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[eBook] Free Kindle Book - Animal Farm & 1984 by George Orwell @ Amazon AU & US

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George Orwell died in 1951 and wrote 1984 in 1948. It's scary to see how his fiction based warning novel has literally eventuated after all these years.

Great book and cones with bonus Animal Farm, a political satire about corruption of power and greed.

Enjoy

Amazon US

WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

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  • +47

    These should be compulsory texts in school.

    • +14

      they were for me. I still prefer Dr Suess, the Lorax is very relevant and without the pretenious guff of "what does the author really mean?" :-)

    • +28

      Having lived in a Communist country I can attest to the message of these books. I'm really concerned about the Marxist takeover of our universities brainwashing susceptible young people with the most dangerous ideology this world has faced.

      • Marxist takeover - people have been saying that for decades. As untrue today as it was then.

        • -5

          A good friend recently started her Master's of Education at Melbourne Uni. The first slide that came up was a picture of Karl Marx with the lecturer stating that this is the philosophy they follow.

          • +22

            @Kikiriki: I don't believe you.

          • +4

            @Kikiriki: I believe unis are lefty central, but this story is simply ridiculous.

            • +2

              @brendanm: Lol, too much tunnel vision at the ideological extremes.

              There are valid criticism and concerns on both sides but it gets dangerous when people lose sight of the middle ground.

            • +2

              @brendanm: Because educated people tend to be left wing. I know that being educated is frowned upon nowadays

              • +1

                @WinstonWithAY: Educated people know that you can't start a sentence with the word "because". They also (should) know that communism and socialism are doomed to failure, but they seem to be in favour of it anyway. As far as I can tell, "these days", being educated is not at all frowned upon.

          • +1

            @Kikiriki: Sounds like a facebook post on a boomer page to me but go off. I remember my first day in uni they made us all wear Marx facemasks and walk around the lecture hall saying "Hail Stalin"

        • +1

          @Randolph Duke Yes, you are right. If Marcixt has taken over the corrupted official/public servant, bankers and the like would NOT walk away easily with their pocket full of legally stolen $$$. They got executed, the method is arguable, IMHO it is however fairer than a'slap on the wrist'

        • recent US survey says 4 out of 10 people "would prefer living in a socialist country over a capitalist one"

          Source: new poll (this month) conducted by Harris for “Axios on HBO"

          People who are saying a Marxist style takeover is not possible or that uni's are not brainwashing students, are either pro-socialist/pro-communist or have their head buried in the sand.

          This threat is very real and very dangerous, especially with the media and the universities all in, for socialism

          • +3

            @mick123: Majority of Australian mainstream media owned by notorious Communist Marxist Socialist Rupert Murdoch therefore media is "all in for socialism." Conservative government in power for the majority of this century thus far, but socialism is the real threat.

        • Have you been through the university system? We had lecturers standing there telling us "I only watch ABC, I only believe what the ABC news tells me" and if we did not capitalise aboriginal in our essays we were told we would lose marks. That's just a start. One lecturer asked if we'd heard of Andrew Bolt, I said yes he's funny. She said "I hate him, he makes me so angry". Now I'm a teacher, I don't push my views onto my students, it's unprofessional and tacky, not to mention against the crux of what we are trying to do. But universities have no qualms about trying to push their ideals onto their students, and that's a fact

      • +1

        Its happening in the capitalist world RIGHT NOW.

        • -4

          Hand in your Medicare and your worker's rights if you hate socialism so much. If you're not willing to do that, shut up

          • +6

            @WinstonWithAY: If you think socialised healthcare and employee rights have anything to do with socialism, then you just showed how little you know about it.

            You are free to leave Australia and head to one of the dozens of socialist utopias on this planet.. but I'm sure you won't.

            Btw. We have both of those in our capitalist economy.

            • +2

              @mick123: Yeah our economy isn't capitalist. It's mixed market. Not sure why you're telling me to leave, never said I didn't like this country. Unfortunately there is no socialist country out there, and any of the successful ones were overthrown by the US during the cold war so I'll settle for this. "Love it or leave it" is a pretty shit argument

              • +1

                @WinstonWithAY: Successful socialist countries? Now I've heard it all, what countries were these pray tell?

              • +3

                @WinstonWithAY:

                1. We have a capitalist country/economy. There are generous welfare programs but nothing socialist or 'mixed' about it. It is capitalist.

                2. There are socialist countries out there. Most have given up as the system fails.

                3. Of course there are no successful socialist countries out there because socialism has always failed. If it was great, there would be at least just 1 successful example.

                4. If you really believe that socialism is great, the yea love it or leave it is in fact very appropriate. Why would you want to live in a capitalist hell hole.
                  Btw, wonder what the stats are on people moving from socialist to capitalist Vs the other way around.

              • @WinstonWithAY: Never mind, just because it hasn’t worked in any country since 1917 doesn’t mean it won’t work next time.

                It just needs the right people in charge.
                Maybe, to extend the allegory in Animal Farm, if it had been the dogs instead of the pigs running the show it would have worked out on Manor Farm.

