1984 by George Orwell

00:00:00.000 | There was truth and there was untruth.

00:00:03.240 | And if you clung to the truth,

00:00:04.680 | even against the whole world, you were not mad.

00:00:08.220 | 1984 by George Orwell

00:00:10.920 | is one of the most impactful books ever written.

00:00:13.880 | It has been widely used and misused in political discourse

00:00:18.620 | by all kinds of ideologues.

00:00:20.480 | Into that discourse, it entered terms like Big Brother,

00:00:23.600 | Thought Crime, Double Think, Newspeak, Thought Police,

00:00:26.360 | and Orwellian.

00:00:28.440 | Strangely enough, as a synonym for the very thing

00:00:31.240 | that the author Orwell was against.

00:00:33.720 | It's been translated in over 65 languages,

00:00:37.040 | has sold over 30 million copies,

00:00:39.200 | has been banned in many countries,

00:00:41.400 | especially authoritarian regimes,

00:00:43.480 | has been banned under Stalin,

00:00:45.060 | and as recently as 2022 in Belarus.

00:00:48.440 | In this video, I'll give a quick summary with spoilers

00:00:52.920 | and a few takeaways.

00:00:55.440 | I'd like to try to make it somewhat interesting

00:00:57.600 | to people who both have and have not read the book.

00:01:00.720 | Let's see how it goes.

00:01:01.800 | The world in the book 1984

00:01:04.880 | is a dystopian future society, nation,

00:01:08.200 | maybe you can say super state named Oceania.

00:01:11.880 | It's fully controlled by a totalitarian political party

00:01:14.860 | called Inksock.

00:01:16.200 | It's led by Big Brother, who as we might discuss,

00:01:19.520 | may or may not be a real person.

00:01:21.440 | He might just be a symbol used by the party.

00:01:24.620 | The party wants only to increase its power,

00:01:27.120 | also something we might talk about.

00:01:29.080 | It uses technology, telescreens for mass surveillance.

00:01:32.420 | It's creating a new language called Newspeak,

00:01:34.400 | which removes words from English

00:01:35.720 | that could lead to rebellion.

00:01:38.360 | It uses doublethink to control thought

00:01:41.160 | by perhaps you could say,

00:01:43.240 | forcing you to hold contradictory beliefs

00:01:45.440 | and accept them as true.

00:01:47.040 | If not, the thought police arrest you

00:01:48.880 | for committing a thought crime.

00:01:51.480 | Examples of doublethink are war is peace,

00:01:54.880 | freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.

00:01:59.080 | And finally, the party constantly rewrites history.

00:02:02.400 | As the quote goes,

00:02:03.400 | "Who controls the past, controls the future.

00:02:05.960 | "Who controls the present, controls the past."

00:02:09.520 | There are several ministries, four of them.

00:02:11.320 | Ministry of Truth is responsible for propaganda

00:02:14.400 | and like I said, rewriting history.

00:02:16.580 | Ministry of Love is responsible for brainwashing people

00:02:20.240 | through torture.

00:02:22.720 | Ministry of Plenty is responsible for rationing of food,

00:02:25.840 | supplies and goods.

00:02:27.360 | And Ministry of Peace, of course,

00:02:29.960 | is responsible for maintaining constant state of war.

00:02:34.320 | Society is divided into three levels.

00:02:38.600 | The inner party, the outer party and the proles.

00:02:41.400 | The stands for, I guess, proletariats.

00:02:44.960 | It's the working class.

00:02:46.600 | The inner party is tiny,

00:02:47.760 | the outer party is a little bit bigger

00:02:49.120 | and majority of the people,

00:02:50.700 | I forget what the percentage is,

00:02:51.840 | maybe 80% is the proles, the working class.

00:02:55.600 | There's several key characters.

00:02:56.960 | Winston, the main character,

00:02:58.520 | is a low-ranking member of Inksock.

00:03:00.480 | He works at the Ministry of Truth

00:03:03.040 | where he rewrites history, like I mentioned.

00:03:05.800 | Julia is a dark-haired girl

00:03:07.600 | who Winston falls in love with and she with him.

00:03:11.360 | They have sex.

00:03:13.120 | And this is maybe a good place to mention

00:03:15.020 | that passionate sex, love and passionate sex,

00:03:18.040 | are forbidden in this society.

00:03:20.300 | Good sex, I think, is a term under Newspeak, #goodsex,

00:03:26.900 | is the kind of sex that leads to procreation,

00:03:29.300 | which is the only kind of sex that's allowed

00:03:31.540 | and the only kind of sex that's good.

00:03:33.340 | O'Brien is another central character.

00:03:37.660 | He's the member of the inner party

00:03:39.520 | that convinces Winston he's part of the Brotherhood,

00:03:43.800 | which is a lie.

00:03:45.300 | And he eventually is the man who tortures Winston

00:03:49.220 | and breaks his mind, breaks his heart.

00:03:51.960 | Big Brother and Emanuel Goldstein

00:03:55.200 | are these symbolic characters

00:03:56.700 | that we never actually get to meet.

00:03:57.840 | They may or may not exist.

00:03:59.340 | Big Brother is the head of the party, Inksock,

00:04:01.980 | and Emanuel Goldstein is the leader

00:04:03.920 | of the so-called Brotherhood,

00:04:06.500 | which is this supposed mysterious group

00:04:08.540 | that lurks in the shadows

00:04:09.820 | and works to overthrow the party.

00:04:11.780 | Again, may or may not exist.

00:04:13.980 | We'll maybe talk about the importance of that

00:04:18.180 | in a totalitarian state.

00:04:20.020 | So a few key takeaways,

00:04:22.460 | and I'll try to do my best.

00:04:23.900 | I have disparate notes that I took for myself.

00:04:26.740 | I'll try to do my best to try to integrate them together

00:04:30.220 | to make some cohesive thoughts.

00:04:35.060 | And part of the reason I wanted to do this,

00:04:37.720 | while I have read "1984" many times in my life,

00:04:40.660 | and many of the books I've put on a reading list

00:04:44.140 | that I want to read, I read many times,

00:04:47.740 | I haven't often really concretized

00:04:50.660 | my thoughts about the books.

00:04:52.420 | I just take the journey and just let the thoughts

00:04:55.580 | kind of wander around in the background as I live my life.

00:04:59.340 | I wanted to kind of put on paper

00:05:00.780 | and maybe share with others to see what they think,

00:05:04.700 | what my concrete takeaways are from the book,

00:05:08.060 | what my thoughts are,

00:05:09.020 | if I could try to convert them into words.

00:05:13.140 | So the first one for me,

00:05:15.420 | especially later in life as I've been reading this book,

00:05:19.000 | is that when everything else,

00:05:20.900 | or most things that make you human are taken away

00:05:25.540 | by those around you, by the totalitarian state,

00:05:29.780 | the last thing that's left

00:05:31.500 | that is the most difficult to take away is love.

00:05:37.060 | Love for other human beings, love for life itself.

00:05:40.360 | That's the little flame from which hope springs.

00:05:45.500 | That's the key revolutionary act, is the act of love.

00:05:49.580 | So when the ability to speak is taken away,

00:05:52.460 | when the ability to think, rational thoughts is taken away,

00:05:55.500 | the last thing that's left,

00:05:57.140 | and the thing that ultimately gives hope is love.

00:06:00.940 | That's a big takeaway for me,

00:06:02.300 | and the note that Julia gives to Winston,

00:06:07.300 | the note reading, "I love you,"

00:06:11.100 | is the kind of revolutionary act

00:06:15.660 | that leads to a society beyond the one they exist in.

00:06:19.420 | I think a lot of the book

00:06:22.260 | has an interesting hypocrisy to it,

00:06:27.380 | where the main character, Winston,

00:06:29.780 | is almost in an animalistic way

00:06:32.700 | obsessed with destroying the state

00:06:34.660 | in "Rebellion" and "Revolution,"

00:06:38.420 | but I think love is the thing that allows you

00:06:42.100 | to believe in a place beyond the state,

00:06:45.020 | in believing that you can build something better,

00:06:48.980 | versus destroying the thing you're in.

