2284 Orwell

## Orwell 2284

2284 is a dystopic utopia novella by George Orwell, which follows the life of William Smith, a tertiary ranking member of an English democracy known simply as ‘The Parliament’, who is frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party, and its insidious dismantlement of people's liberties.

‘The Parliment’ controls every aspect of people’s lives. It has invented the language ‘Newspeak’ in an attempt to completely eliminate political rebellion; created ‘Thoughtcrimes’ to stop people even thinking of things considered rebellious. The party ultimately seeks to control what people read, speak and say. The premise of the story is that the events occurring in the book are set in an fictional reality where; for whatever reason, the Commonwealth never rose to prominence or competed on a global scale and the British Empire rose to world domination.

The satirical irony of this particular scenario is that despite this; the British Empire would quickly collapse after becoming embroiled in great European wars, so great these wars were that they came to be known as the world wars, by the time of the second great conflict they were actually defenders of a form of democracy... Critics have interpreted this as a subtle political quip; that it was because there was no Commonwealth that the British Empire fell, for the Commonwealth brought stability to mainland Europe and thus the British Empire could turn its attention to ever-increasingly complex colonial endeavours. Without the Commonwealth; Europe was divided, The Empire's resources were divided, and the competition eventually gave way to industrial warfare in two great wars.

The book may follow the life of William, but the book truly begins by establishing the contrast of our world and this ahistorical one; in the real world there was only the Empire and the Commonwealth that took centre stage, both rivals yet ironically each others true pillar of stability, in the fictional world without the stability of the Commonwealth petty states like France, Germany. Spain, Italy and a much smaller Poland, would serve to undermine the strength of the Empire. Eventually the world became an amalgamation of many minor states... many of which in Europe would ironically cast off the shackles of monarchy and become democratic (Including the British Empire).

### A New World

> *Forged from the crucible of war; a new world was born, built atop the bodies of their fallen brothers, the great European nations swore to each other never to fight amongst each other again... they set down their weapons and for the first time in history Europe was truly unified*
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> **Extract from 2284 Orwell: The text describes the creation of the first union of Europe between the numerous kingdoms within.**
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This alternate world never saw the rise of the Commonwealth and the many independent kingdoms tore into each other In; such infighting created perfect conditions for martial technology to excel, always desperate to gain the upper hand over their foes. With no rival but each other the fierce infighting could not be sated; technological advancement brought an ever higher toll on the nations, until the rivalries climaxed in two great wars. Nations drew lines and chose sides; the British Empire (that had come to power in spite of lacking the stabilising influence of the Commonwealth) would be broken by the wars; as would they all, but battered and broken it was all but hopeless to oppose the upstarting nations around it.

These wars broke down the European nations, the centre of the world was broken as even the British Empire fell apart and two superpowers arose around them; the USA and the USSR, these two nations toyed with their new power and played upon the world stage… the Cold War was born.

#### The European Union

To rebound from the lost position the separate nations of Europe came together, the foundations were laid 1951 and the EU came about in 1993.

This is all just worldbuilding of the alternate world though.

## The alternate world

In the alternate world the Exodus never happens, the nations of the world become deadlocked as WMD's can erase nations and so they turn to trade and daggers.

The nations of the world begin to exert control over their citizens in attempts to squeeze resource and power from the masses, technology bypasses the liberties of the people as corporations extort man and nation alike; the world becomes a hotpot of competition and nothing is sacred.

### The End

The book ends with the world poised on the edge of 'a precipice' of some kind. It is never revealed what it is, throughout the book William quotes how things seem to be different and that an air of change is about the world... but the end comes before we know what it is, perhaps this ending is purposefully poetic... the ends comes without us knowing the facts because there is too much in the world we do not see to truly know the truth.