On 25 June, the birth anniversary of George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair, we remember a writer whose words continue to feel urgent in the modern world. Orwell was far more than a novelist. He was a political thinker, essayist, and critic of power who wrote fearlessly about imperialism, poverty, inequality, dictatorship, propaganda, and the corruption of truth. His writing came from lived experience and moral clarity, and that is why it still resonates so strongly today. Orwell did not merely write about the problems of his own century; he wrote about patterns of power that repeat themselves in every age.
The modern world often presents itself as democratic, progressive, and free, yet beneath those promises lies a disturbing concentration of power. A small class of political elites, corporate owners, financial powers, and technological giants increasingly controls land, wealth, resources, information, and influence. Governments speak of development while ordinary people struggle for jobs, dignity, housing, and basic security. Wars are fought in the name of peace, markets are praised in the name of freedom, and inequality is normalised as if it were an unavoidable fact of life. The powerful continue to accumulate more, while the majority is left to carry the burden of inflation, conflict, unemployment, displacement, debt, and social instability. This is the world in which Orwell’s warnings remain painfully alive.
1984 remains relevant today because Orwell’s vision of surveillance, propaganda, and the manipulation of truth no longer feels like distant fiction. In a world ruled by digital technology, governments monitor citizens in the name of security, while corporations collect data, track behaviour, shape opinion, and influence choices through algorithms and platforms. Truth is constantly contested by misinformation, media spin, political slogans, and manufactured narratives. Language itself is twisted so that war becomes security, censorship becomes protection, and exploitation becomes reform. Orwell feared a future in which power would not only control people’s actions but also their understanding of reality, and in many ways the modern age of surveillance, disinformation, and narrative control looks disturbingly close to that warning.
Animal Farm remains equally relevant because it shows how revolutions, promises, and political ideals can be hijacked by those who seek power for themselves. Orwell’s fable of the animals who overthrow one form of oppression only to end up under another still reflects the modern political condition. Leaders rise by speaking the language of equality, justice, and people’s welfare, yet once in power many become indistinguishable from those they once opposed. The slogans remain noble, but the system becomes one where the elite enjoy privilege, wealth, and control while the common people continue to labour, sacrifice, and suffer. In today’s world, Animal Farm can be seen in governments that betray public trust, in corporations that preach progress while exploiting workers and resources, and in global systems where a few continue to feast while the many are asked to endure hardship.
It is precisely here that Orwell’s warning becomes even more significant. Animal Farm is not merely a story about one revolution; it is a warning about how revolutions can be corrupted when power becomes concentrated in the hands of a few leaders. Throughout history, in many countries that fought for freedom and revolution, countless ordinary people and courageous leaders sacrificed everything—their livelihoods, their families, and even their lives—to overthrow oppression and build a more just society. Yet, after victory was achieved, the promise of equality often faded. A small group gradually took control, becoming increasingly similar to the rulers they had replaced. Instead of serving the people, they expected obedience, accumulated privilege, and preserved power, while ordinary citizens continued to struggle under new forms of inequality. The faces changed, but the concentration of power remained. Without always realising it, many people today possess less control over their own lives while those at the top possess far more wealth, influence, and authority than ever before. This recurring pattern is exactly what Orwell warned against: when power is allowed to concentrate unchecked, the ideals of revolution can be transformed into yet another system where the few rule over the many.
One of Orwell’s greatest insights was that oppression does not always wear the same face. It may appear in openly authoritarian regimes, but it can also survive inside democracies that are hollowed out by money, media control, and elite influence. It can live inside corporate monopolies that control communication, in political systems that reward loyalty over truth, and in economic structures where wealth flows upward while suffering flows downward. Orwell understood that when truth is weakened, language is corrupted, and power becomes concentrated, ordinary people lose not only material security but also the ability to resist.
Perhaps that is why so many people continue to read Orwell: not because his books offer easy solutions, but because they expose the hidden machinery of the world we live in. 1984 and Animal Farm force readers to confront how power really works — how truth is manipulated, how fear is manufactured, how wealth and resources are controlled by the few, and how ordinary people are often left with little real power to change the larger system. For the common person, the harsh reality is that one cannot single-handedly defeat these structures of control. What one can do, however, is refuse to live blindly: to understand the truth, to protect oneself and one’s family from unnecessary harm, to share that truth with one’s near and dear ones, to think critically rather than obediently, and to live with dignity, awareness, and health in a world shaped by greed and deception. And perhaps that is where Orwell still matters most. If you have not yet read 1984 and Animal Farm, read them now — and read them not as distant classics, but as books that can help you recognise the patterns of the present world more clearly.
That is why Orwell’s birth anniversary is not simply an occasion to celebrate a famous writer; it is a moment to reflect on the world we have built. His works endure because they speak to the central crisis of every society: who holds power, how truth is manipulated, and who pays the price. In an age of surveillance, propaganda, corporate domination, war economies, and widening inequality, Orwell still reminds us that freedom is fragile, language matters, and truth itself can become a battlefield. To read Orwell today is to recognise that the struggle he wrote about is not over. It is still being fought — in politics, in media, in technology, in the economy, and in the daily lives of ordinary people trying to hold on to dignity in a world increasingly designed for the benefit of the few.
Finally, remember this:
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
(In today’s world, we are constantly told that all human beings are equal, yet the structures of power around us often prove otherwise: some live above the law, above suffering, and above consequence, while the rest are left to bear the burdens of inequality, exploitation, and control.)
