I have a friend who is a secondary school English teacher, is fact she's the head of department, and some of the stories she has told. Too many of her students rely on "spellcheck" and as she always says, spellcheck is the worst thing in the world as it only checks spelling not grammar, so if the grammar is incorrect it won't pick it up....but going slightly off topic but kind of staying on topic, the other day on the news was a report that they had put a camera in a tree on Hampstead Heath to "catch people who were indulging in anti-social behaviour".

Now in the Orwellian epic that is 1984, there are a number of similarities with todays society

1984 Eurasia, East Asia, Oceania 2008 The East, The West, The 3rd World (aka the developing world)

1984 Teleview (from memory long time since I read it now) 2008 Webcams

1984 The Ministry of Truth responsible for propaganda 2008 Spin Doctors and all Govt' Depts in general of course (before they send the Thought Police for me)

1984 Newswrite/Newspeak 2008 Txt spk (this is where we stay on topic English is an evolving language)

Now also in 1984 Winston and Julia went off in to the woods to "do the deed" and their conversation was picked up by microphones hidden in the trees....so how close are we to the Orwellian vision of the future or are we still a free society......Which is why I mentioned the camera on Hampstead Heath which is actually overlooking a pavement and main road I hasten to add, not the more errr "notorious" parts of the heath.

Remember BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU (well DCMAG are anyway )

better go think the thought police are coming down the road........

The bit of 1984 that stays with me and seems to me to have echoes for today is how the mass of the population were kept sedated with cheap mass market entertainment that kept them amused and left them with little inclination to revolt against their rulers.

When I look at most newspapers, TV progs, popular magazines, adverts, I think of Orwell's story. So much of what you read or hear isn't wholly true (if at all) or else is silly and irrelevant and designed to tempt you to consume madly.

Sometimes it seems that the more print and programmes we see the less actual information is out there (at the very least it's hard to find in among everything else). And it's so much easier to think about something fun rather than the state of the economy or global warming, isn't it?