Using 1984 in social reasoning

Abstract

The book "1984" from George Orwell is the locus classicus for what can be called "dystopia" : a dark vision of a possible future. The paper argues first that some charateristics of the Oceanian society of Orwell make it rather unsuited to represent a plausible future for today's societies. Then, the paper goes on proposing that the continuous success of the book may lie on a misunderstanding : people probably appreciate its particular "conspiracist" stance. The paper concludes proposing that if it is so difficult for sociology to discard straightforwadly conspiracy theories, it is probably because main epistemological efforts within recent sociology have converge to reintroduce intentionality within explanation and that the core of conspiracy theory is precisely an overestimation of intentionality in the explanation of the world