It's pretty clear to me (by triangulating his other written output) that 1984 was based on the notion that if cheap rifles produced Liberté, égalité, fraternité, then nuclear triads would produce oligarchies.
If the drones are going to be doing all the fighting now, I sure hope they eventually get the vote? [I'm still curious what the arabic in "Malak" (2010) says]
I eventually figured (even if not syntactically obvious, eg 02014) that 2014 was 5774/1435; thought my excursion into Social Choice Theory had ACK'ed? — or had I picked the wrong rabbit warren?
EDIT: and Veblen had a shack in La Honda; I don't know what that area was like then or what it's like now, but to me LH says drum circles, dazers, and funny smelling cigarettes that just don't stay lit.
[& you might even want to check that Cicero didnt precede Galois by more than a full millennia?]
(guessing the Rolfes were such)
[also, a Lesser Edwardian age of lit 1944-1948?]