North Korea: 1984

I have recently been reading the George Orwell classic dystopian novel 1984 and still have about 100 pages to go. Though I haven't even finished the novel, as I was viewing photographs by a French photographer who recently travelled to North Korea, I was completely taken aback by the haunting similarities.

Each photograph and description reminded me of something I had read in 1984, from the red sashes the children wore similarly to the Spies, to the "government installed radio system which blasts out propaganda messages to the citizens, and which will even work when there are power cuts!" just like the Telescreens. One of the things that struck me the most was an entry in a blogspot that I found trying to find if anyone else saw the eerie similarities:

"The people of North Korea will not realize all they are being denied if they have nothing to compare it to. That was one of the strengths of the government in Orwell’s story – the people of his dystopia had nothing to compare their lives to."

While reading 1984 I had a hard time thinking that this could ever happen to the U.S., mostly because we are a rebellious society nowadays. With our right to criticize our government freely without being "vaporized", I don't think we would ever let government take over to this extent. To see an entire country mirror 1984 is frightening.

If anything, just look at Eric Lafforgue's photographs and read the descriptions below each photo. Not only does it give you a good idea of what is happening in this other world but his photographs are amazing.

And that, my friends is the conclusion of my very first post on my blogspot. See? Everything really is nonsense...