“1984” was intended as dystopian sci fi, not as prophecy and most emphatically not as a playbook for one of the two major political parties. But times change. “1984” was published June 8, 1949. It was a post WWII anti-war manifesto about a war on two fronts, the physical war taking place and the war on truth, which made the continuation of the physical war possible. The war on truth was literally a war on man and Orwell’s vision for the future was “imagine a book stamping on a human face — forever.”
However much the book and two movies might have blown your mind, you probably never believed that so many of its precepts would manifest in America. Yet here we are.
#OnThisDay George Orwell’s epic “1984” was published. He was concerned about fascism and the “disappearance of objective truth”
Witness the impact of right-wing “Big Brother” brainwashing on truth. Orwell was meant as a warning, not a Republican playbook.pic.twitter.com/RL7LWhLctz
— Bryan Dawson (@BryanDawsonUSA) June 9, 2021
The only difference between the world of “1984” and where we are right now is that the guardrails of democracy held and we were able to narrowly avoid a fascist dictatorship in this country in 2020 — and make no mistake, that’s what it would have been. Trump would have done everything to clobber his enemies and we would have been finished as a major power on the world stage.
The good news is that democracy held. The bad news is that the Big Lie and disinformation continue on and if we don’t do something to eradicate them both, they may very well eradicate our way of life.
The MAGAs don’t understand who their idol is or the damage he really did, or the damage that somebody else just like him can do. And it will be way too late before they ever wake up.
For me the definitive version wasn’t either of the movies but the BBC TV version of 1954. I was still at school and we had only recently acquired a single channel 17″ 405 line goggle box and watching Peter Cushing as Smyth and Donald Pleasance as Syme was an eye-opener
Well, we did have a fascist dictator for a few years and very well could again. It just cracks me up that I grew up being told how the godless communist lied to their people. Pompoopoo was just on the tv telling me how tough Donnie was on Russia. Republicans have destroyed truth and may have destroyed democracy and civilization throughout the world.
Sad but true. And republicans continue the big lie every chance they get.
So there’s only one big lie?
Orwell understood how language could be used to distort or even hide the truth. In 1984 the politicos used Newspeak to talk about events, eerily similar to GQP big lies. People were even encouraged to take it a step further with the repetition of slogans rather than engaging in actual discussion, and approvingly called this Duckspeak.
” War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” George Orwell, 1984….any questions?