Dune is a saga of books written by Frank Herbert, considered one of the founders of Science Fiction as we know it today. The Story revolves around Atreides family and their fight for Arraskis (or Dune), the only planet where the spice can be found - a substance that allows interestellar travel. Besides deep characters and intense conflicts, Dune provide us interesting lessons.

4 Things I learned Reading Dune

One of the most important lessons is how fear is seen in this saga: not as a weakness, but as an enemy that you can face. To overcome fear, the Bene Gesserit, a political and mystic group, created the litany against it:"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Fear Is The Mind-Killer

The combat is a constant element in Herbert's saga, both in physical and mental ways. One of the many lessons of Ducan Idaho, a great warrior and instructor of the young Paul Atreides, is about observation and how crucial it is in the first moments you face a problem. The eagerness to win may lead us to take rash actions, but deep diving into problems will lead us to the consistency of success:"Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory this way, but the moments of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure."

Observe First

One of the first things that Leto Atreides, leader of house Atreides, does when he gets to Dune is to see how the spice was collected. During the visit to the desert, a great sand worm attacks a large shipment of spice, but instead of running away or saving the cargo, Leto Atreides face the danger to save the people working there, showing to all of them that the life of his followers worth more than the most valued substance in the universe:
"He risked his life and his son's life to save these men [...]. Such a leader could inspire fanatical loyalty. It would be hard to defeat him."

People Worth More Than Things

Paul Atreides (Muad`Dib), protagonist of Dune, learned the way of the desert during his time in Arrakis, from how to save water to how to ride the greate sand worms. However, this didn't happen only because of the circunstances of his birth, but because he knew how to learn:"Muad'Did learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson."

You Can Learn Anything

Dune is a deep and inspiring read, and here I present you 4 things that I learned from it.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Frank Herbert’s epic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. This deluxe hardcover edition of Dune includes: · An iconic new cover · A stamped and foiled case featuring a quote from the Litany Against Fear · Stained edges and fully illustrated endpapers · A beautifully designed poster on the interior of the jacket · A redesigned world map of Dune · An updated Introduction by Brian Herbert Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for... When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. DUNE is directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem

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NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem. Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for.... When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.  A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

People note Dune (1965) of American science fiction novelist Frank Patrick Herbert for its intricate plot and its broad intellectual scope. Frank Herbert authored five critically acclaimed and commercially successful sequels to this best-known work. Widely considered among the classics in the field of science fiction, the Dune saga, set in the distant future and taking place over millennia, dealt with themes, such as human survival, human evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, and power. He was the father of fellow author Brian Herbert.

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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5129.Brave_New_World">Brave New World </a>presents a futuristic society engineered perfectly around capitalism and scientific efficiency, in which everyone is happy, conform, and content — but only at first glance.

Brace New World - Book Summary 

"Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced "-Aldous Huxl

Author Quote 

“You can’t consume much if you sit still and read books,” World Controller Mustapha Mond tells a group of children as they tour the “Hatchery and Conditioning Center” in London in the year 2540 AD. He has a point — and if you read books like <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5129.Brave_New_World">Brave New World </a>, you’ll want to consume even less afterwards. Published in 1932, Brave New World was decades ahead of its time, and of its sibling, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/1984-summary/">1984 </a>, the other of two defining works outlining what a modern dystopia could look like. Unlike 1984 , however, the people in Brave New World are slaves to pleasure, not pain.

Book - Overv

Living in the extremely shaky political time that is the period between World War I and World War II, author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley">Aldous Huxley </a>was both drawn to the idea of stability (even to the point of sacrificing democracy) and terrified by what domination of any kind might bring. He went to the US in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties">the Roaring 20’s </a>, and the culture of consumerism, drugs, promiscuity, and partying scared him.

As a result, Brave New World is an ambivalent book, open to many interpretations, and after selling millions of copies over nearly 100 years of being in print, the book is still being interpreted in new ways every day. Just in 2020, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9814116/">a new TV show </a>was made, and every year, young adults read the book as part of their high school education.

