Quoting the Book Directly..

[LookAtMyHorse]

“When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” O’Brien tells Winston this while they are in ‘Room 101.’ It really got me thinking. What if, reality was actually just something we assumed was the same for everyone, and that reality really only exists in our own minds? What if every individual’s perception of reality is different?
Then, everything that we are seeing currently is just inside of our heads, and if it’s all in our heads, then where are we actually? Does anything really exist at all? What is this?
I know this really is just a book, but Orwell does such an outstanding job of making the reader believe it is a reality. While I was reading through O’Brien’s interrogation of Winston and thinking to myself that someday, prison will be like that. Prisoners already undergo beatings, I can see it going that further step.
It’s 2013, but 1984 seems like it’s coming closer everyday..
:banana:

[kev67]

Just wait until you meet some social scientists. They're full of this stuff.

[The Atheist]

“When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” O’Brien tells Winston this while they are in ‘Room 101.’ It really got me thinking. What if, reality was actually just something we assumed was the same for everyone, and that reality really only exists in our own minds? What if every individual’s perception of reality is different?

Then, everything that we are seeing currently is just inside of our heads, and if it’s all in our heads, then where are we actually? Does anything really exist at all? What is this?

You're describing solipsism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism

An interesting debate for first-year philosophy students and kids who found The Matrix cool, but no more than that. Reality does really exist.

Orwell didn't think like that, but the Party does. It's why people become unpersons - they never existed.


I know this really is just a book, but Orwell does such an outstanding job of making the reader believe it is a reality. While I was reading through O’Brien’s interrogation of Winston and thinking to myself that someday, prison will be like that. Prisoners already undergo beatings, I can see it going that further step.
It’s 2013, but 1984 seems like it’s coming closer everyday..
:banana:

When I read 1984 for the first time, it was 1973. As young teens we discussed the chances of the world going that way, as it was still a decade away, and we were living at the end of the Cold War & Vietnam.

We laughed at the idea, given at a time where abhorrent things like the My Lai massacre dominated world news.

Nowadays, when almost-identical massacres are covered up and the Geneva Convention has been torn to shreds, England has almost total CCTV surveillance, and every word you write on the internet is susceptible to meta-analysis, 1984 is by far the closest it's been since it was written.