GEORGE ORWELL 1984

 

 

THE EQUIVALENCE IS STARTLING

George Orwell’s 1984, published in 1949, portrayed a democracy taken over by an oligarchic government headed by a charismatic con man. 

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

 

“The enemy of the moment always represents absolute evil.”

 

If all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became true.  Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

 

Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version.  A great deal of the time, you were supposed to make them up out of your head.

 

The aim of the high is to remain where they are. The aim of the middle is to change places with the high.

 

It was still true that men were not equal in their native talents and that functions had to be specialized in ways that favored some individuals against others.

 

Imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages, and the deportation of whole populations – not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.

 

In the past, no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.”

 

Doublethink: (reality control)

Thou shall not kill, but glorification of war heroes.

New Speak: (propaganda)

designed to diminish the range of thought

 

“The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty.  To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any facts that have become inconvenient.

 

We know that no one ever seized power with the intention of relinquishing it.  Power is not a means; it is an end.”

 

Orwell warns that a totalitarian government can successfully manipulate the minds of a large population to the point where a person can think the opposite of what is true.  Trump and his Republican Ing Soc have accomplished this with MAGA.

We are nearly there

2+2 = 5

the Ol'Buzzard