Orwell's 1984: "The Lottery...was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention"

[brentspeak]

A lottery to keep the masses pacified. Does the public play the lottery -- or is the public being played?

http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/orwell/1984/8/

1984, Chapter 8

...They were talking about the Lottery. Winston looked back when he had gone thirty metres. They were still arguing, with vivid, passionate faces. The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made a living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the running of the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everyone in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being non-existent persons. In the absence of any real inter-communication between one part of Oceania and another, this was not difficult to arrange....

[FirstLight]

1. ...

many things today mimic the lottery as well... anything that offers us a easy way out of our prole lives, right?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Oh but we actually have good COMMS

In this version of Oceania.

[DaveJ]

3. Get yer gambler's amulet right here...

http://www.calastrology.com/gamblers-amulet.html

It's troubling to me how most humans are barely evolved beyond the level of the chimpanzee. Democrats really have a rough road, because we want to support everyone, including the idiots, but half of those idiots vote against us in elections just out of sheer meanness. People in my office jumped at the opportunity to put their money into the lottery, with no understanding of the statistical improbability of winning. That money could have helped someone pay for someone's food for a week, or better yet a book explaining rudimentary logic.

[bart95]

4. I think you're reading too much into it

i think it's about easy money for state governments, period

[DaveJ]

5. I think that was Orwell's point as well

Easy money that relies on the blinding ignorance of the populace. Not a good direction to take.

[jimlup]

6. I always think of this paragraph when lottery mania hits... n/t