00:06:50.940 | I think you have to be careful as a revolutionary

00:06:55.460 | not to obsess 100% with destruction,

00:06:58.820 | because beyond destruction,

00:07:01.020 | there could be chaos that leads to something much worse.

00:07:03.980 | I think love is the thing,

00:07:05.300 | the basic human thing that connects all of us,

00:07:08.500 | the messy thing that connects all of us,

00:07:10.400 | that allows you to build a better society

00:07:13.480 | after the totalitarian one is overthrown.

00:07:16.160 | What else do I wanna say?

00:07:18.980 | There's an interesting tension there

00:07:20.380 | between love and sex, or lust.

00:07:23.600 | I think there's a quote that,

00:07:26.180 | pure love or pure lust was impossible or forbidden.

00:07:30.220 | Pure love and pure lust.

00:07:32.860 | Pure here meaning sort of unadulterated,

00:07:37.860 | uncensored intensity of feeling, maybe intimacy.

00:07:43.340 | And that was an interesting question raised by the book,

00:07:46.140 | both by Winston and Julia,

00:07:47.700 | is what is ultimately the thing,

00:07:51.000 | the most powerful act of rebellion?

00:07:52.660 | Is it, between us humans,

00:07:55.460 | when everything is forbidden?

00:07:57.860 | Is it animalistic like sex?

00:08:00.700 | Just lust, lust for another human.

00:08:03.080 | Or is it love?

00:08:06.140 | The kind of love you have for a romantic partner,

00:08:07.820 | but even love for family, love for friends.

00:08:10.540 | I don't know.

00:08:11.380 | I think the book almost claims that it is sex,

00:08:16.380 | but I think what the book also shows

00:08:19.180 | is if sex is your manifestation of rebellion,

00:08:23.740 | that that ultimately leads to something that doesn't last.

00:08:27.460 | That ultimately leads to a focus on destruction

00:08:32.460 | versus building beyond the horizon when the state falls.

00:08:38.900 | So some quotes from Winston on this.

00:08:42.900 | The more men you've had sex with,

00:08:44.780 | so Julia admitted to have sex with quite a lot of people.

00:08:49.780 | He says, "The more men you've had sex with,

00:08:51.700 | "the more I love you.

00:08:52.980 | "I hate purity.

00:08:53.960 | "I hate virtue.

00:08:54.920 | "I want everyone to be corrupt to the bone."

00:08:57.240 | This kind of rubbed me the wrong way,

00:09:00.460 | because again, this seems to be obsessed

00:09:02.660 | with the hatred towards the state

00:09:04.940 | versus a longing and a hope,

00:09:07.340 | which I think hope is really important here.

00:09:09.500 | A hope for a better future beyond the state.

00:09:13.660 | Again, another quote from the book.

00:09:15.980 | Their embrace had been a battle, the climax of victory.

00:09:19.900 | It was a blow struck against the party.

00:09:22.300 | It was a political act.

00:09:24.100 | So there, again, I think sex is a political act,

00:09:27.060 | an act of political rebellion.

00:09:29.060 | I think that's not the deeply human thing here.

00:09:31.620 | The deeply human thing is, again, the act of love.

00:09:34.700 | It's a source of hope.

00:09:35.580 | It's the catalyst for building a better future

00:09:38.920 | beyond the revolution.

00:09:40.300 | An interesting side note here,

00:09:42.220 | and there could be a million interesting side notes,

00:09:44.100 | and I'm desperately trying not to go on a million tangent

00:09:47.900 | and to hold myself together here to stay focused,

00:09:50.940 | is on family.

00:09:52.260 | So there's all kinds of love,

00:09:55.380 | and I think family love is a really powerful bond

00:09:59.500 | that connects us,

00:10:01.420 | and that's one of the things

00:10:02.500 | that the totalitarian states really go after.

00:10:04.780 | And I should actually mention,

00:10:07.780 | sort of loosely using term authoritarian

00:10:10.180 | and totalitarian here,

00:10:13.100 | but I think, to me at least,

00:10:14.340 | I don't know what others think,

00:10:15.620 | but to me, authoritarian means

00:10:17.980 | where there's a government,

00:10:21.140 | a centralized, complete centralized control

00:10:24.500 | of political affairs,

00:10:25.880 | and a totalitarian state is a complete,

00:10:30.300 | is beyond that,

00:10:31.120 | is a complete control of not just politics

00:10:34.060 | and the functions of government,

00:10:36.420 | the basics of the functions of government,

00:10:37.740 | but also social, economic, everything.

00:10:41.740 | It's, Nazi Germany is an example of that,

00:10:44.420 | I think, to me,

00:10:45.840 | where there's just complete control of every single thing,

00:10:48.960 | from the war effort to the social interactions,

00:10:53.280 | the rules that govern social interaction to the press,

00:10:55.520 | all that kind of stuff.

00:10:57.200 | So I think this book is more about,

00:10:59.440 | at least in my definition of the term,

00:11:01.280 | about totalitarianism.

00:11:03.380 | Anyway, as I was saying on family,

00:11:05.600 | I think the way they destroy family,

00:11:08.840 | one, of course, with your romantic partner,

00:11:11.680 | forbidding passion,

00:11:14.080 | passionate sex,

00:11:14.920 | but really just passion,

00:11:15.860 | longing for another human being in that romantic way.

00:11:19.840 | And they also really reward and encourage children

00:11:24.280 | at a young age,

00:11:25.160 | they indoctrinate them,

00:11:26.500 | to turn their parents in for thought crime,

00:11:28.520 | whether real or not,

00:11:29.960 | which of course is a silly notion

00:11:31.600 | because it doesn't,

00:11:33.320 | there's no nature of truth,

00:11:35.280 | there's no,

00:11:36.480 | you can just accuse anyone of anything

00:11:38.000 | and they're guilty by just existing.

00:11:41.120 | So that's a way to attack the family.

00:11:43.000 | And I should also mention on the topic of love,

00:11:46.360 | is that I think the goal of the party,

00:11:48.900 | the final destination,

00:11:51.760 | as used by O'Brien through the process of torture,

00:11:55.200 | is for, to break your mind,

00:11:56.960 | to break your heart and soul completely,

00:11:59.380 | so that the only love you can have,

00:12:01.360 | and it could be felt as a pure love,

00:12:06.360 | is for big brother.

00:12:08.280 | This is the kind of thing you see in North Korea,

00:12:10.880 | is that the only love you're allowed to have,

00:12:13.480 | the remaining inklings of feeling

00:12:16.600 | that might still exist in you,

00:12:18.800 | you can channel only,

00:12:20.400 | not towards family,

00:12:21.240 | not towards romantic partners,

00:12:22.440 | not towards friends,

00:12:24.060 | but towards this leader,

00:12:27.080 | this godlike messianic figure,

00:12:30.720 | in this case, who may or may not exist,

00:12:32.680 | in all cases, that figure,

00:12:34.760 | while there is a human associated with it,

00:12:37.620 | it's really much bigger than the human.

00:12:39.760 | And that's the only love you're allowed to have.

00:12:42.160 | So the other takeaway I have is on the topic of hate.

00:12:44.880 | I think all humans have the capacity,

00:12:49.680 | almost an animalistic craving,

00:12:54.000 | for hate of the other, the enemy,

00:12:56.660 | whether it's individuals like Emmanuel Goldstein,

00:12:58.740 | or nations like Eurasia and East Asia,

00:13:02.480 | which I should say are the two other super states

00:13:06.100 | described in this book,

00:13:09.680 | they're constantly at war with each other.

00:13:11.800 | Again, the fascinating thing

00:13:14.000 | about the way this book is written,

00:13:16.260 | is you don't know if Eurasia or East Asia exists.

00:13:20.580 | You really don't know what exists,

00:13:22.680 | or what is true beyond the local little interaction,

00:13:25.760 | local little world of the main character.

00:13:28.240 | And that, I think, is the point.

00:13:30.120 | When you don't really know,

00:13:31.980 | there's no steady footing on which to construct

00:13:36.080 | a worldview from which you can have hope

00:13:37.920 | about a better future.

00:13:39.480 | That longing for a better future.

