1984 (GEORGE ORWEL) AND A PESSIMISTIC PROPHECY ABOUT THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE

In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science'. The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc. And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty. In all the useful arts the world is either standing still or going backwards. The fields are cultivated with horse-ploughs while books are written by machinery. But in matters of vital importance— meaning, in effect, war and police espionage—the empirical approach is still encouraged, or at least tolerated.

Even darker texts than this one appear in the novel. There are always people who think that we are close to the commented situation, like Thomas Pynchon in tHe epilogue. From my point of view, there is something in which the book is right. It´s in an annex , a Newspeak treatise, which seems to inspire the literary style of thousands of pedagogues.

In the videoclip you can discover (time 1:20) that the elegance and glam that are attributed to David Bowie were indeed developed early in some discos from Spanish villages