1984 Yearbook
Source URL
Title
1984 Yearbook
Description
The fictional date of George Orwell's celebrated novel,
"1984," provides one theme for this yearbook. With his
decision to invert the last two digits of 1948 (the year
Orwell was completing the novel), he gave us a dreaded
year to anticipate in our own times.
Thoughtful Ambrosians, present and past, are among
millions who have pondered Orwell's story of Winston
Smith, a minor bureaucrat in the totalitarian state of
Oceania. Smith
works at the Ministry of Truth,
rewriting newspaper stories to
conform to current Party ideology.
In Orwell's story,
privacy has vanished. Waki ng j
and sleeping, all
Party members
are observed by
two-way telescreens; posters
everywhere proclaim "Big Brother
Is Watching You."
Suddenly, Smith
commits a thought
crime: " Down
With Big Brother."
He also begins—another heinous offense—a love
affair with Julia, a co-worker at his office.
The Junior Anti-Sex League indoctrinates the virtue of
celibacy; procreation would soon be carried on solely
through artificial insemination ("artsem" in "1984" lingo
of Newspeak). All personal loyalty belongs to the Party.
Winston and Julia are caught by the Thought Police and
hauled off to the Ministry of Love.
Smith is tortured, then taken to "Room 101," where a
cage bearing a rat is pushed toward his face and he begs
that this punishment be inflicted on Julia instead. The
last trace of his integrity has vanished.
In his writings, Orwell challenged the Nazis, Stalinists
and other advocates of the expedient lie; and the solipsism of contemporary thinkers—a view that nothing
exists outside the imagination—horrified him.
Orwell's concept of perpetual local conflict is borne
out in our times. Wars have erupted every year since
1945, claiming more than 30 million lives. Violence rocks
El Salvador, Lebanon, Northern Ireland and other lands.
Orwell's idea of governments controlling the people
94 "1984"
nears reality—witness enslavement in Communist China
and North Korea.
Still, the real 1984 turns out to be, in many ways, more
beneficent than the one Orwell envisioned. A large part
of the world remains free of totalitarianism. Democratic
forms of rule are widespread, and freedom has grown,
with rising living standards, higher education levels,
broader suffrage and greater opportunities for women
and minorities.
Though tyranny
clearly exists
today, the extent
of repression,
even in authoritarian lands, such
as the Soviet
Union and its
satellites, falls
short of the total
state domination
seen in "1984."
The Communist bloc is hardly
a monolith, but is,
in fact, badly fractured. Russia and
the United States
no longer dominate the global
economy.
So what might
Orwell's story mean for us?
At a time in history when humanity seemed to prefer
taking marching orders, perhaps Orwell's greatest
achievement was to warn people that they could, and
should, think for themselves. He knew that a person who
understands what the words freedom and slavery really
mean must reject a thought that would equate them.
And what might a college, deeply rooted in New Testament tradition, such as St. Ambrose, offer in this contemporary dialog? Perhaps one response could be
found in that dramatic visit of Pope John Paul II to his
attacker in a Roman prison.
In an extraordinary moment of grace, the Pope offered
to mankind a startling image of forgiveness and reconciliation. He embraced Mehmet AM Agca, who had tried to
kill him in May 1981, and repeated the pardon he had
given Agca immediately after the shooting.
"The Lord," said John Paul, "gave us the grace to meet
as men and brothers, because all the events of our lives
must confirm that God is our father, and all of us are His
children in Jesus Christ, and thus we are all brothers."
"1984," provides one theme for this yearbook. With his
decision to invert the last two digits of 1948 (the year
Orwell was completing the novel), he gave us a dreaded
year to anticipate in our own times.
Thoughtful Ambrosians, present and past, are among
millions who have pondered Orwell's story of Winston
Smith, a minor bureaucrat in the totalitarian state of
Oceania. Smith
works at the Ministry of Truth,
rewriting newspaper stories to
conform to current Party ideology.
In Orwell's story,
privacy has vanished. Waki ng j
and sleeping, all
Party members
are observed by
two-way telescreens; posters
everywhere proclaim "Big Brother
Is Watching You."
Suddenly, Smith
commits a thought
crime: " Down
With Big Brother."
He also begins—another heinous offense—a love
affair with Julia, a co-worker at his office.
The Junior Anti-Sex League indoctrinates the virtue of
celibacy; procreation would soon be carried on solely
through artificial insemination ("artsem" in "1984" lingo
of Newspeak). All personal loyalty belongs to the Party.
Winston and Julia are caught by the Thought Police and
hauled off to the Ministry of Love.
Smith is tortured, then taken to "Room 101," where a
cage bearing a rat is pushed toward his face and he begs
that this punishment be inflicted on Julia instead. The
last trace of his integrity has vanished.
In his writings, Orwell challenged the Nazis, Stalinists
and other advocates of the expedient lie; and the solipsism of contemporary thinkers—a view that nothing
exists outside the imagination—horrified him.
Orwell's concept of perpetual local conflict is borne
out in our times. Wars have erupted every year since
1945, claiming more than 30 million lives. Violence rocks
El Salvador, Lebanon, Northern Ireland and other lands.
Orwell's idea of governments controlling the people
94 "1984"
nears reality—witness enslavement in Communist China
and North Korea.
Still, the real 1984 turns out to be, in many ways, more
beneficent than the one Orwell envisioned. A large part
of the world remains free of totalitarianism. Democratic
forms of rule are widespread, and freedom has grown,
with rising living standards, higher education levels,
broader suffrage and greater opportunities for women
and minorities.
Though tyranny
clearly exists
today, the extent
of repression,
even in authoritarian lands, such
as the Soviet
Union and its
satellites, falls
short of the total
state domination
seen in "1984."
The Communist bloc is hardly
a monolith, but is,
in fact, badly fractured. Russia and
the United States
no longer dominate the global
economy.
So what might
Orwell's story mean for us?
At a time in history when humanity seemed to prefer
taking marching orders, perhaps Orwell's greatest
achievement was to warn people that they could, and
should, think for themselves. He knew that a person who
understands what the words freedom and slavery really
mean must reject a thought that would equate them.
And what might a college, deeply rooted in New Testament tradition, such as St. Ambrose, offer in this contemporary dialog? Perhaps one response could be
found in that dramatic visit of Pope John Paul II to his
attacker in a Roman prison.
In an extraordinary moment of grace, the Pope offered
to mankind a startling image of forgiveness and reconciliation. He embraced Mehmet AM Agca, who had tried to
kill him in May 1981, and repeated the pardon he had
given Agca immediately after the shooting.
"The Lord," said John Paul, "gave us the grace to meet
as men and brothers, because all the events of our lives
must confirm that God is our father, and all of us are His
children in Jesus Christ, and thus we are all brothers."
Publisher
U.S. Yearbook Service, Des Moines, IA
Date
1984
Rights
St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803
Identifier
http://cdm16810.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16810coll2/id/6892