00:13:41.780 | And so this animalistic craving for hate,

00:13:46.380 | or the capacity to have hate,

00:13:47.960 | especially when we're in crowds,

00:13:50.320 | I think is most powerfully illustrated

00:13:54.960 | in the two minutes of hate,

00:13:56.580 | which is practiced by the society.

00:13:58.440 | And the quote is,

00:14:00.160 | "The horrible thing about the two minutes of hate

00:14:02.160 | "was not that one was obliged to act a part,

00:14:05.880 | "but that it was impossible to avoid joining in.

00:14:08.520 | "Within 30 seconds, any pretense was always unnecessary.

00:14:12.860 | "A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness,

00:14:16.140 | "a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in

00:14:18.940 | "with a sledgehammer,

00:14:20.260 | "seemed to flow through the whole group of people

00:14:22.200 | "like an electric current,

00:14:24.020 | "turning one, even against one's will,

00:14:26.340 | "into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.

00:14:29.000 | "And yet, the rage that one felt

00:14:31.400 | "was an abstract, undirected emotion,

00:14:34.320 | "which could be switched from one object to another

00:14:37.140 | "like the flame of a blow lamp."

00:14:39.680 | That's the point, is you get the crowd together,

00:14:43.600 | you get them to hate Goldstein, or Eurasia, or East Asia,

00:14:48.120 | you get them to hate anything.

00:14:49.800 | And because that feeling, that drug,

00:14:54.360 | that hypnotic,

00:14:56.040 | that mass hypnosis that you feel

00:14:59.800 | can be directed by the state into any direction,

00:15:02.740 | and because you have complete control of history,

00:15:04.740 | you can direct it on a day-by-day basis

00:15:07.040 | towards any target.

00:15:08.600 | And as long as the hate is catalyzed

00:15:12.400 | through these kinds of rituals,

00:15:14.200 | as long as the hate is there,

00:15:15.780 | it can overpower the individualistic feeling of love

00:15:20.280 | we have for each other.

00:15:21.600 | So that hate is a more animalistic desire.

00:15:26.460 | I don't know what to make of it.

00:15:28.480 | Of course, it's also important to say that this book,

00:15:31.040 | I think I've read many places that it was intended

00:15:35.200 | originally by Orwell as a satire,

00:15:37.920 | although a satire that has quite a lot of torture

00:15:40.680 | at the end, and doesn't seem to have much humor.

00:15:43.680 | But I think if you read it as a satire,

00:15:47.580 | that's the way it's better to understand

00:15:51.680 | its relevance in our society today,

00:15:53.640 | because a lot of things like "Two Minutes of Hate"

00:15:55.640 | is almost like a caricature of what hate looks like

00:15:58.960 | in a mass gathering.

00:16:00.180 | But if you take it as a caricature,

00:16:04.200 | it can now reveal you some of the elements

00:16:06.280 | that already exist in human nature that are there,

00:16:09.480 | and that we should be very cautious about.

00:16:11.380 | So it reveals the very thing that,

00:16:14.600 | if not monitored by ourselves,

00:16:18.180 | can result in a slippery slope that leads to,

00:16:22.280 | yeah, destruction of the tribalism,

00:16:26.280 | destruction of other groups,

00:16:27.600 | and then control of the collective intelligence

00:16:33.620 | of our species through the totalitarian state.

00:16:36.840 | I think there's elements of this

00:16:38.240 | that are just under illustration in social media today.

00:16:43.200 | I don't wanna overstate it.

00:16:44.560 | I think just like comparing things to Hitler,

00:16:47.280 | comparing things to 1984, I think is a reach in most cases.

00:16:52.040 | But social media does reveal this kind of mass hysteria,

00:16:55.200 | this capacity of humans to be outraged,

00:16:57.840 | of outrage based on tribalism.

00:17:01.160 | So we have to understand it.

00:17:03.360 | We have to resist giving into it on the individual level.

00:17:06.120 | And I do believe we have the responsibility

00:17:08.840 | to create technology that helps us resist it,

00:17:12.320 | that incentivizes us not to be cruel to each other

00:17:15.120 | just because all the people in whatever tribe

00:17:17.360 | we define ourselves in are being cruel

00:17:19.240 | to a particular person or a particular group.

00:17:21.680 | Another takeaway I have is about power.

00:17:24.260 | Ingsoc, the totalitarian states, wants only one thing,

00:17:29.600 | and that is power.

00:17:31.740 | Power is both the means and the end, absolute power.

00:17:35.540 | That's what O'Brien describes,

00:17:36.700 | and there's a lot of quotes about this

00:17:39.300 | in the torture part of the book.

00:17:41.540 | O'Brien says, "The real power,

00:17:44.500 | "the power we have to fight for night and day,

00:17:47.060 | "is not power over things, but power over men.

00:17:50.820 | "Power is inflicting pain and humiliation.

00:17:53.920 | "Power is in tearing human minds to pieces

00:17:57.040 | "and putting them together again

00:17:58.520 | "in new shapes of your own choosing.

00:18:00.860 | "Power is not a means, it is an end.

00:18:03.700 | "One does not establish a dictatorship

00:18:05.440 | "in order to safeguard a revolution.

00:18:07.780 | "One makes the revolution

00:18:09.320 | "in order to establish a dictatorship.

00:18:11.700 | "The object of persecution is persecution.

00:18:14.320 | "The object of torture is torture.

00:18:17.120 | "The object of power is power."

00:18:19.880 | This, of course, is another aspect of human nature,

00:18:24.580 | the will to power,

00:18:29.980 | and the tendency of that power to corrupt.

00:18:32.120 | O'Brien says also, "The weariness of the cell

00:18:39.940 | "is the vigor of the organism."

00:18:41.740 | Through the torture of the individual,

00:18:44.780 | through the breaking of the individual,

00:18:46.180 | through the death of the individual

00:18:47.460 | that doesn't exist according to the history,

00:18:49.660 | all of that doesn't matter.

00:18:53.060 | What matters is the organism.

00:18:55.500 | And there's been a lot of brilliant comments

00:18:57.900 | throughout social media and on Reddit.

00:18:59.540 | I just wanna highlight something about this

00:19:01.100 | 'cause I had the exact same feeling

00:19:02.340 | as I was this time rereading it.

00:19:05.180 | There's a comment from a Reddit user

00:19:08.140 | whose name is BraveSky6764.

00:19:12.780 | He said, "The conversation between Lex and Michael Levin,"

00:19:17.740 | who is a brilliant biologist, engineer,

00:19:22.740 | "came to mind when O'Brien made an analogy

00:19:25.760 | "to an organism which survives

00:19:27.180 | "even as the individual cells pass away.

00:19:29.880 | "And the great purges are analogous

00:19:31.840 | "to the cutting of a fingernail."

00:19:33.500 | If you see society as an organism,

00:19:39.040 | which I think is the way a totalitarian state sees it,

00:19:46.760 | then the destruction of a large percentage of that society,

00:19:50.840 | the murder, the torture,

00:19:52.420 | all kinds of atrocities and genocide become justifiable

00:19:55.900 | as long as the organism flourishes.

00:19:57.840 | And that's how you get to the ideas that Stalin had,

00:20:04.740 | it's okay to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

00:20:08.760 | This devaluation of a human being

00:20:14.500 | as of fundamental importance in a society,

00:20:23.480 | that's a slippery slope into atrocities.

00:20:26.380 | It's not just deeply unethical

00:20:29.680 | from our understanding of morals and ethics.

00:20:33.200 | It is also very unproductive.

00:20:35.920 | It destroys the human spirit.

00:20:38.680 | And the human spirit is essential

00:20:40.160 | for building of a great society of constant progress.

00:20:42.740 | I think that's also one of the other messages of the book

00:20:45.280 | is about utopia,

00:20:46.720 | that totalitarianism results when you chase perfection.

00:20:51.840 | When you present this idea of utopia.

00:20:54.860 | There is no utopia, there is no perfect society.

00:20:58.280 | I think, at least for me, that's takeaway.

00:21:00.400 | I think the optimal state of being for an individual

00:21:03.720 | and for a state is a constant turnover, constant change.

00:21:08.720 | And in the case of a state,

00:21:10.120 | it's a constant turnover of leaders, of ideas,

00:21:13.360 | and always hopefully in the longterm making progress

00:21:16.700 | towards a better world.

