蜜芽传媒

蜜芽传媒 documentary-maker Phil Tinline takes five words that resonate through Orwell鈥檚 work, and tests out what light they can shed on our problems today.

FASCISM
In the late 1930s, Orwell worried that bourgeois democracy was just fascism鈥檚 more civilised twin. But soon his position swung to champion democracy as the enemy of totalitarianism. Today, many worry democracy is in its greatest crisis since the 1930s. Can Orwell鈥檚 dramatic switch help us work out how to tackle it?

TRUTH
Orwell thought the very idea of objective truth was in mortal danger from the totalitarian mindset. In the era of 鈥榝ake news鈥�, just how widely do his fears for the future of truth apply?

BIG
Throughout the 1940s, Orwell grew alarmed at the rise of the 鈥榦ligarchical collectivists鈥�. Do Orwell鈥檚 anxieties have anything to tell us about today鈥檚 big tech companies?

LAW
Orwell makes clear that in Big Brother鈥檚 dictatorship, 鈥渢here were no longer any laws鈥� 鈥� because this is a regime which doesn鈥檛 distinguish between thought and deed, and where the only law is state power. We hear from a Uyghur writer who spent months in a Chinese prison about his experience of law in the world鈥檚 most powerful authoritarian state.

LOVE
After Winston Smith has been broken in the Ministry of Love, Nineteen Eighty Four ends: 鈥淗e had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.鈥� Phil traces the common origins of the world Orwell imagined and the 鈥榯hought transformation鈥� process the Chinese government is applying in Xinjiang.

Series contributors: Abduweli Ayup, Nick Cohen, David Dwan, Maurice Glasman, Joanna Kavenna, Robert Jay Lifton, Dorian Lynskey, James Millward, Ferdinand Mount, Jean Seaton, Joanne Smith Finley, Timothy Snyder, Mihrigul Tursun

Presenter/ Producer: Phil Tinline