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"We are the Dead"
That line, from Orwell's 1984, is Winston and Julia's acceptance that they have no hope in life. In the context of the whole book, we later find out that although they were quite correct when they said it, they didn't really know what they meant or what the implications of that statement were. It takes continuous physical and psychological torture at the hands of O'Brien (the strangely charismatic and, by our standards, quite insane Inner Party member) for Winston Smith to truly appreciate that it is not just he and Julia who fall into this joyless category. It is everyone outside of the ruling inner party. The Proles, the outer party, the continually warring factions; everything exists solely for the benefit of those privileged few who have control over their own lives. Everyone else may just as well be a walking corpse for all the independence that they are allowed.
1984 is probably my favourite piece of literature of all time. A chilling warning about the inherent inhumanity of totalitarianism (although very much a product of post WWII UK in tone), it is a bleak view of a bleak future that, happily, has not come to pass. Or at least, certainly not in the unremittingly grim fashion that Orwell predicted. The basic fear that Orwell expressed was of a dystopian world where we no longer have control of our own lives; a return to the medieval times of total slavery to a privileged caste. The hellish Party of 1984 kept the population servile by convincing them that they were actually happy with their lot (they did so by numerous methods that, if I were to detail them here would take up more than even you have the patience to read...), and being as how my mind works the way it does (i.e. in a rather rambling and slightly neurotic fashion) I've found myself wondering if the same could be said of us.
Do we have control of our own lives, or are we little more than serfs who have been distracted from our servitude by pretty baubles and garish soap opera’s. Obviously, one cannot look at the minutiae of everybody's everyday life, so you'll forgive me if I break our lives down into these nice, easy to remember sections; work, play, and love (by which I mean both friendships and sex. In some cases both...).
I've always believed in getting the bad news out of the way first, so let's have a look at work. This is the area that many who believe that we are already living in a world of pain tend to hold up as proof of their belief. And in truth, it's probably not too difficult to see where they're coming from. Very few people are spending their working life in a job that they feel valued and which bolsters rather than knocks lumps out of their self-esteem. But whose fault is that? To a certain extent it is the fault of society (and, by implication, those at the top of the heap who shape society to suit their needs). We are encouraged to get some sort of 9-5 job, though of course we are all encouraged to get the best paid job available. Modern life compounds the pressure; we need money to pay the bills and to live a comfortable life. Our own fear of poverty is probably the final factor involved; we are told that we need to live a certain lifestyle and, good little drones that we are, we try our best to do so. To opt out of the rat-race is (unless you are fortunate, wealthy, talented, lucky, or for preference, all four) to kiss goodbye to the bland and almost identical dream life that we all aspire to (and as I write that, I am reminded of the book "Brave New World", where hypnosis is used to teach sleeping children what kind of life they will enjoy as an adult, thus vast swathes of people grow up to want the same things out of life).
Yet however unattractive we are encouraged to believe the alternatives are, there are at least alternatives. In 1984, there was no freedom to choose. There was not even the illusion of that freedom. I were to be especially cynical I would say that we do have the oldest and most basic right of free people; the freedom to destitution. That would, however, be misleading. We do have that freedom that was denied to Winston (historically, we probably have more freedom than at any other point in history), it's just that few of us choose to exercise it. In respect of work I believe that we do have control of our lives. It's just that most of us have chosen to abdicate responsibility for making that choice.
In the world of leisure time, we are certainly not trapped in the 1984 nightmare. Again, we have more leisure time now than at any other time in the history of mankind. There are restrictions on what we may choose to do with our time that we may not like (anti-drug laws continue to place a paternalistic straightjacket on how one chooses to spend ones own time, and those bleating idiots who bray their mindless refrain of "drugs are for losers" are probably the most totalitarian types that one can encounter; their "I don't like it ergo no-one should" attitude is typical of the unimaginative and the intolerant. If you don't like it, no problem; nobody is forcing you to. So stop forcing others not to), but by and large we are left to our own devices on the condition that we do not cause any harm to others.