<ol><li>If the world were perfect and everything was easy, nothing would have any meaning. </li><li>We hate not fitting in more than anything else, and yet, we’ll never all be the same. </li><li>True happiness and suffering are two sides of the same coin — we can’t have one without the other. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Less

In the foreword to the 2007 edition of the book, Margaret Atwood wrote: “In a world in which everything is available, nothing has any meaning.” The London described in the book is such a world. Humans are grown in bottles as needed to perform certain tasks, ranging from smart Alphas to “semi-moron” Epsilons. From birth, people are sleep-conditioned to stay in their caste, to prioritize easy pleasures, like “soma,” the perfect drug, and sex, and to consume as much as they can. As a result, everyone is easygoing, compliant, and constantly on a drug- or orgasm-high — and no one is ever alone.

Lesson 1: A perfect world in which you can have everything

Two of the book’s protagonists, the psychologist Bernard Marx and writer Helmholtz Watson, see through this veil of cheap satisfaction. Bernard wants a traditional, monogamous relationship — a big no-no in his promiscuous society — preferably with the beautiful but all-too-well-conditioned hatchery worker Lenina Crowne. Helmholtz feels a higher calling in his writing, but he can’t access his “latent power” while writing the drivel his job requires:

“Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly–they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced. […] But what on earth’s the good of being pierced by an article about a Community Sing, or the latest improvement in scent organs?”

When you can have everything at the snap of your fingers, there’s nothing to strive for in life. No goals. Nowhere to go . And, sooner or later, not having a destination in life will make us restless. Humans are meant to move — and not just physically. Our brains need to <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/smart-people-should-build-things-summary/">exercise their wits </a>. Our souls lust for creativity and beauty, and not just to see them, but to make them.

A constant state of satisfaction is its own kind of prison, and it is this prison Bernard and Helmholtz hope to escape from, one by taking the woman of his dreams on an adventurous trip, the other by <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/on-writing-well-summary/">penning some daring lines </a>and reading them to his students. Of course, both of them get into trouble for breaking the mold, which brings us to the second lesson…

Unlike Helmholtz, who’s too smart for his own good but otherwise a perfect example of an Alpha, Bernard is slightly shorter than intended — some mishap during his “hatching” — and, as a result, often gets mocked by women, peers, and even his subordinates. Add to that his monogamous tendencies, and you have yourself a man whom others wish “weren’t so odd,” including Lenina.

Lesson 2: There is nothing we hate more than not fitting in

No matter how hard he tries to make up for it, however, Bernard can’t find any <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-art-of-non-conformity-summary/">conformity </a>. His drug-induced “soma holidays” never last, and even attending “Solidarity Service,” basically a synthetic-music-backed sex orgy, provides no lasting relief.

Thankfully, Lenina agrees to accompany Bernard on what’s supposed to be a romantic trip to a natural reservation in New Mexico. There, they not only see people living traditionally — giving birth, drinking alcohol, practicing religious rituals, hunting for food, aging, mourning their dead — but also encounter John, “the Savage.”

As it turns out, John is the illegitimate son of the director of the hatchery and Linda, a woman he brought to the reservation years ago and who still lives there, hating every minute of it. Like Bernard, John has been ostracized by the Native American tribe for his different looks (and later, his ability to read, which he uses to devour the works of Shakespeare). Naturally, Bernard is thrilled to meet someone who, like him, doesn’t fit in.

“You see,” he tells John, “I’m rather different from most people, I suppose.” “Yes, that’s just it,” John confirms. “If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely.” While John and Bernard are the most prominent examples, the further you read in the book, the more you’ll realize: Every one of the main characters is somehow different from the group they’re supposed to fit into, and this is their worst source of suffering.

Helmholtz wants to write real poetry, but he’s not allowed to. Lenina secretly craves some monogamy too, much to the dismay of her friend Fanny. The director of the hatchery loses his post once everyone realizes that he fathered a child. Even Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, was originally a man of science who asked too many questions — and that’s how he ended up being a Controller in the first place, choosing misery over exile.

