The first time I read "1984" was during the "smoking gun" talks that congress was having about Iraq. I was amazed that in a classroom of thirty people I was the only one that was drawing the parallels between the novel and the then current political climate. That's when I realized that very few people have meta-cognitive abilities and are able to learn from past mistakes whereas others are doomed to constantly repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Orwell was in tune and aware of political thought like no other and it is a shame there aren't more like him during modern times.