If there is a problem with our leisure time, it is that we ourselves do not make enough use of it. This is our life and our responsibility. Yet when I have heard (and made) complaints about any aspect of my spare time, it is rare for the blame to land at ones own door. If one is not happy with an aspect of ones life outside of work, then surely it is up to us to try and remedy that?
Finally we have our love lives and our friends. This was and still is the most abhorrent aspect of 1984 for me; the gradual destruction of the social bonding structures that we would recognise in society and the replacement of them with loyalty only to Big Brother. Winston had no friends, only acquaintances whom he feared as possible informers. We do not have that in our lives (or at least, not in modern western society; Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and pretty much anybody's Russia all featured this entertainingly unpleasant addition to their social lives). We are free to make friends and enemies as we see fit. I've never felt forced to like somebody whom I could have cheerfully shot, nor do I feel any pressure to hate somebody to whom I am indifferent. The prejudices that do exist in society (racism and sexism being at the top of the scale, PC-manufactured bias' such as weightism at the very bottom) are all a matter of personal choice and although we may occasionally feel pressure to 'fit in' by taking on the prejudices of a peer group, there is no cage of rats attached to our face that forces us to do so.
As to our love lives...well, if I were going to make a complaint about this it would be that we have rather too much freedom of choice. Not because of things like the soaring divorce rate (which I care little about; I'm in favour of renewable marriage contracts as a valid solution to this problem), but because I'm still annoyed that my girlfriend dumped me for a little under 2 years! Grrrr....
But joking aside, no-one can realistically say that this aspect of our life is out of our control unless we choose to hand over control of it (i.e. by picking one of the various flavours of religion that seek to tell you what to do in the bedroom). Winston and Julia didn't really love each other. Their relationship was an act of rebellion against the state and so had little to do with their feelings for each other. I'm not going to be so smug as to say that if they were truly in love then they would not have betrayed each other, because I am in general agreement with the cliché that you always hurt the one you love. But their sexual encounters were as close as one could get to romance in a world where the only love that existed was the love of power. Whilst that love plays a large part in the real world, it is certainly not to the exclusion of everything else. Speaking personally, although I think that love is hard work I also think that it gives us the most joy out of life. It makes life a lot more worthwhile and rewarding than it would otherwise be. If today's world really were like the one inhabited by Winston and Julia, no-one would even understand what that joy meant. So maybe we are not making the most of our life, but we are most emphatically not the dead.
That line, from Orwell's 1984, is Winston and Julia's acceptance that they have no hope in life. In the context of the whole book, we later find out that although they were quite correct when they said it, they didn't really know what they meant or what the implications of that statement were. It takes continuous physical and psychological torture at the hands of O'Brien (the strangely charismatic and, by our standards, quite insane Inner Party member) for Winston Smith to truly appreciate that it is not just he and Julia who fall into this joyless category. It is everyone outside of the ruling inner party. The Proles, the outer party, the continually warring factions; everything exists solely for the benefit of those privileged few who have control over their own lives. Everyone else may just as well be a walking corpse for all the independence that they are allowed.
1984 is probably my favourite piece of literature of all time. A chilling warning about the inherent inhumanity of totalitarianism (although very much a product of post WWII UK in tone), it is a bleak view of a bleak future that, happily, has not come to pass. Or at least, certainly not in the unremittingly grim fashion that Orwell predicted. The basic fear that Orwell expressed was of a dystopian world where we no longer have control of our own lives; a return to the medieval times of total slavery to a privileged caste. The hellish Party of 1984 kept the population servile by convincing them that they were actually happy with their lot (they did so by numerous methods that, if I were to detail them here would take up more than even you have the patience to read...), and being as how my mind works the way it does (i.e. in a rather rambling and slightly neurotic fashion) I've found myself wondering if the same could be said of us.
Do we have control of our own lives, or are we little more than serfs who have been distracted from our servitude by pretty baubles and garish soap opera’s. Obviously, one cannot look at the minutiae of everybody's everyday life, so you'll forgive me if I break our lives down into these nice, easy to remember sections; work, play, and love (by which I mean both friendships and sex. In some cases both...).
