We gladly buy technology used against us. That’s what FastCompany‘s Henry Cowles-Aeon writes about. Because of certain political events happening under the current administration, sales of George Orwell’s 1984 have surged.

Snowden was right. Re-reading 1984 in 2018, one is struck by the “TVs that watch us,” which Orwell called telescreens. The telescreen is one of the first objects we encounter: “The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.” It is omnipresent, in every private room and public space, right up until the end of the book, when it is “still pouring forth its tale of prisoners and booty and slaughter” even after Smith has resigned himself to its rule.

Mr. Cowles-Aeon gives an insight into the book that isn’t usually picked up on, and his article is worth reading.

Check It Out: We Gladly Buy Technology Used Against Us