00:21:21.520 | But it's always going to be messy.

00:21:23.220 | Perfection only exists in a oppressive state.

00:21:28.920 | Perfection only exists when you remove the basic humanity

00:21:32.800 | of the individuals that make up that state,

00:21:35.000 | when you destroy the human spirit,

00:21:37.400 | or when you suppress and you destroy all the freedoms.

00:21:40.160 | Because freedom is going to be messy,

00:21:41.480 | it's going to be very chaotic.

00:21:42.940 | But that freedom ultimately,

00:21:44.680 | is at least in the long arc of history,

00:21:46.320 | is going to create progress.

00:21:48.300 | - So yes, as the Redditor Brave Sky 6764 says,

00:21:53.300 | that does actually give you a perspective

00:21:55.900 | of a biological system where it's

00:21:58.180 | a bunch of living organisms.

00:21:59.460 | Each one of us are made up of a bunch of living organisms,

00:22:01.940 | and we take that for granted

00:22:03.380 | of all the atrocities that are happening there.

00:22:05.820 | And we don't seem to give a damn.

00:22:07.940 | I think that's a really good metaphor for us to help.

00:22:11.780 | If you want to put yourself in the mind of the inner party,

00:22:16.060 | a big brother of the people that are in power

00:22:18.900 | in those situations, I think a lot of them,

00:22:23.500 | if most of them, if not all of them,

00:22:26.180 | see themselves as doing good for the world,

00:22:28.860 | as doing good for the society.

00:22:30.660 | And they're able to justify that

00:22:32.060 | the way we justify the murder

00:22:33.780 | of the different cells in our body.

00:22:35.720 | You don't even think of them as worthy of consideration.

00:22:39.420 | You don't think of them as living beings

00:22:42.140 | of having the same value as you.

00:22:43.380 | And that's one of the really powerful ideas

00:22:46.260 | at the founding of the United States,

00:22:47.720 | that all men are created equal,

00:22:49.260 | that there's an equal worth to a human being,

00:22:52.340 | no matter who that human being is.

00:22:54.660 | That idea, at the very least,

00:22:56.700 | as flawed as its implementations have been,

00:22:59.360 | is a really, really powerful idea,

00:23:00.820 | and it's a non-trivial idea.

00:23:02.340 | And that idea resists the drug of totalitarianism,

00:23:07.340 | the drug of power.

00:23:11.060 | I do believe that on the topic of power and politics,

00:23:13.980 | that 1984, as I've mentioned,

00:23:17.940 | has been, I would say, misused by political ideologues.

00:23:22.940 | I've seen it, for example,

00:23:25.300 | on conservatives in the United States,

00:23:27.380 | have used 1984 to call left-wing policies Orwellian.

00:23:32.380 | I think that's an overstatement,

00:23:37.660 | and of course, used for dramatic effect,

00:23:40.180 | but it should be at least said

00:23:44.020 | that Orwell was a democratic socialist.

00:23:46.420 | 1984 is not a criticism of socialism.

00:23:50.420 | It's a criticism of totalitarianism.

00:23:52.660 | And I think the point is a warning against totalitarianism

00:23:56.100 | in all forms, that all political ideologies

00:23:59.700 | can succumb to the allure of power and be corrupted by it.

00:24:03.560 | And I think people on the left in the United States

00:24:07.820 | and people on the right can both be corrupted by power.

00:24:11.700 | So this kind of one-way criticism

00:24:15.100 | of left-wing policies as Orwellian

00:24:18.180 | is a very kind of convenient shorthand,

00:24:20.640 | but the reality is all men and politicians

00:24:24.980 | are capable of creating an Orwellian world.

00:24:29.980 | And I think one of the things that is highlighted

00:24:35.940 | in the book very well, I would say,

00:24:38.760 | if I interpret it correctly, is the hypocrisy of Winston.

00:24:42.540 | When O'Brien asks Winston what he's willing to do

00:24:45.500 | to overthrow the party,

00:24:46.460 | what he's willing to do for the brotherhood,

00:24:48.660 | Winston admits that he is willing to do atrocities.

00:24:52.860 | He's willing to do evil onto children,

00:24:55.160 | onto anybody, murder, anything.

00:24:57.740 | And I think this is a really powerful illustration

00:25:02.260 | that both the totalitarian

00:25:05.140 | and the blind, immoral resistance,

00:25:08.220 | rebellion against the totalitarian state can both be evil.

00:25:12.740 | And I think that's where I return to love

00:25:15.220 | is the thing that carries hope for a world

00:25:17.740 | beyond this battle.

00:25:19.420 | It's a very important battle for freedom,

00:25:21.340 | but you have to have that.

00:25:23.580 | Otherwise, it's the Orwellian state

00:25:26.580 | and the resistance to Orwellian state

00:25:28.060 | can both destroy basic human rights and freedoms.

00:25:31.940 | I think sort of in the character of Winston,

00:25:34.420 | that's illustrated well.

00:25:37.820 | And I should also mention that there's interesting writing.

00:25:40.500 | Now, I'm not obviously a scholar of Orwell,

00:25:43.540 | and there's a lot of books been written,

00:25:45.460 | and I should probably recommend them somewhere.

00:25:47.780 | There's just great books written on 1984 on Orwell,

00:25:51.500 | on the historical context in which he was operating

00:25:54.620 | and all that kind of stuff.

00:25:56.340 | But as far as I see, Orwell, also with 1984

00:26:01.180 | and himself politically,

00:26:03.300 | he was not espousing the complete opposite

00:26:05.620 | of totalitarianism.

00:26:06.540 | There is, again, with democratic socialism,

00:26:09.580 | that there is value to the connection between human beings,

00:26:12.660 | that you have to lean on each other, help each other,

00:26:16.220 | that society is fundamentally a cohesive collective

00:26:21.220 | than a completely sort of disparate set of systems

00:26:26.620 | or disparate set of sovereign individuals.

00:26:31.620 | It's both.

00:26:33.540 | And I think he was torn about that idea

00:26:35.700 | because in order to resist a totalitarian state,

00:26:37.900 | you have to fight for those basic individual freedoms.

00:26:41.380 | But at the same time, a society, a well-functioning society

00:26:45.380 | allows for that freedom to manifest as a collaboration.

00:26:50.380 | And so that's the difficult challenge there.

00:26:52.220 | Again, that's why he was a democratic socialist.

00:26:54.300 | And the criticism of the book was against totalitarianism,

00:26:57.700 | of a centralized state that controls speech, thought,

00:27:02.700 | the press, and all the basic human freedoms,

00:27:08.940 | controls truth.

00:27:10.620 | And I think a lot of people would ask the question,

00:27:13.020 | and I hear this tossed around,

00:27:14.740 | do we live in the world of 1984 today?

00:27:17.980 | And I think that's used as a shorthand

00:27:20.180 | to sort of criticize different policies

00:27:22.420 | and different governments.

00:27:23.980 | I generally don't like the use of that kind of language

00:27:29.100 | because it's basically crying wolf.

00:27:31.100 | If everything is 1984, if everybody is Hitler,

00:27:34.040 | then you're not going to,

00:27:35.900 | there's no way to kind of properly normalize the discussion

00:27:40.900 | of what's, of the lesser of two evils kind of thing,

00:27:46.380 | which is ultimately what democracy is about.

00:27:48.140 | You have a collection of things you're picking.

00:27:49.880 | They all kind of suck,

00:27:51.020 | but you want to pick the one that sucks the least.

00:27:53.660 | That's human society, that's human nature, it's messy.

00:27:58.660 | And so I don't think we live in a 1984 state,

00:28:03.060 | but there's a lot of elements that this book reveals

00:28:06.260 | about human nature and about the operation

00:28:08.260 | of a totalitarian state that we should be on the watch for.

00:28:11.020 | So surveillance, a state of double think,

00:28:14.940 | of controlling language,

00:28:19.460 | of being in a constant state of war

00:28:21.020 | as a way to control the population

00:28:22.940 | and the flow of resources,

00:28:24.380 | all those things have elements of,

00:28:28.180 | almost like a useful tools for the establishment

00:28:31.660 | of complete control of a populace.