I've always believed in getting the bad news out of the way first, so let's have a look at work. This is the area that many who believe that we are already living in a world of pain tend to hold up as proof of their belief. And in truth, it's probably not too difficult to see where they're coming from. Very few people are spending their working life in a job that they feel valued and which bolsters rather than knocks lumps out of their self-esteem. But whose fault is that? To a certain extent it is the fault of society (and, by implication, those at the top of the heap who shape society to suit their needs). We are encouraged to get some sort of 9-5 job, though of course we are all encouraged to get the best paid job available. Modern life compounds the pressure; we need money to pay the bills and to live a comfortable life. Our own fear of poverty is probably the final factor involved; we are told that we need to live a certain lifestyle and, good little drones that we are, we try our best to do so. To opt out of the rat-race is (unless you are fortunate, wealthy, talented, lucky, or for preference, all four) to kiss goodbye to the bland and almost identical dream life that we all aspire to (and as I write that, I am reminded of the book "Brave New World", where hypnosis is used to teach sleeping children what kind of life they will enjoy as an adult, thus vast swathes of people grow up to want the same things out of life).
Yet however unattractive we are encouraged to believe the alternatives are, there are at least alternatives. In 1984, there was no freedom to choose. There was not even the illusion of that freedom. I were to be especially cynical I would say that we do have the oldest and most basic right of free people; the freedom to destitution. That would, however, be misleading. We do have that freedom that was denied to Winston (historically, we probably have more freedom than at any other point in history), it's just that few of us choose to exercise it. In respect of work I believe that we do have control of our lives. It's just that most of us have chosen to abdicate responsibility for making that choice.
In the world of leisure time, we are certainly not trapped in the 1984 nightmare. Again, we have more leisure time now than at any other time in the history of mankind. There are restrictions on what we may choose to do with our time that we may not like (anti-drug laws continue to place a paternalistic straightjacket on how one chooses to spend ones own time, and those bleating idiots who bray their mindless refrain of "drugs are for losers" are probably the most totalitarian types that one can encounter; their "I don't like it ergo no-one should" attitude is typical of the unimaginative and the intolerant. If you don't like it, no problem; nobody is forcing you to. So stop forcing others not to), but by and large we are left to our own devices on the condition that we do not cause any harm to others.
If there is a problem with our leisure time, it is that we ourselves do not make enough use of it. This is our life and our responsibility. Yet when I have heard (and made) complaints about any aspect of my spare time, it is rare for the blame to land at ones own door. If one is not happy with an aspect of ones life outside of work, then surely it is up to us to try and remedy that?
Finally we have our love lives and our friends. This was and still is the most abhorrent aspect of 1984 for me; the gradual destruction of the social bonding structures that we would recognise in society and the replacement of them with loyalty only to Big Brother. Winston had no friends, only acquaintances whom he feared as possible informers. We do not have that in our lives (or at least, not in modern western society; Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and pretty much anybody's Russia all featured this entertainingly unpleasant addition to their social lives). We are free to make friends and enemies as we see fit. I've never felt forced to like somebody whom I could have cheerfully shot, nor do I feel any pressure to hate somebody to whom I am indifferent. The prejudices that do exist in society (racism and sexism being at the top of the scale, PC-manufactured bias' such as weightism at the very bottom) are all a matter of personal choice and although we may occasionally feel pressure to 'fit in' by taking on the prejudices of a peer group, there is no cage of rats attached to our face that forces us to do so.
As to our love lives...well, if I were going to make a complaint about this it would be that we have rather too much freedom of choice. Not because of things like the soaring divorce rate (which I care little about; I'm in favour of renewable marriage contracts as a valid solution to this problem), but because I'm still annoyed that my girlfriend dumped me for a little under 2 years! Grrrr....
