I recommend Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, “Player Piano”, which is (a) a better book than 1984 all around, and (b) a better prediction of modern automated society. (I also recommend Zamyatin’s novel, “We”, from which Orwell borrowed liberally.) In any case, I’m not sure just what Rall is trying to say. I guess his reference to Orwell is about Doublespeak, in which words mean their opposites. (Thucydides did that idea better in his history of the Peloponnesian War). But that doesn’t work here. The way to be socially conscious now is to keep social distance. That’s odd, but it’s not a contradiction. Working at home is not faking it. Yes, I too like eating in a restaurant, but I can defer that gratification for a while in order to keep myself and others safe. Rall sometimes gets so wrapped up in his purity that he doesn’t think things through.
I recommend Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, “Player Piano”, which is (a) a better book than 1984 all around, and (b) a better prediction of modern automated society. (I also recommend Zamyatin’s novel, “We”, from which Orwell borrowed liberally.) In any case, I’m not sure just what Rall is trying to say. I guess his reference to Orwell is about Doublespeak, in which words mean their opposites. (Thucydides did that idea better in his history of the Peloponnesian War). But that doesn’t work here. The way to be socially conscious now is to keep social distance. That’s odd, but it’s not a contradiction. Working at home is not faking it. Yes, I too like eating in a restaurant, but I can defer that gratification for a while in order to keep myself and others safe. Rall sometimes gets so wrapped up in his purity that he doesn’t think things through.