So I just watched the creepiest adaptation film ever. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was also one of the cheesiest movies I've ever seen but still. 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' is a bit like 1984, in the idea that it's a human race with no variance: built for the whole as opposed to the individual with ultimate control and acquiescence among everyone. It's had four versions, probably because it's one of those topics that everyone is always a little fascinated but a little crept out by.
The positive aspects of such an existence I guess would be world peace: not active happy peace like the 1960s Flower Child ideal, but no active wars either. That said, creativity is original and therefore individual, literature is original, innovation is original. While I'm against the wrong kind of innovation such as mass destruction style innovations, there are some innovations that are inarguably good.
Without individual exploration and creation, we wouldn't have chocolate. We also wouldn't know that chocolate triggers serotonin release into the brain, thus creating a happy feeling, because the scientist who discovered that would not have been original and individual enough to choose his path into science. We would not have passion since individual choice of partners and therefore chemistry couldn't occur. We wouldn't have arguments. I hate to say it, but sometimes they're necessary. I'm a lot closer to some of the friends I've had the biggest fights with because it strengthens the friendship and helps you know and appreciate that person that much more.
When I first read 1984, I was around 14 and so as much as I felt ever so grown up and clever reading it, only so much of the concept actually made sense to me, and it didn't seem that much of a groundbreaking book as a result. Seeing that film (the 1993 version if anyone cares) reminded me of '1984' and brought the concept back, except for now I've had the chance to really grow into my own individuality and my own personal choices, it is suddenly clear how awful a concept 1984 raises, and sadly, how many features of the parental government emulates it.
I'm not saying we're throwing out books or using Newspeak yet. But I'm not exactly saying we're not either. We don't exactly make a point of making our old history books available: they're too embarrassing to the developing world. And newspeak... political correctness anyone? Maybe I'm just being politically correctedly challenged but there seems to be some pretty similar concepts coming up as of late. I'll admit to being libertarian politically anyway, and literature and movies like this just reinstate that.
