Mystery of writers who predicted the future
George Orwell (real name-Eric Arthur Blair) was an English novelist and journalist who died in 1950 at the age of 46. Orwell is well-known for two of his books, ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. Published in 1945, ‘Animal Farm’ is a satiric work and subtle critic of the then Soviet Union and its dictatorial leadership. […]
Mystery of writers who predicted the future
George Orwell (real name-Eric Arthur Blair) was an English novelist and journalist who died in 1950 at the age of 46. Orwell is well-known for two of his books, ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.
Published in 1945, ‘Animal Farm’ is a satiric work and subtle critic of the then Soviet Union and its dictatorial leadership. Orwell predicted the demise of Socialism. In one of the quotes attributed to him, Orwell said that, “in my opinion, nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of socialism as the belief that Russia is a socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated. And so for the last ten years, I have been convinced that the destruction of the Soviet myth was essential if we wanted a revival of the socialist movement.”
Some 39 years after his death, Orwell’s prediction came to pass with the crash of Socialism in Russia and China and some other Communist nations, beginning from 1989.
In ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, Orwell tells a fictional story of certain fusion of powerful nation-states, controlled by the ‘Big Brother’ political party. After the publication of this book in 1949, totalitarian rule appears to be the norm today, worldwide, in the guise of democratic rule, and the notion of the “Big Brother is watching you,” has tended to strip many nations of their independent status.
In 1849, author Morgan Robertson, from the United States of America, wrote a book which centres around a fictional biggest ship in the world then, Titan, and how it will sink.
Several years later in 1909, in faraway Belfast, Northern Ireland, Thomas Andrew designed and built what was described as the biggest ship in the world then, the Titanic. Andrew was quoted as saying during the launch of the Titanic in 1910 that, “not even God can sink the Titanic.”
But two years later in 1912, the sinking of the Titanic took place during its maiden voyage. The ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic, killing 1,500 passengers on board.
Sayyadi Qutub, an Egyptian, born in 1906 and executed in 1966, was a foremost Islamist, scholar and one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood movement at the time. A prolific writer, Qutub criticised not only the West but also the Arab world, accusing the latter of returning Islam to the Jahiliyya days (pre-Islam era). He advocated an Islamic state based on the Hakimiyya, an Islamic order with God as the Supreme legislator, through strict enforcement of the Muslim Shari’ah law.
The Arab Spring phenomenon that began several years after his death remains a testimony to Qutub’s earlier prediction and advocacy of violent and forceful take-over of Islamic governments wherever they exist in the Arab world.
Many writers have predicted the future which came to be true. The one millionth question is, who is the seer, the PEN or the writer?
Danjuma Katsina is an author and journalist. He is the Publisher of online newspapers Jaridar Taskar Labarai and The Links News. He can be reached at 08035904408, [email protected]