But joking aside, no-one can realistically say that this aspect of our life is out of our control unless we choose to hand over control of it (i.e. by picking one of the various flavours of religion that seek to tell you what to do in the bedroom). Winston and Julia didn't really love each other. Their relationship was an act of rebellion against the state and so had little to do with their feelings for each other. I'm not going to be so smug as to say that if they were truly in love then they would not have betrayed each other, because I am in general agreement with the cliché that you always hurt the one you love. But their sexual encounters were as close as one could get to romance in a world where the only love that existed was the love of power. Whilst that love plays a large part in the real world, it is certainly not to the exclusion of everything else. Speaking personally, although I think that love is hard work I also think that it gives us the most joy out of life. It makes life a lot more worthwhile and rewarding than it would otherwise be. If today's world really were like the one inhabited by Winston and Julia, no-one would even understand what that joy meant. So maybe we are not making the most of our life, but we are most emphatically not the dead.
Heh. Things do seem somewhat calmer here. I can feel my blood cooling as we type!
Of course, now I'm going to be ransacking my archives to see what else I can post. Y'all have been warned...
Of course, now I'm going to be ransacking my archives to see what else I can post. Y'all have been warned...
Freedom is a prison without walls. Just because we can't see the bars doesn't mean we aren't in a cage.
We only have to look at how we are forced to be 'slaves to Mammon' (the great god of money) to realize that what we call freedom amounts to nothing more than an extravagant trap.
When I think of freedom and the social structure, all I can see is a kind of multiple choice predicament Yes I am free to choose option A, B, C, D, E - but if I choose Z, then I will pay a hefty price.
Step outside the norm, step outside what we're supposed to do, and the so-called ways of freedom will quickly begin to suffocate us.
We only have to look at how we are forced to be 'slaves to Mammon' (the great god of money) to realize that what we call freedom amounts to nothing more than an extravagant trap.
When I think of freedom and the social structure, all I can see is a kind of multiple choice predicament Yes I am free to choose option A, B, C, D, E - but if I choose Z, then I will pay a hefty price.
Step outside the norm, step outside what we're supposed to do, and the so-called ways of freedom will quickly begin to suffocate us.
1984 is probably my favourite book (as I have just stated in my personal statement).
Erm well I'm struggling for a reply, but you said people don't make enough use of their freedom and spare time. I think it's due to the fact that many people are scared to do anything that may unbalance their life. People get wrapped up in bills... Can I buy this car? Can we have another kid? and end up infront of the TV watching a soap. They're scared to get up and move country or whatever, scared of change. Many people lack their own intitiative and do whatever will keep them in a bed at night.
" Freedom is Slavery "
etc etc
Nice.
Erm well I'm struggling for a reply, but you said people don't make enough use of their freedom and spare time. I think it's due to the fact that many people are scared to do anything that may unbalance their life. People get wrapped up in bills... Can I buy this car? Can we have another kid? and end up infront of the TV watching a soap. They're scared to get up and move country or whatever, scared of change. Many people lack their own intitiative and do whatever will keep them in a bed at night.
" Freedom is Slavery "
etc etc
Nice.
True, but there are some here that will appreciate Light's posts.
He frequently posts a lot of good, thought provoking stuff that at least I enjoy reading.
In a calmer forum than he's used to.
Keep it up Light.
He frequently posts a lot of good, thought provoking stuff that at least I enjoy reading.
In a calmer forum than he's used to.
Keep it up Light.
The trouble here is finding someone with the mental capacity to read all of that!
And a hearty welcome to the mighty Light!
This is a lot easier to read here than the other place eh?
Nice one.
This is a lot easier to read here than the other place eh?
Nice one.
"We are the Dead"
That line, from Orwell's 1984, is Winston and Julia's acceptance that they have no hope in life. In the context of the whole book, we later find out that although they were quite correct when they said it, they didn't really know what they meant or what the implications of that statement were. It takes continuous physical and psychological torture at the hands of O'Brien (the strangely charismatic and, by our standards, quite insane Inner Party member) for Winston Smith to truly appreciate that it is not just he and Julia who fall into this joyless category. It is everyone outside of the ruling inner party. The Proles, the outer party, the continually warring factions; everything exists solely for the benefit of those privileged few who have control over their own lives. Everyone else may just as well be a walking corpse for all the independence that they are allowed.
