As some here know, I recently read 1984 for the first time. I didn't read it when I was a kid in high school like everybody else. Reading it as I'm in my mid-life was really interesting. I don't really see how a high school kid would fully grasp it.

I wanted to mention a couple things about it that really stuck with me. The first thing was the explanation regarding why you have lots of endless war. One reason is that war is a great way to soak up any surplus resources that result from the labor of the proles, further keeping them down. The theory is that those resources and effort, if spent to improve the quality of life, would greatly improve the quality of life for the masses. The establishment doesn't want that. Look at how much we've spent on war in the past 25 years. Wow. Another item that jumped out at me was when Winston asks what the purpose of his torture is and the answer given is that the torture is the purpose. This implies that the government-sanctioned torturer does it because he likes to do it. Just yesterday I saw a video on social media of a cop clearly torturing a handcuffed man. Once again - this scene comes back to me.

After reading Atlas Shrugged I realized that I have a tendency to pick up on things an author explains that most others don't really pick up on. I've heard just about nothing from anybody else about White Blackmail, yet it really grabbed me. Ayn Rand named a whole chapter after it.

Anyway - what stuck with you about 1984. I'm curious.