Few pains sit deeper than the suffering of not fitting in and feeling rejected by our fellow humans, and yet, no matter how much we try to be alike, humans will always be different from one another. Actually, our differences are our greatest strength as a species — but only if we accept, appreciate, and utilize them.

The next time you feel isolated or alone, remember that <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-power-of-starting-something-stupid-summary/">uniformity is a myth </a>. We can’t, and should never be , all the same. It’s important to have friends, family, and professional peers you can connect with, but our equality lies in the fact that we’re all human, not any particular set of traits, behaviors, or abilities.

Since the director of the hatchery threatened to send him into exile in Iceland over his odd behavior, Bernard comes up with a brilliant plan: He’ll take the Savage and Linda back to London, using them to embarrass the director out of his threat. The plan initially works and even makes Bernard famous, for he is now the custodian of the mysterious Savage everyone wants to see.

Lesson 3: In order for true happiness to exist

At first, John is also excited, not least because he likes Lenina, and it is before his departure from the reservation that he utters the Shakespeare line that gives the book its title: “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once.” The fun and wonder quickly wears off, however, and when John’s disillusion drives him to lock himself in his room, Bernard falls out of favor with his guests.

“Nothing costs enough here,” John concludes, longing to be the dramatic hero of a Shakespearean play more so than a zoned-out but lifeless individual. “I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/long-walk-to-freedom-summary/">I want freedom </a>, I want goodness. I want sin,” he will later tell Mustapha Mond in the novel’s pivotal conversation. Before that, however, he attacks Lenina who, feeling the attraction to be mutual, seems to be all too willing to have sex with him.

When he finds out his mother Linda is dying from perpetually taking soma ever since having arrived, John rushes to the hospital, causing a scene (for saying goodbye to the dying is not something people usually do). Eventually, he and Helmholtz end up fighting a horde of Epsilons, trying to take away their soma rations, thus “liberating” them. Bernard tries to break up the fight, but eventually, all three are hauled before Mustapha Mond.

Bernard and Helmholtz are sentenced to exile, which Bernard loathes but Helmholtz looks forward to. Even Mond calls it a reward, for on islands, all the intelligent, individualistic people gather, far away from conditioned society. “You’ve got to be hurt and upset; otherwise you can’t think of the really good, penetrating, X-rayish phrases,” Helmholtz explains, choosing the Falkland Islands for his exile, thinking their bad weather will inspire his writing.

The Savage, meanwhile, is made to stay, though, in a long argument, the World Controller admits he has a point when he says: “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” The government chose to sacrifice art, science, and religion in favor of the shallow but stable happiness he now sees around him, Mond admits:

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

The happiness in Brave New World is fake, for it is neither a side effect of true living, nor a reward for suffering. It’s just a baseline level of artificial contentment, and that’s why, to us as to the main characters, it is not truly satisfying. Helmholtz wants to be sad so he can write better. John wants to struggle for Lenina’s love. Even the World Controller wishes he could explore science instead of abolishing it: “What fun it would be,” he thinks at one point, “if one didn’t have to think about happiness!”

Ultimately, John gets what he asks for. For a while, he lives peacefully by himself in a lighthouse, even atoning for his sins by whipping himself on occasion. When the people of London catch wind, however, they beleaguer him at his home, and the ensuing outrage culminates in an orgy. Realizing what he has allowed himself to become the next day, he hangs himself, unable to further cope with the fact that everyone around him is constantly coping.

Happiness is not something we can manufacture, no matter how hard we try. It is often a side-effect and sometimes a hard-won reward, but true happiness can never be something we get on tap or by swallowing a pill. If we reject the potential for suffering, we also reject the potential for <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-courage-to-be-happy-summary/">true, deeply fulfilling happiness </a>— and that’s perhaps the most powerful lesson the book can teach us.

While the story isn’t as straightforward, nor the characters as deep, as in <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/1984-summary/">1984 </a>, that’s exactly what makes <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5129.Brave_New_World">Brave New World </a>compelling — and perhaps the better read of the two. The characters are flat because so is everyone in the book, and the story is complex because dystopia lies not in one clear enemy, like oppression.