1984 is probably my favourite piece of literature of all time. A chilling warning about the inherent inhumanity of totalitarianism (although very much a product of post WWII UK in tone), it is a bleak view of a bleak future that, happily, has not come to pass. Or at least, certainly not in the unremittingly grim fashion that Orwell predicted. The basic fear that Orwell expressed was of a dystopian world where we no longer have control of our own lives; a return to the medieval times of total slavery to a privileged caste. The hellish Party of 1984 kept the population servile by convincing them that they were actually happy with their lot (they did so by numerous methods that, if I were to detail them here would take up more than even you have the patience to read...), and being as how my mind works the way it does (i.e. in a rather rambling and slightly neurotic fashion) I've found myself wondering if the same could be said of us.
Do we have control of our own lives, or are we little more than serfs who have been distracted from our servitude by pretty baubles and garish soap opera’s. Obviously, one cannot look at the minutiae of everybody's everyday life, so you'll forgive me if I break our lives down into these nice, easy to remember sections; work, play, and love (by which I mean both friendships and sex. In some cases both...).
I've always believed in getting the bad news out of the way first, so let's have a look at work. This is the area that many who believe that we are already living in a world of pain tend to hold up as proof of their belief. And in truth, it's probably not too difficult to see where they're coming from. Very few people are spending their working life in a job that they feel valued and which bolsters rather than knocks lumps out of their self-esteem. But whose fault is that? To a certain extent it is the fault of society (and, by implication, those at the top of the heap who shape society to suit their needs). We are encouraged to get some sort of 9-5 job, though of course we are all encouraged to get the best paid job available. Modern life compounds the pressure; we need money to pay the bills and to live a comfortable life. Our own fear of poverty is probably the final factor involved; we are told that we need to live a certain lifestyle and, good little drones that we are, we try our best to do so. To opt out of the rat-race is (unless you are fortunate, wealthy, talented, lucky, or for preference, all four) to kiss goodbye to the bland and almost identical dream life that we all aspire to (and as I write that, I am reminded of the book "Brave New World", where hypnosis is used to teach sleeping children what kind of life they will enjoy as an adult, thus vast swathes of people grow up to want the same things out of life).
Yet however unattractive we are encouraged to believe the alternatives are, there are at least alternatives. In 1984, there was no freedom to choose. There was not even the illusion of that freedom. I were to be especially cynical I would say that we do have the oldest and most basic right of free people; the freedom to destitution. That would, however, be misleading. We do have that freedom that was denied to Winston (historically, we probably have more freedom than at any other point in history), it's just that few of us choose to exercise it. In respect of work I believe that we do have control of our lives. It's just that most of us have chosen to abdicate responsibility for making that choice.
In the world of leisure time, we are certainly not trapped in the 1984 nightmare. Again, we have more leisure time now than at any other time in the history of mankind. There are restrictions on what we may choose to do with our time that we may not like (anti-drug laws continue to place a paternalistic straightjacket on how one chooses to spend ones own time, and those bleating idiots who bray their mindless refrain of "drugs are for losers" are probably the most totalitarian types that one can encounter; their "I don't like it ergo no-one should" attitude is typical of the unimaginative and the intolerant. If you don't like it, no problem; nobody is forcing you to. So stop forcing others not to), but by and large we are left to our own devices on the condition that we do not cause any harm to others.
If there is a problem with our leisure time, it is that we ourselves do not make enough use of it. This is our life and our responsibility. Yet when I have heard (and made) complaints about any aspect of my spare time, it is rare for the blame to land at ones own door. If one is not happy with an aspect of ones life outside of work, then surely it is up to us to try and remedy that?
