Is it “1984” yet?
It’s all right there in black and white. Schools closed. Paintings removed. Government spying on private citizens. Poverty and hunger on the increase. Jail for incorrect speech.
Did I just read these in this morning’s paper? No, but I could have. Actually, they are themes from George Orwell’s chilling dystopian novel “1984,” which I just re-read for the umpteenth time.
“1984” was written in 1949 and describes a world in which fear and absolute control are used to force individuals to conform to mandatory political orthodoxy. Orwell’s dystopia is a world in which individuals have absolutely no control over their own lives. They live in fear and misery, only to serve the state. In Orwell’s country of Oceania, there is no individual human spirit, hunger is ubiquitous, and those who do not comply are “vaporized.”
Orwell’s book was a warning about totalitarianism. It is relevant today because we are watching our freedoms being eroded on a steady basis.
The defining features of the totalitarianism that Orwell’s dystopia highlighted, and that are evident today, are pervasive propaganda, often masquerading as news, designed to destroy people’s understanding of reality, and societal groupthink focused on eliminating critical and independent thinking at all levels of society.
Orwell’s book is important because “1984” is a portent of where we are heading in this country. An out-of-control mainstream media, subservient to the political left, dumbed-down education destroying critical thought, and a seemingly impenetrable political elite.
In “1984,” the state consisted of three components: the “Inner Party”, the true ruling class, which was less than 2 percent of the population; the “Outer Party,” of educated workers, which was 18 percent to 19 percent of the population, and the proles, or working class. This bears an eerie resemblance to the political structure of our country today. We have a small, elite group that seems to control virtually everything with impunity, is seemingly above the law and is beyond the scrutiny of the public. The “Outer Party” is the bureaucracy that surrounds the elite, privileged and powerful. The proles are what the left regards everyone else to be. Useful cogs. Human units. Undifferentiated workers intended to serve a function as defined and assigned by the state.
In “1984,” Orwell introduced some ideas and terms that are part of our vocabulary today such as “newspeak,” “doublethink” and “thought police.”
Newspeak is easily identifiable in today’s world as the distorted reality presented as a result of bending language and torturing the meaning of words. Newspeak stripped down the English language to limit its capacity to be used for free thought, to restrict rather than broaden ideas. When words are removed from the language, not only do the words disappear but their concepts disappear also. In Orwell’s nation of Oceania, for example, when “freedom” is removed from the language, the whole idea of freedom cannot exist. Look at what we do with today’s expressions such as OMG, ASAP, RU, DINK, FYI, LMAO, IMO, TMI and so on. Consider the medium of texting itself as a limiter of expression and, therefore, thought.
Doublethink is pervasive. With doublethink, one can accept two mutually contradictory beliefs at the same time as correct. That is the way people are conditioned to ignore reality and embrace some clearly false narrative. Orwell used such expressions as “war is peace”, “freedom is slavery” and “ignorance is strength” as official slogans of The Party. In “1984”, the Ministry of Peace is charged with waging war and the Ministry of Love is charged with political torture. In today’s world, “women’s health,” for example, is all about murder of the unborn and the Department of Defense wages our wars. The Ministry of Truth in “1984” is charged with changing history books to fit party ideology. Doublespeak is the foundation of authoritarianism.
Thought police are the forces of political correctness that use everything from shaming to lying to thuggery to lawsuits to force compliance with the newspeak and doublethink of their choosing. Orwell could not imagine today’s abilities to intercept virtually every phone call, email or text message to track citizens. His “telescreens” pale by comparison. We have “security” cameras on doors, stores, intersections, roads, cars, stadiums and everywhere you can imagine, many capable of facial recognition and individual tracking. Retailers and online sellers know what you buy, what you look at and more or less what you think. Police departments use intelligent systems to “predict” criminal intent. This is thought-policing Orwell could not even imagine.
As we are currently witnessing on our college campuses, in our media and around our nation, the goal of political correctness is to narrow the range of thought, to channel it completely into what its adherents regard as “acceptable modes.” They are not seeking discourse or discussion. They are seeking to totally silence those with whom they do not agree. As in “1984,” the current agents of Big Brother seek to have those with opposing views silenced, arrested or fined. Can Big Brother’s “vaporizing” be far behind?
In case you have not guessed by now, the current agent of Big Brother is the progressive liberalism of the New World Order of George Soros, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and their fellow travelers.