Orwell was writing about the present and the past. The things that were happening in 1984 had already happened in Nazi Germany and were taking place in the USSR.
Wow, I didnāt realize they had cameras in every apartment and thought police (cookies) in Nazi Germany. Iāll have to re-read my history books.
Thanks for edumacating me.
The general literary consensus on dystopian fiction like 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 is that they are warnings, not predictions.
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I was about to post this here cause your post in the Confessions thread reminded me of this.
Virtue-signaling indeed.
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I would think if these rich parents got enough tax cuts Ivy League education would trickle down to poor and middle class kids.
Paying people off is how entitled people with too much money cheat; they behave this way in every other aspect of their lives, why not for getting their kids into their school(s) of choice?
Oh, wait, there are actually consequencesā¦GTFO!!!
How can you blame them though? Itās not fair that only select transgressions are punished. sarcasm
As an Ivy League graduate myself ('83), Iām going to pull the old man āback in my day, things were differentā card, and say that I would actually discourage kids today from the Ivy League.
Imo, these schools now are breeding grounds for adults with a sense of entitlement, a sense of āwe are the elite so we will prevail, obviouslyā mentality. Most of these kids are babied, propped up, āsupportedā (grade inflation), so that the first time they have to overcome failure is in the real world. Not a recipe for a well adjusted adult.
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Hollywood is the headline, as usual.
But others implicated include the CEO of billion dollar Hercules Capital, ex-CEO of 1.7 TRILLION bond fund PIMCO, and a Co-Chairman of a global law firm.
I have to admit this exceeds even my low āexpectationsā of the human race.
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Yes, not like in 83 when things were different!
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Is anyone actually surprised by this, tho? Iām only surprised that the info was released.
It happens at a HS level with influential parents, why wouldnāt it at a collegiate level?
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The 1% have always been the 1%, true.
But these days, every parent with a clue has access to a myriad of prep coaches. Did you know professors are not allowed to grade on a curve anymore? (yes, Iām sure there are exceptions) And I can assure you back in '83, GPAs greater than 4.0 were not the norm.
It is true that even in the '80s, Stanford kids were allowed to take a course all the way to checking out the final exam, deciding they were not going to do as well as they thought, and then drop the course. And you have the enviable Brown University, with all freshman āgradesā being pass/fail, because these poor kids are so stressed already with the big adjustment to college. So thereās thatā¦
Grades aside.
Look at extra-curricular activities. You used to have winners and losers. Now you have participants. How do you tell who has actually accomplished anything? Itās all about the window dressing, the lipstick on the pig. Who can angle for the best looking shot.
In fairness to academia and its institutions, they were being duped by a pretty sophisticated and well organized group of people looking for personal enrichment.
Also, I kinda hate you guys for being the impetus for a thought that contains the phrase āin fairness to academiaā¦ā.
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Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia are both excellent too.
Is this universal or something? my local metros largest university grades on a curve as of like ~6 months ago. Admittedly Iām not super up to date though
Beyond grade school thereās still winners and losers
Shit thereās still winners and losers in grade school. Speaking as a kid who wasnāt athletic but played sports anyway. Lol.
But my nephew had winners and losers in midget football at 6yo if I recall.
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Back when I refād soccer on the side 6 (or the non K matches) is when weād start keeping score.
But goddamn if it doesnāt become mob soccer anyways
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Sorry @Mufasa
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The surveillance state was nothing new in Orwellās time. 1984 wasnāt simply a warning but an explanation of contemporary events.
Most fiction is a commentary on the present. That includes dystopian and/or utopian fiction.
When Bradbury wrote Farenheit 451, he was well aware of the book burning that had already happened in Nazi Germany and McCarthyism was in effect.