Brave New World - Book Review

It is the convoluted mix of meddling with biology, keeping people sedated in various ways, and conditioning them to love their enslavement that provides countless points of discussion for this book, nearly 100 years after it was published.

If you sometimes have doubts about our shiny, Instagram-happy world, you’ll get a lot out of this book. For more about the book’s context and the author’s inspiration, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World">check out Wikipedia </a>. The book is also <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/jordan-peterson-books/#6_Brave_New_World_by_Aldous_Huxley_1932">one of Jordan Peterson’s favorites </a>and comes with <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/?page_id=9911&preview=true">plenty of great quotes </a>.

The 23-year-old college student, who knows she is using her smartphone too much but can’t seem to stop, the 43-year-old worker who hasn’t changed his job in years, and anyone who sometimes shakes their head at our relentless consumer culture.

Who would I recommend our Brave New World  to?

Looking for a summary of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley? Get the plot, some analysis, and 3 valuable lessons here.

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Brave New World Summary

1984 By George Orwell - 30 Quotes

1. “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

2. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

3. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

4. “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.”

5. “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”

6. “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

7. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”

8. “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.”

9. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

10. “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

11 . “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

12. “It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another.”

13. “It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.”

14. “Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”

15. “But if there was hope, it lay in the proles. You had to cling on to that. When you put it in words it sounded reasonable: it was when you looked at the human beings passing you on the pavement that it became an act of faith.”

16. “If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones.”

17. “When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you’re happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?”

18. “To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one’s lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available.”

19. “Talking to her, he realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. (Continues next slide)

By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”

19. (Continued

20 . “The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.”

21. “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

22. “There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

23. “Sanity is not statistical.”

24. “Where there is equality, there can be sanity.”

25. “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

26. “What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?”

27. “Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever… And remember that it is for ever. The face will always be there to be stamped upon.”

28. “Merely to be alone, not to be beaten or questioned, to have enough to eat, and to be clean all over, was completely satisfying.”

29. “‘If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens. … It doesn’t really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination.’ … What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.”

30. “To die hating them, that was freedom.”

1984 by George Orwell - 30 Important Lines

Looking for the best quotes from 1984 by George Orwell? Here's our list of the 30 most popular & important lines from this classic.

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1984 Quotes: The 30 Best & Most Important Lines From George Orwell's Masterpiece

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984">1984 </a>is the story of a man questioning the system that keeps his futuristic but dystopian society afloat and the chaos that quickly ensues once he gives in to his natural curiosity and desire to be free.

1984 - Book Summary 

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."-George Orwell

Author Quote

“The best books are those that tell you what you know already,” Winston Smith concludes as he finally leafs through the pages of a forbidden book he’d been dying to get his hands on. In that sense, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984">1984 </a>  by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell </a>is indeed a great book: Most of us know the word “totalitarian” indicates something bad, but only after reading a dystopian classic like this will we truly understand what an absolute government might look like in practice.

Book Overview 

Orwell had been an Imperial policeman in Burma (modern-day Myanmar) and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He later worked as a journalist during World War II. As such, he had seen the terrifying impact of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-authoritarian-moment-summary/">governments with complete control </a>both first- and second-hand in Spain, Russia, and Germany.

Published in 1949, 1984 was his warning to Western nations not to succumb to then-popular communist ideas. Despite leaning more left than right himself, Orwell feared <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-road-to-serfdom-summary/">unquestioned socialism </a>would, ultimately, escalate into a government practicing systematic oppression — and could do so within the next 35 years.

The book has since become an often-quoted literary classic, taught in classrooms around the world. It is routinely praised for its important themes, strong symbolism, and, in some cases, accurate vision.

<ol><li>The most powerful way to either control or empower humans is language. </li><li>Freedom is the ability to say what’s true, to say what you think, and to make your own choices. </li><li>Totalitarian governments succeed when they turn off our individuality via gaslighting. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Lessons 

The book is structured into three parts, and in the first, we get to know the protagonist Winston Smith. At nearly 40 years old and in bad physical shape, Winston is somewhat of an anti-hero. He works in the Ministry of Truth in London, which is part of Oceania, one of three large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstate">superstates </a>, who are constantly at war with one another.

