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From: ucbesvax.turner@ucbcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Re: 1984 - (nf)
Message-ID: <1025@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Dec-83 02:01:35 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.1025
Posted: Wed Dec 14 02:01:35 1983
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#R:dartvax:-47600:ucbesvax:8400003:000:901
ucbesvax!turner    Dec  7 03:59:00 1983

In anticipation of a flood of comments along the lines of "Well, here it
is, (almost) 1984, and Orwell got it all wrong," I suggest a closer
reading.  A very subtle, almost hidden assumption is that there was a
limited nuclear war in the late 50's, from which the world never quite
recovered.  We came quite close to that, and who's to say that, had
there been such a war, we wouldn't all be living in Oceania, sending
our netnews down the memory holes?

As it is, he was dead on with his predictions about a tripolar system of
superpowers, with periodically shifting alignments and constant low-level
war in the global peripheries.  I have a younger brother who doesn't
remember TV news about how mainland China was one of our "enemies" in
Vietnam.  Since then, China has come over to "our" side.  Now, it looks
like they're slowly warming the USSR again.
---
Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner)