Even If You're Paranoid They Still Might Be Out To Get You?

My favorite source of Science Fiction entertainment news, Sci Fi Wire, recently added an article about Tim Robbins working on a new movie adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. I haven't read it recently, but I have a vague recollection Orwell's classic science fiction novel. Either Robbins remembers the book differently, or he sees the present differently that I do. (I suspect it's the latter.)

"In the book, Big Brother says we're not really concerned about 85 percent of the people, because they're so stupefied by poverty and overwork that they're never going to be part of the problem," Robbins said. "What they're really worried about is the other 15 percent."

Robbins added: "When we think about the authoritarian world that Orwell painted, the catchphrases are one thing, but when you read the book again, the specifics and relevance for now are stunning."

Robbins wouldn't tell the site whether he wanted to act in the movie. Whether the film actually happens is "really a matter of whether I can raise the money for it," he said. "We'll see if there's an appetite for it. Orwell may have been 20 years off, but I know that I find it incredibly relevant."

So the "specifics and relevance are now stunning", and he finds "it incredibly relevant"? How exactly does he find it relevant?

Does that mean that Robbins believes that 85 percent of our population is "so stupefied by poverty and overwork"? Maybe he thinks that only 60 percent of the population is stupefied. I'd agree that people are often hoodwinked, but that doesn't require them to be impoverished overworked. Being tricked only requires hearing a lie that sounds like the truth. Also being dazed and dazzled is much worse than just choosing the lesser of two evils. I don't view most people as being idiots at all. That's just me. But since I'm not a celebrity, what would I know?

I'm pretty sure that I'm neither impoverished nor overworked (and I'm pretty sure most other people aren't either), but I doubt I'll spend any money on a movie made by someone with such a poor opinion of the general public. If you think most people are either poor, so overworked they can't think correctly, or just plain stupid, I guess you should go see his movie. And if you're among the possibly 85% of the public that's stupefied, I'm sure you're too overworked or poor to be able to see it anyway. Sorry for getting your hopes up.

(For the record, I've always preferred Animal Farm to 1984, but that might be just because I read Animal Farm first.)