A lot of people say that this film shows the manipulation of people by authoritarianism, but in my case, it's not very successful, it falls into the mold of the old narrative. Criticize authoritarianism, believing that the manipulation of people by authoritarianism is absolute and irresistible. In essence, this kind of thinking still rests on the criticism of the Nazis under Hitler's rule by the intellectuals of the world in the 1950s. Whether or not this is the case cannot be interpreted unilaterally. I'm not denying the film's punch, but it certainly has a flaw.
One of the most salient places is, how do parents become culturally totalitarian? This process, the film simplifies, does not describe in detail, just says that through the manipulation of media (language, communication channels, video), the child's cultural life is manipulated. But does the child simply accept the control of the parent? If it is a child who has never been out of the house since childhood, we can understand it, but if it is a person in a country, they have history books and huge cultural materials, then how can they be manipulated? Every publication is scrutinized? The situation in 1984 simply won't happen, at least for the foreseeable future, and I don't see the possibility of it happening. In addition, because of the age of network information, it is difficult to detect each piece of information. Even if the leader detects some words, people will still look for alternative words, river crabs, homophones, abbreviations in the Chinese context, which are all opposed to the manipulation of cultural life.
Therefore, it is easy to see that what the film describes is not fully applicable to the real society. It simplifies certain processes and pushes it to the extreme.
Gramsci's cultural hegemony reminds us to pay attention to the cultural process, he believes that before one group can replace another group, it is necessary to win the approval of its culture from the governed. From this, we can see many phenomena in the Chinese context, such as the rise of Yang Li, why is it at this time? We can see that the popularity of Yang Li is the cultural preparation of the movement because the women's movement must first gain a position on the cultural level. Resistance and negotiation are constantly taking place in the field of culture. The Chinese Crab language is one of the biggest criticisms of this film. We can see that the language is not so directly and passively imposed on the recipient. It will also be resisted by means of homophony, abbreviations, etc.
Saying that doesn't mean I agree with certain ways, the issues the film raises do exist, but it can't be overly pessimistic. It is necessary to have this vigilant awareness in the heart, but not to deny everything radically.
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