The era of thoughtcrime
Last Updated: Sat, Feb 27th, 2021, 10:23:07hrs
In what is arguably his most memorable and increasingly his most relevant novel worldwide, 1984, George Orwell coined the term “thoughtcrime”—it was a reference to social and political ideologies that were not in keeping with that of the ruling regime. Even before social media was imagined, intellectual activity of any kind—possession of certain books, love of particular music, a gathering of kindred souls, even voicing opinions—could be criminalised, not only in Oceania but in the real world. We have seen it happen in the USSR before it was Russia, in Iran after 1979, in China since the 1960s, and now countries which claim to be democracies have found ways to criminalise thought.