Lesson 1: Language is the defining

Winston’s job at the record department is to, ironically, falsify historic records. The goal is to erase everything that contradicts or makes “the Party,” the governing political power, look bad. Originals are burned in giant furnaces, and every newspaper article gets rewritten every time the Party decides a new reality is in order.

One of Winston’s colleagues works on the Party’s latest edition of the “Newspeak” dictionary. Newspeak is a language devised specifically to eliminate rebellious thinking at the root. Think about it: If you didn’t have the vocabulary to express an idea, wouldn’t that also make you less likely to think of that idea in the first place?

For example, if the word “freedom” was erased from the English language, would Americans still understand it <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/on-liberty-summary/">the way it was meant in the Constitution? </a>In the book, the word “free” still exists, but by means of deleting many other words associated with it, future “Newspeakers” would only be able to use it “in such statements as ‘This dog is free from lice.'” Political or intellectual freedom “no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.”

The <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/through-the-language-glass-summary/">form of language </a>shapes how we can express ourselves, and how we can express ourselves shapes how and what we think. Therefore, language may be the single-most important way to either empower or enslave humans. This concept is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity">linguistic relativity </a>. It’s a little overstated, but in a way, “if you have no means of saying it, you can’t think it.”

“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought,” Winston notes at one point. Cherish your words, and be mindful of them.

Besides altering language and falsifying history, the Party also controls its citizens via more direct means. For one, everyone could be a spy, and children regularly report their parents to “the Thought Police,” a sort of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo">Gestapo </a>which makes inconvenient people vanish at a moment’s notice. Another theme in the book is <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/permanent-record-summary/">using technology to practice mass surveillance </a>. Every home has a “telescreen,” a monitor that’s both recording and broadcasting at all times, and there are cameras and microphones everywhere.

Lesson 2: Freedom means being able to say what’s true

In a society like that, rebellion starts with little acts, such as Winston writing into a diary in a corner of his apartment that’s hidden from the screen. In the second part of the book, however, he takes his disobedience to the next level by starting an affair with Julia, a coworker.

At first, Winston thinks Julia is a spy, but when she gives him a love note, the two begin meeting in secret, sleeping together, and commiserating about how much they hate the Party. There is, however, one key difference between them: Julia has no interest in overthrowing the Party. “If you keep the small rules you can break the big ones,” she observes, and as long as she can do what she wants right under the Party’s nose, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-courage-to-be-happy-summary/">she is happy </a>.

Winston, however, more desperately wishes for a better future — not that he could do much to bring one about. Julia’s definition of freedom begins and ends with her choices, whereas Winston thinks freedom also means being able to think and say what is true and what you truly believe. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows,” he writes into his diary. “To die hating them,” the Party, that is, “that was freedom.”

If a government allows its citizens limited means to form an identity and actualize themselves, its people still isn’t free. Freedom includes permission to speak both facts and lies, to say what you think irrespective of whether it is right or wrong, and without these freedoms, all the others mean significantly less.

In 2020, just as the pandemic came into full force, Julio Vincent Gambuto told us to “<a href="https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0">prepare for the ultimate gaslighting </a>.” “Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we ‘open back up’ and move forward, very powerful forces will try to convince us all to get back to normal.” Of course, normal had disappeared, Gambuto warned. The future would — and probably should — look very different, but if we let greedy, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/brandwashed-summary/">marketing-savvy corporations </a> steamroll us yet again, we’d gain nothing from the great pause we had been given.

Lesson 3: A totalitarian state wins when it can gaslight

In this case, the evil Gambuto referred to was consumerism, but gaslighting, <a href="https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/255554">defined as </a>“manipulating someone using psychological methods into questioning their own sanity or powers of reasoning,” is also what totalitarian governments use to bend citizens to their will.