00:28:33.820 | And the moment you notice those elements,

00:28:36.020 | it's our job to resist those elements.

00:28:39.220 | So I think the point is we have to be vigilant

00:28:43.700 | to the slippery slope of the will to power

00:28:46.340 | in centralized institutions.

00:28:49.480 | Another thing I want to mention is that

00:28:51.400 | I think a lot of people rightfully compliment Orwell

00:28:55.840 | to have predict some of the elements of future society,

00:28:58.240 | especially with technology, technological capabilities

00:29:02.520 | that are with, for example,

00:29:03.840 | telescreens used by the state to control the population.

00:29:07.440 | Maybe I can make a few comments on technology in general.

00:29:10.760 | People who criticize technology will often use 1984

00:29:13.960 | as an example that, you know,

00:29:17.040 | technology is a tool for a totalitarian state.

00:29:20.480 | It's a way they can achieve full control

00:29:22.440 | and we should be extremely cautious of it.

00:29:24.080 | And I think that's, there's a kernel of truth to that,

00:29:28.720 | but it's not obviously to me that on the whole technology

00:29:32.320 | is a tool for totalitarian control.

00:29:36.440 | That I think it is also a tool for freedom.

00:29:40.560 | The internet is an incredible tool for freedom.

00:29:43.680 | And so of course we have to fight for that freedom,

00:29:46.800 | but I believe in general, the greater,

00:29:49.800 | let's just take the internet broadly as an example,

00:29:52.560 | and there's a lot of sub elements of that

00:29:54.000 | and like a more sort of platonic sense

00:29:56.840 | of what the internet is, which is digital interconnectivity.

00:29:59.920 | We have to fight for the freedom,

00:30:02.960 | but in general, the greater reach and access

00:30:05.880 | that the internet has,

00:30:07.440 | the more powerful the resistance to totalitarianism.

00:30:10.220 | Technology is a double-edged sword.

00:30:14.680 | It provides the tools for oppression

00:30:18.040 | and the tools for the ongoing fight for freedom.

00:30:21.560 | And as long as the will to fight

00:30:24.160 | arises in the human heart,

00:30:26.320 | technology, I think, helps humanity win.

00:30:29.760 | And of course, there's been a lot of discussion

00:30:32.520 | about free speech and the freedom of thought.

00:30:34.880 | And there's a lot to be said there

00:30:37.800 | that's much more nuanced than the book "1984" provides.

00:30:41.880 | I think "1984" just shows the end, horrible conclusion

00:30:46.880 | of complete totalitarian control over speech,

00:30:49.040 | over thought, over feeling, over everything.

00:30:51.280 | But in general, my view of it is

00:30:55.520 | this is kind of inspiration to,

00:30:57.320 | in order to prevent ourselves

00:30:59.840 | from slipping into an authoritarian,

00:31:02.040 | into a totalitarian state,

00:31:04.200 | Orwellian type of dystopias, to avoid them,

00:31:08.280 | we have to value critical and independent thought.

00:31:11.440 | I think thought first before speech, just thought.

00:31:14.840 | I think you have to learn to think deeply

00:31:18.640 | from first principles,

00:31:19.760 | independent of whatever tribe you find yourselves in,

00:31:23.320 | independent of government, independent of groups,

00:31:25.840 | independent of the people around you,

00:31:28.200 | the people you love, that love you.

00:31:30.200 | You have to learn at least sometimes to think independently.

00:31:34.760 | Now, this is the Nietzsche, if you gaze long into the abyss,

00:31:37.120 | the abyss gazes into you.

00:31:38.760 | If you think too independently,

00:31:41.320 | it can break your mind.

00:31:42.560 | I mean, we are social creatures, we need that connection.

00:31:45.520 | But I think it's like what the Tom Waits,

00:31:48.680 | I like my Tom a little drop of poison.

00:31:50.840 | I think of truly deeply independent thought

00:31:53.280 | as a little drop of poison that's necessary for your own mind.

00:31:56.720 | Most of your life you live,

00:31:58.160 | you kind of assume most things around you are true,

00:32:02.040 | and that's very useful.

00:32:03.080 | We stand on the shoulders of giants,

00:32:04.880 | but you on a regular occasion have to question,

00:32:08.560 | question your assumption, question your biases,

00:32:10.800 | question everything,

00:32:11.960 | question the things you've taken for granted,

00:32:14.700 | question what everybody's telling you, but not too much.

00:32:17.760 | It's a tricky balance.

00:32:19.760 | But the act of rebellion against the totalitarian state,

00:32:22.480 | against the slippery slope into that state

00:32:24.320 | is that independent thought.

00:32:26.280 | And of course, speech is a manifestation of that thought.

00:32:28.760 | So to avoid echo chambers in both thought and speech,

00:32:33.000 | like I said, you have to question your assumptions,

00:32:35.160 | challenge your biases.

00:32:37.400 | I think that's the way out,

00:32:38.440 | or maybe that's a resistance mechanism

00:32:40.600 | to slipping into authoritarianism.

00:32:44.480 | And maybe I have a few more things to say

00:32:46.080 | about the latter part of the book,

00:32:47.440 | the part where there's torture,

00:32:50.400 | where there's room 101 that has the thing you fear the most,

00:32:55.400 | which is different for all of us.

00:32:57.880 | And for Winston, that's rats.

00:33:00.360 | Makes you wonder what that thing is for each of us.

00:33:05.520 | I left a mental note for myself to do more research

00:33:09.560 | into the historical context,

00:33:13.880 | the psychology, the neuroscience,

00:33:15.600 | the effectiveness of torture.

00:33:19.620 | I think there's probably a lot of really good work.

00:33:22.540 | I had a brief conversation with Andrew Huberman

00:33:25.120 | on the phone about this topic.

00:33:27.560 | Andrew Huberman, the brilliant Andrew Huberman,

00:33:29.840 | host of the Huberman Lab podcast you should listen to.

00:33:32.680 | And then he mentioned to me

00:33:34.120 | there's a bunch of papers on these topics.

00:33:36.440 | This has been studied,

00:33:37.680 | sort of the carrot and the stick

00:33:39.300 | of the ability of incentives and disincentives

00:33:42.460 | to control the perception

00:33:44.320 | and the mental state of people and animals.

00:33:47.220 | And he mentioned to me a few folks

00:33:50.120 | that I could talk to on a podcast

00:33:51.760 | about this topic in a few books.

00:33:53.200 | So I'll definitely look into this more.

00:33:55.160 | I think 1984 is probably,

00:33:57.840 | it uses torture as a philosophical description,

00:34:02.760 | as a caricature of the operation of a totalitarian state.

00:34:07.760 | But at the same time,

00:34:09.480 | a lot of those elements were all done

00:34:14.440 | under Stalin in the Soviet Union.

00:34:16.100 | So it's not like it's very different

00:34:19.480 | or very far from reality.

00:34:20.960 | It's very, very real.

00:34:24.320 | The question is about the actual effect

00:34:28.400 | it has on the human mind,

00:34:29.720 | which I really have to think

00:34:32.120 | because torture in this case breaks Winston.

00:34:36.000 | In fact, I'd like to believe that many people

00:34:38.720 | in the most fundamental ways can't be broken in this way.

00:34:41.560 | I've seen science, again, without extensively reading,

00:34:47.600 | so please correct me if I'm wrong,

00:34:49.240 | but I've seen science that shows that torture

00:34:51.600 | for the purpose of intelligence gathering is not effective.

00:34:55.360 | It's not effective to get accurate information

00:34:57.160 | because people will tell you anything, really,

00:34:59.880 | to stop the torture,

00:35:00.980 | stop the physical and the mental, the emotional suffering.

00:35:05.340 | So that, but I think this book is about the use of torture

00:35:09.400 | to completely break your ability to think

00:35:11.680 | and to perceive the world.

00:35:13.640 | One of the things I talk to Andrew about

00:35:18.640 | is whether it's possible to control perception

00:35:20.840 | through these kinds of things.

00:35:23.300 | And it seems that there is literature

00:35:25.520 | that shows it's possible to literally change

00:35:27.720 | your perception of the world.

