1984

 Prior to the Mosquito fire, Linda and I were in Monterey for a birthday celebration .  While there, with concerted effort, we found an open bookstore .  While browsing, we purchased George Orwell's 1984.  Orwell's novel predicts despair, hopelessness and the loss of other human qualities for the future of man. Hopelessness is accompanied with the loss of human values such as justice, love, individuality, identity, friendship, trust, integrity, well being and good will.  Orwell was not the first to predict  about the future of man. Others, like Thomas More's Utopia; Campanella’s City of the Sun; Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward; Zymyatin’s We and Huxley's Brave New World depicted positive utopias of self-confidence and hope and negative utopias such as powerlessness and hopelessness.  This disquisition addresses Orwell’s warnings that  exist today.

In 1984, Winston Smith, in a state of consciousness, struggled with his loss of  individuality and meaningless existence. He’s alienated, stressed, insignificant ,impotent, alone, loveless, while being manipulated by a mass suggestion or hypnotic like state reinforced by fear, mistrust, suspiciousness, oppression, hate, and torture . He’s  aware of his powerless  state of being. Consciousness of  his reality was accurate and not a rationalization  Every day Winston was subjected to the telescreen with hypnotic brainwashing focusing on the enemy of the state.  Emmanuel Goldstein's acts of sabotage, deviations, heresies were displayed.  Everyone was brainwashed to  hate  him and supposedly knew about his evilness.  Winston was terrified that he might reveal his repugnance or betrayal.  If suspected, by anyone, that would be the end of him.  He avoided and hid from the telescreen when he could. He was stone faced and protected against facial grimaces. Body language signs  might give him away.  He could trust no one.  As a result, he was always on guard, suspicious and paranoid.  He knew, if discovered, that would be the end of him.  There would not be any trace that he ever existed  and he would just disappear. Everyone was expected to hiss and boo at the sight of Goldstein. Even Children turned in their parents. Big Brother's goal  was simply power with the unlimited ability to inflict cruelty, pain and suffering onto all others. 

Truth was ambiguous, elusive ,non-existent as it transformed  one’s reality. The Party controlled truth and therefore reality. Further, truth became a slogan.  These slogans were  illusions as well as contradictory.  For example, 1.  War Is Peace.  2 Freedom Is Slavery and 3 Ignorance Is Strength.  If so many believed Big Brother’s slogans, they must be right as one did not dare doubt the source.

In 1984,this dictatorship  was constantly at war.  Can an economy foster and thrive without the massive excessiveness of arms production? Production was necessary for its survival.  The messaging ,of course, was that the government was fearful of being attacked.  How can one dispute Big Brother ? On a similar note, our country has the most excessive defense budget spending in the world. We justify that  these arms, equipment and  outlandish expenditures of money are  keeping us safe. Safe from ? 9/11 happened. Are the NATO countries keeping the world safe?  Or ,did NATO’S military treaty alignment provide  fear, justification or rationalization  for the Russians to say  they were threatened by NATO. Thus, their invasion was for defensive purposes  and therefore they had to engage in war to keep themselves safe?  George Orwelll referred to double talk as doublethink.

Another powerful message provided by George Orwell was related to truth. Is there truth or is truth only the reality provided by Big Brother ?  Big Brother decided what was true and therefore  controlled the truth narrative.  Did Big Brother make the people happier while suppressing  others?  That was not their goal nor was it a by-product.

Doublethink thinking is the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, while accepting both of them.  A group of people were told that Trump won the 2020 presidential election even though he received 7 million less  popular votes and significantly less or 232 Electoral College votes.

With doublethink, one no longer says the opposite of what is true, but thinks the opposite of what is true.  Slavery is Freedom is one of Orwell’s examples Today , citizen Trump, his allies, social media and TV blames the” other” for election fraud. Yet, loser Trump , and his cronies, were involved in eight different fraudulent schemes in attempting to keep him in power. Therefore, we have a discrepancy between the truth and falsehood. We have a big lie. There are plenty of scapegoating falsehoods such as the evilness of the Democrats. Biden, Hillary , LGBT, Blacks, students receiving tuition forgiveness, abortion ,voting by mail  etc are repeatedly disparaged.  Giving , generosity, honesty ,truth and providing are Christiam values ,are they not? These lies  are just words that protect the elites in power. Therefore, hate becomes the norm and  a common ground consensus.

Big Brothers messaging is repeated over and over again without deviation.  If the messaging turns out to be false, it is reworded and the original eliminated and never to be found again. All books, periodicals and the like are constantly being revised  as if that messaging never  happened.  There is no accurate history.  The narrative is clear. Citizen Trump ran a fraudulent university( 25 million judgment against him) and foundation( 52 million judgment against him). He claimed, prior to the election, that the voting  results were going to be  fraudulent .That lie continues to be repeated . He’s a fraud!  He unlawfully stole and took top-secret government documents to his resort. Messaging, repeated everyday, by him and his allies falsify reality and suggest  he’s done nothing wrong, they were safely stored or some other falsehood .  The repetitions ,distortions and lies continue. False messiah Trump’s reality are both his and his followers' illusions .

Are we a nation of law and order?  Is there anyone  above the law? The past president  has been above the  rule of law?  However, there are many lawsuits going on , in different  parts of the country , involving the ex-president. Will  this twice impeached president face  incarceration for his criminal behaviors? On the other hand,  Brannon's past presidential pardon is not working well as the State of New York is prosecuting his fraud.  Did loser  Trump’s followers believe in the role of the police?  Apparently, only when police kill Blacks for minor offenses, but  not when attacking the capital  on January 6.  In essence,  Orwell suggested, there is no independence, law, order ,justice, rationality, or truth in a totalitarian political state ruled by a tyrant power. And submission  to a false idol results in man’s alienation. He transfers his powers and becomes more dependent on the idol .Then his capacity for developing his humanistic potential and ability to engage meaningfully with others also diminish.