I don't know if Orwell was a prophet, a genius, or just lucky at guessing the future but he hit many bulls-eyes and there are many things we should learn from "1984". Cams everywhere = London today, and done with the implied consent of the people. Cams at home = malware and your laptops and phones. Elon Musk and I know the value of electrical tape (He's intelligent though I don't claim to be
). We've seen many media stories where history was altered, and in American schools today there have been several cases where textbooks were inaccurate and only discovered some time later. And while not altering history directly, schools and textbooks try to change history by showing the perspective they want you to see while hardly mentioning vastly different perspectives of the people who lived through those events. This is especially so with electronic media and textbooks which are easily spoofed or altered.
What differs is that in "1984" the government was doing this openly, while today it's not necessarily governments doing the altering and in most cases it's being done clandestinely
Those who understand human psychology can see where and how this is happening, and where even the supposed protection offered by the masses having instant input via social media can be used as a tool to alter society. People and groups are doing this for profit and for power. And it's happening right now
I'm not one of the paranoid conspiracy theory types who sees evil lurking in the shadows everywhere. I question my own self as much as I do anyone else. But the truth is that there are various groups who are trying to control society and the future by altering what is said and seen of the past. There's no need to lie if you can cause someone to believe you by omitting or glossing over opposing viewpoints. And the more that you can reduce the number of information sources, the more easily this can be done. Nowadays almost all information comes across the internet which has in some ways become the "Ministry of Thought". We have to have a "Snopes.com" to dispel errata. We're being played for suckers and the percentage of people like that is increasing daily. It's a scary thought
One example of how we're being played is in the recent "Zombie" craze. History and science proves there are no such things, but billions of dollars went toward defending against them, and many people now have an honest belief that they exist. People were (and are) so focused on them that they missed almost everything else going on around them. People are drawn away from reality by gaming and social media. Whether that was the original intent or not is irrelevant because those who desire to control others now see how to do it, and how easily it can be done.
Orwell got it right except for the timing and we'd darn well better learn to see the truth of what is happening in our world if we are to avoid the larger excesses he wrote of. If we don't, we all will be "Proles" sooner than we think
Phil