00:35:29.200 | Like in this case, in 1984,

00:35:31.720 | it's when you're holding up four fingers,

00:35:34.800 | can you actually make the person believe

00:35:37.880 | that you're holding up five fingers?

00:35:39.740 | Not because of some weird illusion

00:35:41.940 | or just because your vision is blurry or any of that,

00:35:45.140 | but you literally, when you look,

00:35:46.860 | I'm holding four fingers and what you see is five fingers.

00:35:50.080 | Not because your vision is poor, no.

00:35:51.620 | Your visual cortex,

00:35:53.020 | the way you're processing that information,

00:35:55.020 | something about the processing

00:35:56.820 | changes completely your perception.

00:35:58.460 | If I tell you there's a straight line,

00:36:00.740 | can through incentive or disincentive,

00:36:02.660 | can you start seeing like a crooked line

00:36:05.060 | or something like that?

00:36:06.380 | Anyway, I think that there's literature that supports that,

00:36:10.060 | which is by the way, terrifying.

00:36:12.080 | But the thing I'd like to research into more

00:36:18.300 | is if that can be long lasting.

00:36:22.960 | Is that I just don't believe it can be.

00:36:24.820 | If you're not pushed to your death,

00:36:28.540 | yes, maybe perception, maybe your willingness to think,

00:36:31.860 | but your ability to think,

00:36:34.060 | your actual ability to think independent thoughts,

00:36:36.780 | maybe you're terrified.

00:36:38.100 | I understand if you're terrified of any more,

00:36:40.920 | any more kind of thinking that leads to rebellious thoughts.

00:36:47.460 | Like the book mentions the idea of face crime,

00:36:49.700 | where you can reveal your thoughts,

00:36:52.860 | the inner workings of your mind,

00:36:54.580 | but the subtleties of your expressions in your face.

00:36:57.180 | And I think also like Winston O'Brien says,

00:37:03.140 | if you want to keep a secret,

00:37:05.180 | you must also hide it from yourself.

00:37:07.820 | So I can understand that.

00:37:09.940 | I can understand that.

00:37:10.980 | And maybe that is the basic mechanism that torture leads to

00:37:14.460 | that you just learn your body,

00:37:18.620 | your mind learns to hide the truth from yourself.

00:37:24.620 | Like you're not, you don't even allow yourself to think it

00:37:27.580 | because you know, if you think it,

00:37:28.660 | it's going to lead to face crime and thought crime.

00:37:31.460 | And that's going to lead to more torture.

00:37:33.940 | That's possible. That's possible.

00:37:35.240 | But I just can't imagine the capacity for love

00:37:40.240 | in the human heart to be extinguished through torture.

00:37:45.000 | Finally extinguished, temporarily, yes.

00:37:47.420 | But finally, irrecoverably,

00:37:50.420 | which I think is the basic claim of the book

00:37:54.100 | that they break.

00:37:55.500 | So because through the worst of the torture,

00:37:59.120 | Winston gives up Julia, the object of his love.

00:38:04.520 | He says that some things like that,

00:38:10.820 | the fact that you said torture her, not me,

00:38:15.300 | anything to make this stop,

00:38:17.180 | the fact that you said that,

00:38:18.380 | the fact that you thought that is a statement,

00:38:23.260 | is a thought you can't walk back to yourself.

00:38:26.060 | So it's irrecoverable.

00:38:27.580 | You just destroyed your faith in love.

00:38:31.180 | I don't think so.

00:38:33.220 | I think it's possible we have to remember

00:38:34.820 | that this is one particular character.

00:38:37.140 | This is one particular story.

00:38:39.800 | I think there's a lot of people in which the capacity

00:38:43.960 | to love cannot be broken, no matter the torture.

00:38:46.800 | But that's an interesting scientific question,

00:38:48.660 | but it's also a human question.

00:38:49.820 | It's just, I think man's search for meaning.

00:38:53.260 | There's a lot of books that explore this kinds of question

00:38:55.400 | in the worst of conditions that humans had to suffer through

00:38:59.800 | what still persists, what is the source of meaning?

00:39:02.900 | And I just think that the flame of love persists

00:39:07.300 | through atrocities, through torture,

00:39:09.520 | through suffering, through all of it.

00:39:11.380 | But the claim of the book that yes,

00:39:14.060 | the totalitarian state can use torture to break even that,

00:39:19.000 | even that, which leads to the only love you're allowed

00:39:23.140 | to have, which is the love for big brother.

00:39:25.860 | So I think the, practically speaking,

00:39:29.700 | from the party perspective,

00:39:31.320 | I think the point of O'Brien's torture of Winston

00:39:36.980 | was to suffocate the hope in his heart

00:39:43.900 | in his mind and heart.

00:39:45.860 | So there is no hope.

00:39:47.700 | By completely destroying the knowledge

00:39:50.420 | of what is and isn't true, so being betrayed,

00:39:53.340 | and this kind of Goldstein's book about the society,

00:39:57.660 | not knowing if that's true,

00:39:58.900 | not knowing anything about Julius,

00:40:00.180 | basically having no emotional or intellectual ground

00:40:04.020 | to stand on.

00:40:05.260 | It's very difficult to have a sense of where you are.

00:40:10.260 | To have hope, you have to have a sense of where you are

00:40:12.220 | and where things could be.

00:40:14.060 | And that, and then you also betray yourself.

00:40:17.500 | Like to force you to be a hypocrite

00:40:19.940 | on your own deepest feelings of love,

00:40:22.460 | I think that basically puts you in a place

00:40:25.220 | where there's no hope, there's no point.

00:40:27.260 | It's apathy, it's nihilism.

00:40:30.580 | And there, a hardworking member of society

00:40:34.740 | that is nihilistic is probably what the party wants.

00:40:37.660 | Because that human will not rebel.

00:40:42.560 | But on the point of hope,

00:40:44.280 | I should mention that there's kind of a long-running theory

00:40:49.720 | that since the appendix,

00:40:52.160 | the appendix is about the details of newspeak,

00:40:55.120 | the language that the party is creating and forcing.

00:40:58.600 | Because that appendix was written in the past tense

00:41:00.960 | and it's talking about newspeak in the past tense,

00:41:03.400 | and it's written in English, sort of non-newspeak,

00:41:07.560 | that means the party and newspeak

00:41:10.000 | and all of its elements that we see in the story

00:41:12.280 | is in the past.

00:41:13.920 | That the world from which the book is created

00:41:17.960 | has escaped that.

00:41:19.920 | And that's a message of hope,

00:41:21.720 | that whatever the rebellion against the party,

00:41:24.900 | whether it's passionate lust and sex,

00:41:28.200 | whether it's love, whether it's the seeking truth

00:41:33.200 | in a world full of lies,

00:41:37.840 | whatever it is, there's a way out.

00:41:40.880 | Again, to me, the way out is love.

00:41:43.040 | But that's a hopeful message in this dystopian novel

00:41:47.440 | that even these perfectly executed

00:41:50.840 | totalitarian states will fall.

00:41:53.600 | I took a few random notes here that maybe I'll comment on.

00:41:57.760 | I wrote a quote, "The masses cannot rebel

00:41:59.840 | "until they become conscious."

00:42:01.640 | That might be either a Winston observation

00:42:04.880 | or an O'Brien statement, I'm not sure.

00:42:07.440 | But yes, so you have to think 80% plus

00:42:10.560 | are proles of the working class.

00:42:12.760 | They have the power if they want it,

00:42:15.600 | but they don't want it, they don't want to take it.

00:42:17.280 | That's the whole point of the totalitarian state

00:42:20.000 | is to break your will for freedom,

00:42:23.200 | your desire for freedom,

00:42:24.920 | break your ability to know that you're not free.

00:42:28.160 | And that's where all of it, the changing of history,

00:42:31.200 | the double think, the thought crime,

00:42:32.440 | all of that comes into play.

00:42:35.320 | The torture in the ministry of love,

00:42:37.680 | all of that is about preventing the populace

00:42:42.520 | from becoming conscious.

00:42:43.640 | And again, as per the Sells discussion earlier,

00:42:48.200 | I wrote down the O'Brien quote,

00:42:49.880 | "The death of the individual is not death.

00:42:52.280 | "The party is immortal."

