On one of our first road trips, The Boy and I passed a Picnic Area, which we misread completely and understood “Panic Area”. We thought it would be funny, to have a place where you could exclusively freak out and then go back to normal. However, our fictional rules were that, once you came out of the Panic Area, you had to be completely relaxed and normal again. No panicking outside the Panic Area. Sounds funny, right? And we still laugh about it, because my car keys have the classic “Panic button” but “we can’t use them because we’re not in a Panic Area.

However, after reading 1984, the “Two Minute Hate” sounds all too eerily familiar…

You go into a room and hear and see stuff you are supposed to hate and mob mentality just takes over. You throw chairs at the screen, you fight, you get angry, you let out so much steam and then…. nothing. Big Brother is watching you. If you act out of character, out of the expected, then you could be easily erased.

I remember I bought 1984 after reading so much about “How Orweillian our society is becoming” on Slashdot.org . I personally think they are overexagerating it a bit, the slashdot crowd. We are not becoming like that future. We still enjoy life, we enjoy everything about it. There are a few restrictions, but only for those who let themselves have those restrictions. Regardless any “watchdog” group, we enjoy violent videogames, sex, junk food and anything we want.

I won’t give you any details on the book, in case you want to read it, just let me tell you that I remember reading Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley and it’s not as dispairing as 1984.

The most chilling phrase I can remember from 1984 is: “Freedom is freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows”

I’m glad I can say 2 + 2 = 4