Finally we have our love lives and our friends. This was and still is the most abhorrent aspect of 1984 for me; the gradual destruction of the social bonding structures that we would recognise in society and the replacement of them with loyalty only to Big Brother. Winston had no friends, only acquaintances whom he feared as possible informers. We do not have that in our lives (or at least, not in modern western society; Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and pretty much anybody's Russia all featured this entertainingly unpleasant addition to their social lives). We are free to make friends and enemies as we see fit. I've never felt forced to like somebody whom I could have cheerfully shot, nor do I feel any pressure to hate somebody to whom I am indifferent. The prejudices that do exist in society (racism and sexism being at the top of the scale, PC-manufactured bias' such as weightism at the very bottom) are all a matter of personal choice and although we may occasionally feel pressure to 'fit in' by taking on the prejudices of a peer group, there is no cage of rats attached to our face that forces us to do so.
As to our love lives...well, if I were going to make a complaint about this it would be that we have rather too much freedom of choice. Not because of things like the soaring divorce rate (which I care little about; I'm in favour of renewable marriage contracts as a valid solution to this problem), but because I'm still annoyed that my girlfriend dumped me for a little under 2 years! Grrrr....
But joking aside, no-one can realistically say that this aspect of our life is out of our control unless we choose to hand over control of it (i.e. by picking one of the various flavours of religion that seek to tell you what to do in the bedroom). Winston and Julia didn't really love each other. Their relationship was an act of rebellion against the state and so had little to do with their feelings for each other. I'm not going to be so smug as to say that if they were truly in love then they would not have betrayed each other, because I am in general agreement with the cliché that you always hurt the one you love. But their sexual encounters were as close as one could get to romance in a world where the only love that existed was the love of power. Whilst that love plays a large part in the real world, it is certainly not to the exclusion of everything else. Speaking personally, although I think that love is hard work I also think that it gives us the most joy out of life. It makes life a lot more worthwhile and rewarding than it would otherwise be. If today's world really were like the one inhabited by Winston and Julia, no-one would even understand what that joy meant. So maybe we are not making the most of our life, but we are most emphatically not the dead.
That line, from Orwell's 1984, is Winston and Julia's acceptance that they have no hope in life. In the context of the whole book, we later find out that although they were quite correct when they said it, they didn't really know what they meant or what the implications of that statement were. It takes continuous physical and psychological torture at the hands of O'Brien (the strangely charismatic and, by our standards, quite insane Inner Party member) for Winston Smith to truly appreciate that it is not just he and Julia who fall into this joyless category. It is everyone outside of the ruling inner party. The Proles, the outer party, the continually warring factions; everything exists solely for the benefit of those privileged few who have control over their own lives. Everyone else may just as well be a walking corpse for all the independence that they are allowed.
1984 is probably my favourite piece of literature of all time. A chilling warning about the inherent inhumanity of totalitarianism (although very much a product of post WWII UK in tone), it is a bleak view of a bleak future that, happily, has not come to pass. Or at least, certainly not in the unremittingly grim fashion that Orwell predicted. The basic fear that Orwell expressed was of a dystopian world where we no longer have control of our own lives; a return to the medieval times of total slavery to a privileged caste. The hellish Party of 1984 kept the population servile by convincing them that they were actually happy with their lot (they did so by numerous methods that, if I were to detail them here would take up more than even you have the patience to read...), and being as how my mind works the way it does (i.e. in a rather rambling and slightly neurotic fashion) I've found myself wondering if the same could be said of us.
Do we have control of our own lives, or are we little more than serfs who have been distracted from our servitude by pretty baubles and garish soap opera’s. Obviously, one cannot look at the minutiae of everybody's everyday life, so you'll forgive me if I break our lives down into these nice, easy to remember sections; work, play, and love (by which I mean both friendships and sex. In some cases both...).
I've always believed in getting the bad news out of the way first, so let's have a look at work. This is the area that many who believe that we are already living in a world of pain tend to hold up as proof of their belief. And in truth, it's probably not too difficult to see where they're coming from. Very few people are spending their working life in a job that they feel valued and which bolsters rather than knocks lumps out of their self-esteem. But whose fault is that? To a certain extent it is the fault of society (and, by implication, those at the top of the heap who shape society to suit their needs). We are encouraged to get some sort of 9-5 job, though of course we are all encouraged to get the best paid job available. Modern life compounds the pressure; we need money to pay the bills and to live a comfortable life. Our own fear of poverty is probably the final factor involved; we are told that we need to live a certain lifestyle and, good little drones that we are, we try our best to do so. To opt out of the rat-race is (unless you are fortunate, wealthy, talented, lucky, or for preference, all four) to kiss goodbye to the bland and almost identical dream life that we all aspire to (and as I write that, I am reminded of the book "Brave New World", where hypnosis is used to teach sleeping children what kind of life they will enjoy as an adult, thus vast swathes of people grow up to want the same things out of life).