00:42:53.840 | And this is just a interesting observation

00:42:58.160 | about the operation of a totalitarian state

00:43:01.840 | that it's the idea and a kind of amorphous symbol

00:43:06.840 | of the messianic figure and big brother

00:43:11.360 | is all you need for the party to persist.

00:43:14.280 | That person doesn't actually have to exist.

00:43:16.160 | Any one individual doesn't have to exist.

00:43:18.520 | It's just the division of society

00:43:20.760 | into high, middle, and low,

00:43:23.000 | and the oppression of the low by the high,

00:43:26.240 | by the centralized inner party.

00:43:29.840 | That's all you need.

00:43:31.160 | And the individual does not matter in that.

00:43:35.040 | And again, the way to fight that

00:43:37.040 | is to fight for the individual freedoms.

00:43:39.180 | Interesting side note is just a quote I wrote down

00:43:43.200 | from Julia, I think.

00:43:45.780 | "If you keep the small rules, you can break the big ones."

00:43:50.140 | And so she, in the book,

00:43:52.040 | is somebody that follows to the T

00:43:54.080 | all the rules of the party.

00:43:57.420 | She attends all the committee meetings

00:43:59.960 | and all that kind of stuff.

00:44:01.040 | And just is like the model citizen

00:44:03.080 | from the perspective of the party.

00:44:04.920 | And so that allows her to break the big rules

00:44:06.840 | like have passionate sex with people,

00:44:10.160 | like the really, or fall in love,

00:44:11.880 | all the forbidden things.

00:44:13.440 | And I think that's actually a good way

00:44:15.000 | to exist in the world.

00:44:16.480 | I think for a lot of us,

00:44:17.320 | there's probably a bunch of things that bother us

00:44:20.320 | in the local world around us, in the bigger world.

00:44:23.640 | And I think you have to pick your battles.

00:44:25.240 | You have to not get lost in the mud

00:44:31.240 | of small battles.

00:44:34.160 | If you want to have at least one

00:44:37.400 | or a few big victories in your life

00:44:39.240 | that make for a better world.

00:44:40.820 | I think at least in my sense,

00:44:44.860 | it's easy to get distracted

00:44:46.680 | by the little things that bother you in life.

00:44:49.640 | And I think staying focused on the big things,

00:44:52.400 | again, picking your battles

00:44:54.040 | and staying with that for as long as possible,

00:44:57.680 | working your ass off to solve one problem

00:45:01.000 | for as long as possible,

00:45:02.240 | not giving up against impossible odds,

00:45:05.840 | against all the criticism, all of that.

00:45:07.360 | That's the way to solve those big problems.

00:45:09.160 | And of course, that's not what Julia is talking about,

00:45:12.000 | but in a sense she is also,

00:45:13.920 | because in that particular case,

00:45:15.280 | the totalitarian state is the problem.

00:45:17.560 | And the way to rebel is to plant that seed

00:45:20.440 | of rebellion in each of the people she has sex with.

00:45:27.240 | That we're human, that we have lust for each other,

00:45:31.800 | that we have the ability to love each other.

00:45:34.280 | And that is the necessary act of rebellion there.

00:45:36.560 | That is the big leap for her at least

00:45:39.160 | in that kind of society.

00:45:41.560 | I should also mention that

00:45:44.440 | there's a lot of interpretations of the different,

00:45:47.480 | the small and the big things in this book.

00:45:49.360 | So it's very possible in the case of Julia

00:45:51.640 | that Winston was played, he was set up with Julia.

00:45:56.360 | He was set up to feel all those things.

00:45:58.520 | He was set up to have that little secret cove

00:46:01.520 | where he can write on his desk in the diary

00:46:04.120 | and dream of rebelling against the state,

00:46:08.880 | dream of the brotherhood.

00:46:11.440 | It's unclear to me why an oppressive state

00:46:16.440 | would want people to have that little journey

00:46:21.520 | of desiring freedom in all its manifestations.

00:46:25.120 | I'm not sure.

00:46:26.320 | But maybe O'Brien's statement that

00:46:28.000 | the purpose of torture is torture, hold some wisdom.

00:46:33.880 | That to attain absolute power,

00:46:39.860 | you also have to have a willingness

00:46:46.160 | and a mechanism to attain absolute suffering

00:46:50.960 | in the populace.

00:46:53.120 | And maybe this is a way to maximize suffering.

00:46:55.420 | It's to give them hope before you crush it.

00:46:58.440 | Again, the way out to me,

00:47:08.520 | and the takeaway from this book,

00:47:10.600 | the way out is love.

00:47:13.680 | Perhaps this is a good place to also mention

00:47:17.520 | a little bit of a fun,

00:47:20.400 | little controversy that evolved over Twitter.

00:47:23.720 | So I posted a reading list quickly

00:47:28.040 | before heading off to a New Year's party

00:47:31.480 | of books that I hope to read in 2023.

00:47:33.760 | And these are based on books that I asked people to vote on.

00:47:38.760 | And these are the ones, many of the ones they selected.

00:47:42.800 | And they happen to be many of the books

00:47:44.180 | I've read many times throughout my life and really enjoyed.

00:47:46.940 | And they were like old friends that I love visiting

00:47:50.280 | and revisiting.

00:47:51.600 | And every time I read them, I get something new

00:47:53.720 | and they're just read different throughout life.

00:47:58.720 | You know, the way in my teens,

00:48:00.880 | when I read "The Stranger" by Camus,

00:48:02.400 | very different than it was in my 20s

00:48:04.560 | and different than my 30s.

00:48:06.880 | I'll say my favorite book now by Camus is probably "The Plague"

00:48:09.760 | and all of that has evolved.

00:48:11.240 | With Dostoevsky, I read "The Idiot" several times.

00:48:14.880 | I read "Brothers Karamazov" both in English and Russian,

00:48:18.200 | "Nos from Underground."

00:48:19.360 | I mean, I loved Dostoevsky.

00:48:20.720 | And a lot of these books are just,

00:48:23.540 | yes, they're classics, but they're also deeply profound.

00:48:28.240 | And they move me on a intellectual level,

00:48:30.960 | but also just as a human being.

00:48:32.420 | They're like travel companions.

00:48:33.880 | They're like old friends, old to dead friends.

00:48:37.760 | So yeah, so I was wanting to celebrate my love for books.

00:48:41.240 | And it was very strange to me that,

00:48:43.760 | and if I'm just being honest for a second,

00:48:47.800 | it was kind of painful that some prominent figures

00:48:51.720 | that I respect were kind of cruel about the list

00:48:57.720 | and they responded, they mocked it

00:49:00.000 | and all that kind of stuff.

00:49:01.560 | And basically taking the worst possible interpretation.

00:49:05.940 | And I have to be honest and say it was,

00:49:10.940 | it wasn't fun.

00:49:16.160 | 'Cause it was just a silly kid, me,

00:49:21.160 | kind of in a joyful New Year's mood,

00:49:25.780 | sharing with the world books I love.

00:49:29.520 | And I think what was happening,

00:49:35.360 | and this seems to be happening a bit more,

00:49:38.100 | is there's a bunch of people that are just almost waiting

00:49:41.840 | or hoping that I fail,

00:49:43.440 | or maybe that I'm some kind of bad human being

00:49:46.520 | and they're looking, they're trying to discover

00:49:49.400 | things about me that reveal that I'm a bad human being

00:49:52.920 | and maybe somehow this reading list reveals that.

00:49:57.920 | I don't know.

00:49:59.120 | I don't know.

00:50:04.720 | So one criticism was that everybody read these books

00:50:09.420 | in school and they're basic.

00:50:12.080 | I think my response to that criticism is no.

00:50:15.040 | First of all, most people have not read them in school.

00:50:17.960 | Maybe they read Cliff Notes and they're not basic.

00:50:21.120 | They're deeply profound,

00:50:22.600 | some of the greatest words ever written.

00:50:24.600 | But also I don't think I've ever gotten a lot from books

00:50:31.020 | I was forced to read in school

00:50:34.280 | when I had to read them for like an assignment.

00:50:37.120 | Some of these books I think I read in school,

00:50:38.840 | but most of them not.