Just before, in the last part of the book, the inevitable happens — Winston and Julia get caught by the Thought Police — Winston concludes that “sanity is not statistical.” What he means is that “there is truth and there is untruth, and if you cling to the truth even against the whole world, you are not mad.” If your government can make you think you’re mad, however, it just might get you to give up the truth in favor of a lie that’s more convenient for them. This is how totalitarian governments win: They get you to reject not just the truth but any kind of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/think-again-summary/">individual thinking </a>whatsoever.

After their capture, Winston and Julia are separated, and both are tortured into not just compliance but becoming mindless Party drones like everyone else. As it turns out, Winston’s coworker O’Brien, whom he thought to be a fellow secret rebel, is actually a high-level Inner Party member, eager to brainwash him into loyalty to the Party.

Having had little individuality to begin with due to the short material leash the state kept him on, Winston is now forced to give up his last shred of self thanks to months of physical and psychological abuse. O’Brien doesn’t just get him to lie about basic reality, such as claiming he holds up five fingers when he’s only holding up four, but also to pretend Oceania has always been at war with the same enemy when, in fact, telescreens frequently announce differing warring factions.

The ultimate gaslighting, however, happens when he makes Winston doubt reality altogether and, as such, the importance of thinking for himself: “If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens,” Winston muses. “It doesn’t really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination. What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.”

This is Winston’s final admission of defeat. After all, if the Party can rewrite history as it sees fit, it can dictate “whatever happens in all minds” and, therefore, what “truly happens.” When he returns to the real world, he is happy to drink the same gin he has always been drinking, sit at the same bar he’s always been sitting in, and no longer cares about expressing himself in any way whatsoever. Not with Julia. Nor in a diary. Not even through rebellious thoughts.

Deep down, he still knows the state propaganda is nothing but lies, but from now on, he’s happy to go along with it, no longer strong enough to resist.

When other people gaslight us, it’s annoying and sad. When our governments do it, it’s dangerous, an immediate sign to take a stand and cling to the truth with all we’ve got. Always think twice about what your government does and says. <a href="https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/character/big-brother/">Big Brother </a>is watching.

Besides the fact that it is well-structured, relatively easy to understand, and successfully relies on a few strong characters to drive its points home, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961427-1984">1984 </a> has held up incredibly well over time, and not just because of its predictive powers. If you read the book today, you’ll hardly feel transported to a different century. While Winston isn’t exactly carrying around a smartphone, the book’s everyday backdrop still feels technologically close enough to today to make it easy to immerse yourself in its world.

1984 - Book Review

All in all, this is an outstanding book with several important, cautionary messages, some of which we should heed today. What happens if news blogs change their headlines after publication? <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/an-ugly-truth-summary/">What role does misinformation play in elections? </a>Can our smartphones listen to us while we sleep? All of these are questions Winston Smith would ask were he alive in our world today. Reading his story will help us answer them.

While I would recommend this book to anyone, you’ll find it an especially great read if you’re concerned about freedom and <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-sovereign-individual-summary/">sovereignty </a>. For more context on its publication and Orwell’s ideas, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">check out Wikipedia </a>. You can also dive into <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/1984-quotes/">our list of the best and most important quotes from the book </a>. Final fun fact: It is one of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/jordan-peterson-books/#8_1984_by_George_Orwell_1949">the top 15 books recommended by Jordan Peterson </a>.

The 17-year-old climate activist who’s not happy with how their government is handling global warming, the 55-year-old who thinks their government will surely take care of them in retirement, and anyone who’s suspicious of technology’s long-term impact on our mental and societal health.

Who would I recommend our 1984 to?

Here's our summary of 1984, the dystopian novel and literary classic by George Orwell. Discover the plot and 3 valuable lessons.

politics

Politics

1984 Summary

How do you prepare your children for the year 2050? Or even the year 2100? It’s a great question, especially because nowadays, no one knows what the world will even look like then. Historically, humans could make at least decent assumptions about where the world was headed. But in today’s fast-paced, technology-fueled civilization? Forget it!