        • Em, it's about socialism and capitalism, best go back and read it again

      • +4

        It's so terrible that Universities don't teach students to be money-grabbing individualistic imperialists. For shame!
        (Though, of course, this will come to many in time, as their prejudices grow over the years)

        • +2

          Universities don't teach students to be money-grabbing individualistic

          Instead, they teach them to be money-grabbing collectivists.

      • -2

        what a load of shit lol

      • +11

        Of course, the intelligent approach allows one to see Animal Farm as being as much a critique of capitalism as it is of communism.

        • You'll have to quantify 'intelligent approach'. I am happy to admit texts can change meaning over time, I'm curious as to the authors's original intentions though, perhaps go find another classic novel to hijack

          • @addison666: I think when people refer to capitalism in this sense they aren’t referring to people buying and selling stuff with minimal government interference (classical capitalism), but more the type of state where business and unions get into bed with government to rig market in their favour. Corporatism.
            At the extreme you have fascist states and other forms of collectivism that do this as ultimate power resides in the State, but all social democratic countries are vulnerable to it to some degree or another, as it is easier to ensure profitability if the government can rig the market for them and you can buy off the union leadership. It’s just business /sarc.
            It is difficult to see how you can be authoritarian or totalitarian in a capitalist country, as the whole point is very little authority. I think when one denigrates capitalism as the apposite twin of communism they are thinking of the big guy business stomping their boot on the little guy worker’s face, forever (sorry, wrong book). Which of course happens when the big business subverts the rule of law and get away with it as their mates in government make it so.

      • +17

        Wtf. 1984 is about the danger of the surveillance state. And that can happen under communism or capitalism.

        Don't be naive in thinking just cos we live in a democracy and have capitalism the dangers of what 1984 preaches can't happen.

        • +8

          Yeah people here have no idea. These books are about surveillance and authoritarianism / totalitarianism; in Orwell's day these were predominantly the communist countries, today they are all countries.

          • +3

            @afoveht: During the Cold War all countries spied on dissidents. It happened in the US, and Australia.

      • +3

        True, the only people who like communism seem to be those with rose-tinted glasses who don't live under communism. Plus those sitting at the top of the heap of communist "equality". Nothing wrong with leaning left, but far-left fanaticism is where you get problems, like with most fanaticism.

      • +2

        You’re kidding, right? We’ve had a conservative Government for 23 of the last 29 years. Most of the shift to an authoritarian state has happened under the conservatives.

        ‘We need tougher laws to protect us from the scary (insert something here)’ … ‘If you’ve got nothing to hide…’ etc etc

        But, I think they’re both as bad as each other. They too quickly take advice from police and security agencies who’s priority is making their job easier (which is reasonable in their view) as opposed to freedom and liberties.

        Politics has turned into 3 word slogans, and these raids on journalists under the guise of national security … absolutely an erosion of freedoms.

        • Conservatives are capitalists? Maybe back in the day, but even then, with Black a jack McEwen they were not adverse to a large amount of protectionism, infant industry arguments and propping up of non viable businesses. In fact more I think about it, they never were capitalists.
          And of course now the LNP are big Government shysters in a uniparty with token differences to the ALP to entertain the plebs at election time.

          They are all big government statists in parliament. It means they can give you stuff. Paid for with gobs of OPM.

          It isn’t capitalism that gives you a surveillance state, it is big government. That happens either in a socialist state, a fascist state, or ones where big business is in bed with their mates in big union and big government. AKA a corporatist state.

          A capitalist state (minimal laws) would not have the regulatory framework needed to enable a coherent surveillance state. Such states or parties to do not exist.

          • @entropysbane:

            A capitalist state (minimal laws) would not have the regulatory framework needed to enable a coherent surveillance state.

            Ever heard of capitalism's favorite child Google?

      • +2

        You clearly don't understand the message in these books. Communism isn't dangerous, it's totalitarianism. From Wikipedia:

        In his 1946 essay "Why I Write", Orwell explains that the serious works he wrote since the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) were "written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism".

        • +2

          This. From Wikipedia:

          "The other crucial dimension to Orwell's socialism was his recognition that the Soviet Union was not socialist. Unlike many on the left, instead of abandoning socialism once he discovered the full horror of Stalinist rule in the Soviet Union, Orwell abandoned the Soviet Union and instead remained a socialist – indeed he became more committed to the socialist cause than ever."

          • @franklin3: See! The USSR was not real socialism. In fact none of the countries claiming to be socialist in the twentieth spectrum were real socialism. That is why they failed.
            And then Venezuela might have looked like real socialism, but as it failed it clearly wasn’t. That and CIA!

            But next time, next time I tell you, it will work.

    • -2

      Yeah, we need more pseudo-intellectuals posting smug political commentaries online that feature the word "Orwellian".

    • +8

      No need. We're living 1984 right now.

      • +1

        tips fedora

      • +1

        If you’re in China.

        If you’re in the West, and have never experienced real repression, then you don’t know what actual totalitarianism is.

