2020 Theme: The Future We Want - Resources

What does the future you want look like? What’s standing in the way? How can we work to realise a better vision for our future together?

George Orwell wrote to alter perceptions on the kind of future society we want. In 2020, the Orwell Youth Prize asked young people aged 12 -18 to decide that future.

Journalism, essays, short stories, blog posts, poems, and plays were all welcome. Like the future, responses to the 2020 theme was their choice. These resources, however, were used to provide that initial spark, and we hope they will continue to assist young writers articulate their vision of the future.

George Orwell and the Future

An Online Workshop – The Future We Want Now

Delia Jarrett-Macauley – Creative Writing Prompts and Ideas

A Message to the Orwell Youth Prize Entrants from Richard Blair, George Orwell’s Son

The Future We Want – Covid-19

Reading Recommendations

WHY ORWELL?

‘To take a rational political decision one must have a picture of the future’

(George Orwell, ‘Arthur Koestler’, 1944)

‘Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache…whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.’

George Orwell – ‘Can Socialists be Happy?‘ 1943.

‘One often has to aim at objectives which one can only very dimly see.’

George Orwell – ‘Can Socialists be Happy?‘ 1943.

‘Political purpose – using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.’

George Orwell – ‘Why I Write‘ 1946

‘All revolutions are failures, but they are not all the same failure.’

George Orwell – ‘Arthur Koestler‘ 1944.

It makes sense to start with the man himself. Orwell wrote in a time of momentous historical change and critically engaged with the intellectual current of his time. Grand ideologies competed for dominance, where capitalism, communism, socialism, and fascism were pitted against each other on the international stage. His contemporaries were deeply optimistic about the potential for the seemingly relentless advance of technology to reshape human society and, in consequence, human nature itself.

Orwell is best remembered today for his satirical account of totalitarian regimes and his sceptical approach to the motivations underpinning utopian visions. Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) offer dystopian accounts of failed utopian projects and act as a ‘warning’ for his contemporaries. Orwell, however, never lost his faith in the possibility of a more humane society. His writing aimed ‘to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.’

If you are interested in learning more about Orwell’s writing on social change and the future, you can read a more detailed account here.

THE WORLD TODAY

Today we tend to share Orwell’s scepticism towards grand utopian impulses and prefer to allow each of us to decide our own futures. However, we are currently living through uncertain times that impact our collective future. The climate crisis, divisive politics, deep inequality, and technology’s irreversible impact on society forces us to consider a question that pervades Orwell’s writing: what kind of society do we want to live in?

We have included a few links below for you to explore the factors that define how we approach this question. We will update this list throughout the course of the prize, but your reading should not be limited to the list below. Be inquisitive and critically engage with news items and articles you read. Most importantly, keep questioning the world around you and be radical in your solutions.

CLIMATE CHANGE

FIRST STOP OUR CLIMATE CHANGE RESOURCE

Extra ideas…

Read

Greta Thunberg’s Speech ‘You Did not Act in Time’

RSA Resources on Climate Change

Nine Original Poems on Climate Change

Listen

Naming and Shaming the Polluters (The Guardian)

Are Extinction Rebellion the new Suffragettes?

Watch

Samsa – Anthropocene ft. Atlas