By Nancy Thorner -
In the novel “1984,” written in 1948, George Orwell presents a dystopian society of our world that at the time was almost unthinkable
The book was to be a warning to future generations, but apparently has become an instruction manual.
Following are ways that our current world and Orwell’s fictional world resemble each other:
- surveillance cameras everywhere
- the state of perpetual war
- language shortcuts similar to what is termed “Newspeak”
- rewriting history
- reliance on fake news or “alternative facts” as a means of controlling public opinion
- sex without love and marriage
- disposing of the elderly & infirm
- the government is the only truth
“Newspeak” is a language that includes words cut off and shortened, then strung together to create new words. The intention is to limit the usefulness of language to remove words that allow people to think and speak about revolution thereby preventing them from revolting against the wicked government ‘BIG BROTHER.” [Texting today and the trend for new pronouns for homosexuals comes to mind.]
One of the main components of the novel are the Telescreens that emit continuous government propaganda that also have cameras watching all the people even in their homes. The primary character in the book “Winston” is employed to edit news reports to reflect the propaganda the government wants the people to believe while rewriting history books. He creates imaginary people as witnesses to validate his new reality. The 1984 government is engaged in trying to get the people to only believe what the Party ‘BIG BROTHER’ says, not what they know are facts based on evidence.
In today’s “2022” fake news alternative facts have become the new norm. It’s so common Facebook has created strategies to fight it [but Facebook is screening truth], while they spread false information [like Covid]. Fake news is so commonplace that even the media reports it as factual.
Government leaders have always attempted to manipulate the truth in their favor. Without an insistence for accountability and a culture where truth is valued and logic used for debate instead of propaganda, we could lose the ability to tell reality from falsehood [we may already be there].
In 1984, Winston asks, “How do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable, what then?”
In the novel no attempt is made to counter even such obvious contradictions as “Black is White”, “2+2=5”, or “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.”
Today, it’s up to us to prevent our thoughts and beliefs being influenced by false propaganda and to insist that our leaders avoid using fake news and alternative facts as an easy way to win favor over their opposition, for example the 2020 election, the Russian/Ukraine war, and the Covid hysteria?
*Excerpted and adapted original full report from Natalie Frank here.
Note: Kindle Version of the 250 page novel available at Amazon for 99 cents … paperback for $7.00 here.
*Excerpted and adapted original full report from Natalie Frank here.
Note: Kindle Version of the 250 page novel available at Amazon for 99 cents … paperback for $7.00 here.