        • +1

          Large oaks come from small acorns.

      • So true. Criticizing priviledged social groups is career suicide (gays, trannies, genderqueers, Muslims, refugees). All of our internet activity and cell phone calls are logged (Metadata Laws), pakages we import are all X-Rayed, welfare recipients have to take drug tests. We have far too many bureaucrats at all levels of the government, and to justify their parasitic existence they push politicians into passing more nanny state legislation.

        Democracy is just another form of totalitarianism.

    • Agree. Read both these books in high school.

      Orwell was a visionary genius.

  • +20

    The books are great but note the reviews for this particular Kindle edition say there are many many typos and it is unreadable

  • thanks

  • My thanks

  • +13

    Doubleplusgood

  • 👍

  • +34

    If you wanna save reading time for 1984 you might as well just look out of the window.

    • -2

      And see Peter Dutton?

        • +3

          "The 21st century left = Animal farm"

          Didn't study politics at school then? Or just didn't understand it?

          • +2

            @swalloweda: Funniest thing about the left is they still haven't cottoned-on to the fact that they are the danger, they are the embodiment of the threat Orwell warned of.

            Clown World.

            • @SporadicUser: Is that why a leftist government just authorised a raid on a whistleblower exposing Australian war crimes. Oh wait, it was a right wing one. Go away Nazi. Orwell was a leftist by the way, not that you would know or even care about that

              • +2

                @WinstonWithAY: We have mildly a right-wing government - a government that has just won an election BTW.

                Orwell was indeed of the left but lived in a time when the left were relevant and really did have a contribution to make to society. Now they're just virtue-signalling talking heads.

            • @SporadicUser: Yes, the outcomes might be always unexpected, to them at least, but their intentions are good, so: free pass.

          • -1

            @swalloweda: Didn't study politics at school
            Understand it
            The themes and messages in Animal Farm are as relevant today as they were when it was written in 1945
            The modern left is completely out of touch with reality - Trump, Brexit, Morrison being the result. When the left returns to the center, they will become relevant again. So simple even a leftie can understand it if they try really, really hard!

            Hope this helps

            • @R4: Didn't study politics, talks down to leftists about politics. Ok boomer

              • +2

                @WinstonWithAY: Boomer? Nope Gen Z boy.

                Socialism is politics for the mediocre, so things need to be spelt out to its followers. A known fact - you don't need to study politics to be able to understand politics. All you basically need is to be able to read, understand and draw your own conclusions - it ain't rocket surgery champ! I have studied economics at Masters level though - does that count?

                • @R4: If they come to the conclusions you do @R4, unable to differentiate between left and right (Biden! A leftie! Bahahaha!) then yes, you need to study. And no, memes and Twitter rants don't count as "reading".

                  • @swalloweda: Nope.

                    The only person talking about Twitter and memes is you.

          • +1

            @swalloweda: You do realise the goal of the extreme left and extreme right is essentially the same, that is, complete control of society (the masses) to benefit the privileged few.

        • Labor

          Socialist

          Pick one

          • +2

            @WinstonWithAY: Nope - same thing
            Look around at the west - left and right are separating - and the right are winning - Trump, Brexit, Morrison. The left are moving too far to the left and the people don't want it - big lessons for Biden, Albanese, Corbyn etc. To become relevant again, the left have to move back towards the centre.

            The denialism is strong in this one.

            • +2

              @R4: You shouldn't waste anymore time arguing logic with him. He has low intelligence as proven by his private message:
              https://puu.sh/DFNFR.png

              • +4

                @Blitzfx: Wow, that's appalling - this guy really needs to grow up a bit. What a tool.

                But that's the modern left for you - anyone who is not left of centre is now a nazi or fascist.

                We live in strange times.

              • +3

                @Blitzfx: lol, I got a similar private message and I don't even understand half the memes in this thread.

              • +2

                @Blitzfx: I've reported him.

          • +1

            @WinstonWithAY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Fabian_Society

            Labor has been infiltrated by pinkos for a long time.

            • @rogdog: Pinkos! You guys kill me! Welcome to the 70s, y'all.

          • @WinstonWithAY: honkety honk honk HOOOOOONK! mic drop. slow clap. door slam.

    • Lol it's like "oh handmaiden's tale is happening right now!" we need the slapping-the-forehead emoji

    • edgy

  • Thank you!

  • US link?

  • +3
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell

    I prefer the version by Eric Blair.

  • +9

    Absolutely… I wonder if all those people pushing to censor others realised we'd end up here.

    AI facial recognition cameras installed in City of Perth - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-08/city-of-perth-rolls-o…

    I think I just lost 100 social credits for posting this, hope you enjoy.

    • +5

      Normal people aren't going to stand for clown world much longer. Honk, honk!

      • +6

        Use of the word 'Honk' contravenes out community guidelines. Please take some time out in the penalty box to reflect on your poor choice of language that may have offended others.

        • +1

          Aren't clowns also a symbol of racism or something?

        • -1

          Co-opting an alt-right dogwhistle and is then shocked people brand them racists.

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