21 Lessons For The 21st Century - Book Overview 

However, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth giving our best to prepare for an uncertain future. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38820046-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century">21 Lessons For The 21st Century </a> , <a href="http://www.ynharari.com/about/">Yuval Noah Harari </a>helps us do just that. After his previous bestsellers Sapiens , which explored the human past, and <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/homo-deus-summary/">Homo Deus </a>, which focused on our distant future, his latest book is about our biggest challenges in the here and now and how we can deal with them.

"In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power."-Yuval Noah Harari

<ol><li>Whoever owns the data wins, which is why everyone struggles for it. </li><li>We don’t know, we just think we do – and that’s a problem. </li><li>Education must show us how to navigate information, not give us more of it. </li> </ol>Are you sometimes worried about the future? Don’t fret, let’s prep!

Different ideologies have always shaped how humans see and steer the world. Whichever one grabs the most people tends to determine our history for decades. In the 20th century, fascism, communism, and liberalism fought for that privilege. Liberalism ended up being the clear winner. Depending on which ideology dominates, different assets grow in value. Whatever’s most valuable is the thing politicians and nations will fight for, thus deciding what future the world progresses towards. So far, in the 21st century, technology seems to have all competitors beat. It’s <a href="https://medium.com/personal-growth/why-we-need-breaks-from-tech-to-use-it-best-e3de310916a2">the thing we most believe in </a>.

Lesson 1: Data has become the most valuable asset, which is why technology disrupts all our systems.

With technology being our prime ideology, data becomes the most valuable asset . That’s why politicians struggle for their nations to win the giant tech race. The problem is that this time around, no one fully understands the implications of our ideology. Just look at the financial markets, where <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/algorithms-to-live-by-summary/">algorithms already do most of the work </a>, with very few traders grasping what’s actually happening.

For politicians, this lack of understanding quickly becomes a threat. People are frustrated, feel ignored, and realize the representatives they elected don’t deal with the most important topics. And yet, we know just as little about technology as they do.

I rarely talk about politics with my family, but when we do, we like to joke about the “genius” of certain policymakers. In Germany, it’s common for the minister of economics to suddenly become the minister of health. Highly specialized offices are swapped like Christmas presents, which makes no sense. How could someone be an expert in both medicine and military defense?

Lesson 2: We believe we have a lot of knowledge, but we don’t and that’s dangerous.

In reality, this problem befalls all of us, however. That’s why we talk so much about <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/mistakes-were-made-but-not-by-me-summary/">cognitive biases </a>on Four Minute Books. To help us think a little better. One of them is what Harari calls ‘the knowledge illusion.’ Basically, we think we know a lot more than our ancestors when, actually, we know less in many regards .

For example, we all rely on many experts to live our everyday lives. We can’t hunt our own food, build our own shelter, or make our own clothes. We think we’re smart, but just because we can <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/tubes-summary/">access all the world’s knowledge </a> doesn’t mean it’s already in our head. Instead, we should <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/ego-is-the-enemy-summary/">stay humble </a>, be thankful, and do our best to <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-art-of-learning-summary/">never stop learning </a>.

Neil deGrasse Tyson once gave <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbb8evErl34">a great speech </a>on the value of knowing how to think vs. just knowing what to think. Sadly, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/creative-schools-summary/">our schools </a>only teach us the latter. Even higher education still very much centers around cramming as many facts into your head as you can, only to spit them out once on a piece of paper, then forget them again. That’s a problem.

Lesson 3: School needs to start teaching us how to think, not what to think.

A basic understanding of history, biology, math, and other subjects is important, no doubt. But beyond that, it’s more important that we learn how to navigate the modern sea of information, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-signal-and-the-noise-summary/">how to filter out the important </a>, and how to determine what’s downright false, than just remembering more facts.

With more data being created now in a single year than the past few millennia combined, <a href="https://medium.com/four-minute-books/the-cost-of-being-an-employee-83c048814ee7">future workers </a>won’t need to know as much as possible, but how to find out only that, which they really need to know. For our kids to have a thriving future, that’s what we must teach them how to do.

