1984

I don't quite know how I have managed to go this long without actually ever having read Orwell's 1984, but I'm ashamed to admit that until this week, that was the case.

Evidently, the novel is public domain in Australia, and thus can be downloaded from The Gutenberg Project, which is how I obtained it, and all keen readers of my weblog will know that I am definitely located in Australia right now. Yep. Yessiree. That's right.

Anyway, since I imagine that you all have probably read it years ago, I won't bore you with the details, other than to comment how similar Orwell's depressing, dystopian, totalitarian world seems to that of the environment created by huge multinational IT services companies: pointless busywork, more managers than productive workers and a constant stream of meaningless management-speak.

What actually stirred up my interest in reading 1984, however, was this story from the ABC, a couple of weeks ago, about pubs and clubs in Australia scanning the ID of patrons at the door, and the utterly knob-ended comment from a concerned party that "partygoers who have nothing to hide should not be afraid" and "Big brother is here to stay. It's not just venues. Everywhere you go they collect data and they store it".

I can only presume that it's this sort of dimwit who would be the first to have the telescreen installed in their house.