What kind of man was George Orwell? An idealistic dreamer? A vagabond writer? Or a visionary with the type of foresight usually attributed to Nostradamus?

Orwell maintained a rich life-style. Not rich in monetary terms. 'Rich' as in a life enriched by experiences. Life changing worldly encouters you (or the Cyberista editorial team), from the safety of our numbed couch potato suburban existence, might attach little value to.

Orwell lived, down and out, in Paris dirges as a pauper. He also fought with the Loyalist's in the Spanish Civil War against the Nationalist forces led (after October 1936) by Generalissimo Franco. Perhaps Orwell was first visited upon by his vision whilst in the streets of Madrid trading bullets with the enemy and anti-totalitarian banter with his compadres.

His vision took the form of a novel: '1984'. A horrible dark epiphany that gave rise to the term: 'Big Brother'. Manifest in the minds of all his constituents, intimate with yet completely unknown by them on a personal level. 'Big Brother' was beloved by all nonetheless.

'1984' accidentally became George Orwell's weeping opus to a technology driven future.

The day after an act of evil tore train carriages to shreds, The Australian newspaper carried a full front-page photo depicting dead and wounded passengers who lay stricken in its aftermath on Madrid's railway tracks.

In the left hand foreground of one picture was a dismembered limb, plainly visible.

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph ran the same picture but chose to censure it digitally. The limb was 'removed' and rocks from the track elsewhere in the picture 'moved' to 'cover' the limb. It ran a small over-printed line saying, "Some graphic content was digitally removed from this image".

By altering the photograph, The Daily Telegraph denied the truth of the fact that the limb was ever there.

Orwell's vision had come to pass.

Probably not for the first time, a 'mouse' changed the course of history as it happened. Or rather - did not happen. After it happened.

In '1984' the character of Winston Smith worked for the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, rewriting and altering records, such as newspaper-articles, of the past (although he did not need a 'mouse').

Receiving a pile of newspapers each day he would scan each to make sure that it carried stories that always reflected the current political ideologue and party line of 'Big Brother'.

Any that didn't, Winston would simply retype or reinvent as instructed.

For instance: Oceania no longer at peace with Eurasia? No problem. Winston removed the incorrect reference to 'peace' and changed it to 'war', along with any undesirable photos of troops at peace. The incorrect copy once altered was banished, thrown into the 'Memory Hole' and burnt.

Future generations would never know the real story.

The Party took control of the country, and from then on it has been difficult to remember anything, because the Party changes history constantly to their own benefit. (See Doublethink - Political System)(2)

Hell it was only a little vial. So what if U.S. Secretary of Defence Colin Powell didn't know it wasn't a valid and true representation of Iraq's supposed stockpiles of WMD's?

Did we really need to be concerned that CNN journalist's traveled 'embedded' with US & Coalition forces fighting in Iraq? We got the real story didn't we?

Saddam is gone now. Why should we care whether or not WMD's existed anyway?

So why should we get worried when our mainstream papers change the most minor of details and present an altered reality to us of what really happened in some far off land?

If we don't George Orwell will continue to turn in his grave.

A vision will be realized.

And we'll never be able to tell the difference.

To the Madrid bomb victims. Our kids. Or ourselves.

Ever.

Editor's note:
Brisbane's The Courier-Mail newspaper ran the same picture as The Australian and The Daily Telegraph across almost a full broadsheet page as the cover of its Inside Mail Saturday review section.

The limb was removed and without any acknowledgement that the image had been altered.

References
1. 1984, George Orwell, originally published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1949.

2. George Orwell: Work : Summaries & Interpretations : Nineteen Eighty-Four, http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/summaries/1984.html

Excerpt from 1984
"...if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory.

'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'".

1984, George Orwell, originally published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1949.

Provided by Project Gutenberg of Australia which are in the public domain in Australia, fifty years after the author's death.

LINKS

Madrid photo too gruesome, say some

About George Orwell [1903-1950]

FURTHER READING ON CYBERISTA:

In Memory of Pat Molloy

Media & The Culture of Fear - Part One

Media & The Culture of Fear - Conclusion