The oddest thing about 1984 is how the education system ( at least here in the US ) has turned it into a warning about the soviet union when it was in fact a warning about the west. Animal farm was about the soviet union. 1984 was about the west. And yet we are taught over and over again that 1984 was about the soviet union.
George Orwell worked as a propagandist for the BBC during ww2.
"I was wasting my own time and the public money on doing work that produces no result. I believe that in the present political situation the broadcasting of British propaganda to India is an almost hopeless task."
Orwell based the Ministry of Truth and Room 101 on the BBC. And yet the BBC is building a statue for Orwell for his work as a "journalist" at the BBC. What an insane world we live in. The BBC is co-opting Orwell to burnish their own reputation, even though Orwell criticized and warned us about the BBC. You have to respect the hubris even if you disagree with the misrepresentation.
But it makes sense the west tried to reframe it. Otherwise Londoners would have been highly skeptical of the mass installation of CCTV and nationwide disarmament.
Poor George. He'll get a statue as the "godfather of our peaceful watchful state" and not for warning us.