I started reading this feeling great, I thought “here’s an author who understands what it is to learn and to grow.” Then I got about half-way and started to smell the bait and switch.

I am glad that 1984 is still required reading in some schools. It’s excellent at illuminating just how programmable and malleable the human mind is and the kind of agent best equipped to leverage that power with frightening efficiency: the individual. While many drone on in their lives constantly on autopilot, I am glad to have known both young men and young women demonstrate the capacity to spot an old narrative and understand that all it takes to give it power is to say yes to it.

A man has no use for narratives or sweeping generalizations, a man needs virtues, discipline and honour and another man to kick his butt when he begins to slip.