't
know uh
I don't know
so one criticism
was that everybody read these books in
school and they're basic
I think my response to that criticism is
no first of all most people have not
read them in school maybe they're very
Cliff Notes and they're not basic
they're deeply profound some of the
greatest words ever written
but also
I don't think I've ever gotten
a lot from books I was forced to read in
school when I had to read them for like
an assignment some of these books I
think I read in school but most of them
not but it's only when I read them
outside of school on my own volition
that I really gained a lot from it and
especially throughout my life regular
times as a teenager as a 20 in my 20s
and in my 30s
so no these books are profound and
deserve returning to and like I said
there are old friends that give me a lot
of meaning every time I return to
revisit the ideas and give me a new
perspective on life
uh another criticism was very kind of
nitpicky and the list was put together
really quickly and the goal I like
setting tough goals the goal is to read
a book a week and you know on one week I
had uh a little prince
followed by brothers karamazov and
people criticized uh that how can you
possibly read Brothers karamazov in one
week maybe I won't maybe I'll fail
miserably uh but I love trying and but
that's not actually was that wasn't
actually the goal I should have said I
intend to finish reading it by the end
of that week so you start earlier
because Little Prince
uh it takes you know an hour or two to
read and then Brothers karamazov uh I
could have the two weeks it should take
about 30 40 50 hours to read it that
said friends
I've read it already in English and in
Russian I'm interviewing uh the the
world famous I would say amazing
translators of Brothers karamazov of of
uh Dostoevsky of uh Tolstoy Richard
pavir and Larissa volkowski
uh probably across multiple days so this
book means a lot to me I'm not uh
somebody's just kind of rolling in
what are the cool kids reading these
days these books have been lifelong
companions to me and the fact that
people just want to stomp on that and
a large number of people did people have
respect
yeah I'll be lying if I said it wasn't
it didn't suck a bit
anyway the
the love for reading
um
persists I have to say after that I was
very hesitant to even make this
particular video uh on Orwell on 1984.
and I'm not sure I want to be public
with my reading after this
and I know a lot of people will say no
there's uh like we're here with you
where they're very supportive and I love
you I mean I meet so many incredible
people but the reality just does suck to
be vulnerable share something with the
world and uh receive that kind of uh
that kind of mockery at scale so
uh I will definitely I can I will not be
affected or broken by any of that kind
of stuff for something that's actually
meaningful like the conversations are
some of the very difficult conversations
I'm going to do but a silly side hobby
thing of reading that I do throughout my
life
uh for that to be a source of mockery
I'm just going to do that privately so
I'm a little torn on that and I'll I'll
try to figure out a way
um also I should say that that list like
a lot of things is kind of aspirational
because if I take a job at a time at a
tech company
or if I start a tech company or if I
have to travel across
um
I have to travel for extremely difficult
conversations and really have to prepare
for them all that kind of stuff I think
that's going to affect my ability to
both read and enjoy reading which I
think is a prerequisite for this kind of
reading but in general what I do is I
read about one hour a day of Kindle so
on on the sort of in my eyes physical
device
and uh depending on the workout I do and
the chores I have it's going to be about
two hours of audiobook so most of the
things I do during Shores is audiobooks
and uh when I run and I usually run
about 10 to 15 miles so you're talking
about because I often run over two hours
it's like a slow pace like when the days
are not insane it gives me a chance to
think it gives me a chance to listen to
audiobooks so I love that process it's
the Escape for the world a chance for me
to collect my thoughts and uh yeah it's
again a source of happiness and joy and
I wanted to share that and um
yeah I think you can get quite a lot of
reading done through that process
um especially for the book you've read
before it is very challenging to do this
kind of takeaway video or to concretize
your thoughts down on paper especially
when you have to present them in this
kind of way I'm not sure I'm going to do
that much because it's an extra bit of
effort but it's also a chance to share
that Joy with the world so to find cool
people that also enjoy it so it's a
trade-off anyway I you know it's just a
temporary thing but it um
it did suck for for a short amount of
time for a few hours for for a couple
days but in general you know I'll
persist with my love of reading but I
might not talk about it publicly as much
but again let me sort of emphasize
that this kind of response and mockery
will not affect anything of importance
that I do
like I I always I try to read comments I
try to see criticism I really value
especially High effort criticism I try
to grow and constantly try to improve
but that's for things that that I take
very seriously like the the the podcast
conversations that I do but for silly
things
like book lists
Spotify music playlists the food I like
to eat
um I don't know what else
anything any fun like uh side thing it's
not that it's not that important if
um if if it's something that others
don't enjoy then whatever uh I'll enjoy
them probably with my friends locally
here or the people I meet so anyway I
love reading I love reading Classics I
love returning to old friends and uh in
in book form and making new ones there's
a bunch of Science Fiction that I
embarrassingly have not read
and would love to because those worlds
are so meaningful to so many of the
people I'm friends with that I can't
wait to visit those worlds and sort of
make new friends in the form of books so
definitely the love for books the love
for reading persists and if you share in
that love that's beautiful so uh thank
you for joining me on this journey thank
you for watching this uh silly little
video and I hope to see you next time
love you all