Yet however unattractive we are encouraged to believe the alternatives are, there are at least alternatives. In 1984, there was no freedom to choose. There was not even the illusion of that freedom. I were to be especially cynical I would say that we do have the oldest and most basic right of free people; the freedom to destitution. That would, however, be misleading. We do have that freedom that was denied to Winston (historically, we probably have more freedom than at any other point in history), it's just that few of us choose to exercise it. In respect of work I believe that we do have control of our lives. It's just that most of us have chosen to abdicate responsibility for making that choice.
In the world of leisure time, we are certainly not trapped in the 1984 nightmare. Again, we have more leisure time now than at any other time in the history of mankind. There are restrictions on what we may choose to do with our time that we may not like (anti-drug laws continue to place a paternalistic straightjacket on how one chooses to spend ones own time, and those bleating idiots who bray their mindless refrain of "drugs are for losers" are probably the most totalitarian types that one can encounter; their "I don't like it ergo no-one should" attitude is typical of the unimaginative and the intolerant. If you don't like it, no problem; nobody is forcing you to. So stop forcing others not to), but by and large we are left to our own devices on the condition that we do not cause any harm to others.
If there is a problem with our leisure time, it is that we ourselves do not make enough use of it. This is our life and our responsibility. Yet when I have heard (and made) complaints about any aspect of my spare time, it is rare for the blame to land at ones own door. If one is not happy with an aspect of ones life outside of work, then surely it is up to us to try and remedy that?
Finally we have our love lives and our friends. This was and still is the most abhorrent aspect of 1984 for me; the gradual destruction of the social bonding structures that we would recognise in society and the replacement of them with loyalty only to Big Brother. Winston had no friends, only acquaintances whom he feared as possible informers. We do not have that in our lives (or at least, not in modern western society; Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and pretty much anybody's Russia all featured this entertainingly unpleasant addition to their social lives). We are free to make friends and enemies as we see fit. I've never felt forced to like somebody whom I could have cheerfully shot, nor do I feel any pressure to hate somebody to whom I am indifferent. The prejudices that do exist in society (racism and sexism being at the top of the scale, PC-manufactured bias' such as weightism at the very bottom) are all a matter of personal choice and although we may occasionally feel pressure to 'fit in' by taking on the prejudices of a peer group, there is no cage of rats attached to our face that forces us to do so.
As to our love lives...well, if I were going to make a complaint about this it would be that we have rather too much freedom of choice. Not because of things like the soaring divorce rate (which I care little about; I'm in favour of renewable marriage contracts as a valid solution to this problem), but because I'm still annoyed that my girlfriend dumped me for a little under 2 years! Grrrr....
But joking aside, no-one can realistically say that this aspect of our life is out of our control unless we choose to hand over control of it (i.e. by picking one of the various flavours of religion that seek to tell you what to do in the bedroom). Winston and Julia didn't really love each other. Their relationship was an act of rebellion against the state and so had little to do with their feelings for each other. I'm not going to be so smug as to say that if they were truly in love then they would not have betrayed each other, because I am in general agreement with the cliché that you always hurt the one you love. But their sexual encounters were as close as one could get to romance in a world where the only love that existed was the love of power. Whilst that love plays a large part in the real world, it is certainly not to the exclusion of everything else. Speaking personally, although I think that love is hard work I also think that it gives us the most joy out of life. It makes life a lot more worthwhile and rewarding than it would otherwise be. If today's world really were like the one inhabited by Winston and Julia, no-one would even understand what that joy meant. So maybe we are not making the most of our life, but we are most emphatically not the dead.