I’d rather read one book like <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38820046-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century">21 Lessons For The 21st Century </a>  each year than consume any news. With this, you know about everything important that’s going on and can decide how to act on which information. Some topics, you won’t think further about, others might even change how you raise your kids. With <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38820046-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century">21 Lessons For The 21st Century</a>, <a href="http://www.ynharari.com/about/">Yuval Noah Harari </a>once again captures interesting aspects of humanity in enlightening stories. A truly informative read.

21 Lessons For The 21st Century - Book Review

21 Lessons For The 21st Century - Book Summary 

This 21 Lessons For The 21st Century summary explains why technology disrupts all our systems, how it makes us feel smart, and what our schools must change.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

21 Lessons For The 21st Century Summary

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49127551-2030">2030 </a>uses the current trajectory of the world, based on sociological, demographic, and technological trends, to outline the changes we can expect to happen in our lives by the beginning of the next decade.

2030 - Book Summary 

"Breakthroughs occur not when someone works within the established paradigm but when assumptions are abandoned, rules are ignored, and creativity runs amok."-Mauro F. Guille

If you told someone in 2019 about everything that would happen in 2020, they might not believe you. Who could’ve predicted this one year would bring a novel global pandemic, raging wildfires, a stock market crash, and worldwide racial justice protests, and much more? In these unprecedented times, it’s more important than ever to have an idea of what’s coming so we can prepare. Of course, things like a pandemic can’t really be predicted. But there is a way to make informed predictions about some things that might be headed our way.

In the book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49127551-2030">2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything </a>by <a href="http://www.mauroguillen.com/about/">Mauro F. Guillen </a>, we get informed predictions of where today’s trends will put us by the year 2030. Using a range of current demographic and sociological trends along with new technological advancements, Guillen gives a convincing portrait of what the next decade holds for our world.

Some predictions include a drastic demographic change because of low birth rates, increased middle class, increased female <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/7-strategies-for-wealth-and-happiness-summary/">wealth </a>, climate change that will affect city life, and exciting technological advancements. His detailed predictions will give you a great resource for preparing for the exciting and not-so-excited changes coming our way in the next decade.

<ol><li>Our world will never be the same again because of declining birth rates. </li><li>In 2030, women will have more than half of the world’s wealth. </li><li>Cryptocurrency will continue to rise in popularity, and by 2030 we might tap into its full potential. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Ideas 

A little more than 50 years ago, many people were worried about the prospect of overpopulation. With the declining birth rate, this isn’t as much of a concern for most people. Guillen argues that what we should be worried about in the next decade is actually the opposite: a baby drought.  Since the 1970s, US women have, on average, had fewer than two kids each. So basically, we don’t even have enough children to replace the current generation at the current rate.

Lesson 1:  Declining birth rates are making our world change permanently.

Why does this matter? Some people might say that this could be a good thing because of our planet’s limited resources. However, the economic system we have is reliant on the next generation if we are going to take care of the elderly. Their taxes are desperately needed to help foot the bill for the aging generation’s pensions.

The reason the birth rate has declined dramatically is that there are more women in the workforce.  Because those women are actively working, they are more likely to wait until they are established in their field before having children. Because fertility drops with <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-age-of-cryptocurrency-summary/">age </a>, they tend to have fewer children if they decide to start a family.

But that’s not the only reason. People are also having less sex. The Archives of Sexual Behavior published a study that found that in the 2010s, Americans had sex nine times less per year on average than in the 1990s. Why? Part of this has to do with the fact that technology means we now have many more enjoyable distractions in our homes. Sex is just one enjoyable thing we can choose from to do on a night in.

But not every country is experiencing this drastic decline in birth rates. There is currently a population boom in sub-Saharan Africa. The author says this will have two effects in the next decade. Because this part of the continent relies on imported food, markets for food and developing agriculture in this area will become a trillion-dollar sector. Second, Western nations might have to change stances on immigration because they might need to bring in immigrant workers from this area to care for and fund the huge growth in retirees.

The 2030 Summary explains the speculation of future by using the current trajectory in the world, and outlining changes we expect to happen.

2030 Summary

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