00:50:40.400 | But it's only when I read them outside of school

00:50:42.720 | on my own volition that I really gained a lot from it.

00:50:46.560 | And especially throughout my life,

00:50:48.120 | regular times as a teenager, as a 20,

00:50:50.840 | in my 20s and in my 30s.

00:50:52.480 | So no, these books are profound and deserve returning to.

00:50:56.980 | And like I said, there are old friends

00:50:59.560 | that give me a lot of meaning every time I return

00:51:02.280 | to revisit the ideas and give me a new perspective on life.

00:51:05.440 | Another criticism was very kind of nitpicky.

00:51:08.720 | And the list was put together really quickly.

00:51:11.560 | And the goal, I like setting tough goals.

00:51:14.120 | The goal is to read a book a week.

00:51:15.640 | And on one week I had Little Prince

00:51:20.240 | followed by Brothers Karamazov.

00:51:23.560 | And people criticized that how can you possibly

00:51:27.560 | read Brothers Karamazov in one week?

00:51:28.920 | Maybe I won't.

00:51:30.180 | Maybe I'll fail miserably.

00:51:32.200 | But I love trying.

00:51:33.520 | But that wasn't actually the goal.

00:51:35.920 | I should have said I intend to finish reading it

00:51:39.800 | by the end of that week.

00:51:40.740 | So you start earlier 'cause Little Prince

00:51:44.640 | takes an hour or two to read.

00:51:46.360 | And then Brothers Karamazov, I could have the two weeks.

00:51:49.800 | It should take about 30, 40, 50 hours to read it.

00:51:52.560 | That said, friends, I've read it already

00:51:56.800 | in English and in Russian.

00:51:59.160 | I'm interviewing the world famous, I would say,

00:52:04.000 | amazing translators of Brothers Karamazov,

00:52:07.040 | of Dostoevsky, of Tolstoy, Richard Perveer,

00:52:10.840 | and Larisa Volkonsky probably across multiple days.

00:52:14.760 | So this book means a lot to me.

00:52:16.240 | I'm not somebody just kind of rolling in,

00:52:19.000 | what are the cool kids reading these days?

00:52:21.280 | These books have been lifelong companions to me.

00:52:24.000 | And the fact that people just want to stomp on that,

00:52:25.800 | and a large number of people did, people I respect.

00:52:31.800 | Yeah, I'll be lying if I said it didn't suck a bit.

00:52:36.800 | Anyway, the love for reading persists.

00:52:42.840 | I have to say after that, I was very hesitant

00:52:48.880 | to even make this particular video on Orwell in 1984.

00:52:53.820 | And I'm not sure I want to be public

00:52:57.040 | with my reading after this.

00:52:59.440 | And I know a lot of people will say,

00:53:01.160 | no, we're here with you, we're very supportive,

00:53:05.120 | and I love you, I mean, I meet so many incredible people.

00:53:07.600 | But the reality is it does suck to be vulnerable

00:53:10.120 | and share something with the world

00:53:11.920 | and receive that kind of mockery at scale.

00:53:16.360 | So I will not be affected or broken

00:53:21.360 | by any of that kind of stuff

00:53:23.220 | for something that's actually meaningful,

00:53:25.120 | like the conversations of some

00:53:26.680 | of the very difficult conversations I'm going to do.

00:53:28.900 | But a silly side hobby thing of reading

00:53:32.440 | that I do throughout my life,

00:53:33.880 | for that to be a source of mockery,

00:53:36.920 | I'm just gonna do that privately.

00:53:38.440 | So I'm a little torn on that,

00:53:39.520 | and I'll try to figure out a way.

00:53:41.160 | Also, I should say that that list,

00:53:44.020 | like a lot of things, is kind of aspirational.

00:53:46.980 | Because if I take a job at a tech company,

00:53:51.520 | or if I start a tech company,

00:53:54.460 | or if I have to travel across,

00:53:58.240 | I have to travel for extremely difficult conversations

00:54:00.260 | and really have to prepare for them,

00:54:02.260 | all that kind of stuff,

00:54:03.500 | I think that's going to affect my ability

00:54:05.220 | to both read and enjoy reading,

00:54:07.520 | which I think is a prerequisite for this kind of reading.

00:54:10.440 | But in general, what I do is I read

00:54:13.400 | about one hour a day of Kindle,

00:54:15.900 | so on the sort of in my eyes physical device.

00:54:20.840 | And depending on the workout I do and the chores I have,

00:54:25.440 | it's going to be about two hours of audiobooks.

00:54:27.320 | So most of the things I do during chores is audiobooks.

00:54:30.560 | And when I run, and I usually run about 10 to 15 miles,

00:54:35.000 | so you're talking about, I often run over two hours,

00:54:38.280 | it's like a slow pace.

00:54:40.260 | Like when the days are not insane,

00:54:42.280 | it gives me a chance to think,

00:54:43.520 | it gives me a chance to listen to audiobooks.

00:54:45.920 | So I love that process, it's an escape for the world,

00:54:48.880 | a chance for me to collect my thoughts.

00:54:50.960 | And yeah, it's again, a source of happiness and joy,

00:54:53.840 | and I wanted to share that.

00:54:55.320 | And I think you can get quite a lot of reading done

00:54:59.240 | through that process,

00:55:00.300 | especially if it's a book you've read before.

00:55:03.760 | It is very challenging to do this kind of takeaway video

00:55:07.000 | or to concretize your thoughts down on paper,

00:55:09.960 | especially when you have to present them in this kind of way.

00:55:12.440 | I'm not sure I'm going to do that much

00:55:14.720 | 'cause it's an extra bit of effort,

00:55:16.560 | but it's also a chance to share that joy with the world,

00:55:18.640 | so to find cool people that also enjoy it,

00:55:21.280 | so it's a trade-off.

00:55:22.680 | Anyway, it's just a temporary thing,

00:55:25.520 | but it did suck for a short amount of time,

00:55:30.520 | for a few hours, for a couple days.

00:55:33.440 | But in general, I'll persist with my love of reading,

00:55:36.300 | but I might not talk about it publicly as much.

00:55:40.440 | But again, let me sort of emphasize

00:55:42.160 | that this kind of response and mockery

00:55:46.360 | will not affect anything of importance that I do.

00:55:52.740 | Like I always, I try to read comments,

00:55:56.180 | I try to see criticism, I really value,

00:55:59.260 | especially high effort criticism.

00:56:01.340 | I try to grow and constantly try to improve.

00:56:03.660 | But that's for things that I take very seriously,

00:56:09.560 | like the podcast conversations that I do.

00:56:13.060 | But for silly things like book lists,

00:56:17.340 | Spotify music playlists,

00:56:20.260 | the food I like to eat, I don't know.

00:56:23.980 | What else? (laughs)

00:56:26.140 | Anything, any fun side thing, it's not that important.

00:56:30.520 | If it's something that others don't enjoy, then whatever.

00:56:35.480 | I'll enjoy them probably with my friends locally here,

00:56:38.260 | or the people I meet.

00:56:39.620 | So anyway, I love reading.

00:56:42.500 | I love reading classics.

00:56:43.940 | I love returning to old friends in book form

00:56:48.940 | and making new ones.

00:56:49.900 | There's a bunch of science fiction

00:56:51.580 | that I embarrassingly have not read and would love to,

00:56:56.580 | because those worlds are so meaningful

00:56:59.060 | to so many of the people I'm friends with

00:57:01.740 | that I can't wait to visit those worlds

00:57:03.860 | and sort of make new friends in the form of books.

00:57:06.580 | So definitely the love for books,

00:57:08.980 | the love for reading persists.

00:57:10.020 | And if you share in that love, that's beautiful.

00:57:13.460 | So thank you for joining me on this journey.

00:57:16.660 | Thank you for watching this silly little video.

00:57:20.940 | And I hope to see you next time.

00:57:23.460 | Love you all.

00:57:24.300 | (upbeat music)

00:57:26.880 | (upbeat music)

00:57:29.460 | (upbeat music)

00:57:32.040 | (upbeat music)

00:57:34.620 | (upbeat music)

00:57:37.200 | (upbeat music)

00:57:39.780 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

1984 by George Orwell | Lex Fridman

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