The fact is that we are shockingly close to the world of 1984. Two minutes hate, newspeak, and our smartphones are telescreens on steroids. Orwell was frighteningly prophetic.

Orwell wasn't prophetic but was a reflection of the world as it already was is 1948. That's what I learnt at school.

Then the message is even more dire: the world has always been a dystopia. And even 70+ years later, with more (and better) education, higher standards of living, and a wealth of dystopias to read and learn from, nothing has changed.

To add some details, he worked for the BBC during wartime - that was the inspiration for the job in the truth ministry of the main character in 1984. Basically inventing the truth.

"than" not "then"