American Thinker-
This summer, George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four turns 70 years old, and that anniversary has prompted a surfeit of articles analyzing the book and its continuing relevance to our age.
There is no doubt that the book is one of the most consequential political novels ever written and ought to be on the reading list of every conservative — not because Orwell was himself a conservative (he remained a man of the Left until his death), nor because the dystopian world that Orwell described turned out to be prophetic.
“The image of a boot stamping across the human face,” in Orwell’s memorable phrase, is an accurate depiction of present-day North Korea or China, but is not really an apt description of the U.S. or Western Europe, societies that have fallen into the kind of soft despotism described by Alexis de Tocqueville, but well short of the dystopian nightmare foreseen in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
However, the novel remains prescient in its depiction of two key elements of modern-day political correctness conceived of and promoted by the Progressive Left: the war on language and the war on memory.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell focuses on an individual living in “Oceania,” a socialist society comprising the present-day nations of England and the Americas. In the novel, Oceania is abandoning standard English, which is referred to as “Oldspeak,” and is adopting “Newspeak,” a limited vocabulary designed to restrict thought.
Orwell understood that words enable thought and thought enables action. If there is no word for something, it makes it hard to think about it. This is an ancient insight — the Bible speaks reverently of “The Word.” more here
Eric Blair learned his lessons the hard way. First as a British Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, fighting for the Socialists against Franco’s Fascists Forces, and then against the Communists in Barcelona. He barely got out of Spain alive, but he got to experience what happens when any group of fanatics start enforcing their political beliefs on the majority without regard for opposing viewpoints. He would probably be attacked and banned from social media for telling the truth about the Leftist who are rewriting our country’s history on this seventieth anniversary of his most famous book. Paging Winston Smith! The Progressives want to help you comprehend their political correctness.
I remember reading the book in 1984 while traveling in Germany. I remember the part where one of Winston’s coworkers was describing Newspeak, and that when it was fully adapted by the masses, two conversationalists would sound like two ducks quacking at each other.
A decade later I watched James Carville arguing with another guest on a news show. They were both frothing at the mouth and talking over each other. They actually sounded like two ducks quacking at the other.
I believe Orwell had a time machine.
The domestic left’s unrelenting assault on US culture and language over the past half century has turned the US into a country that could once land men on the Moon to a country without a functional space program where no one can safely claim in public that some crazy man who cuts his dick off isn’t, in fact, a female.
The left needs to be put down like a rabid dog. The US will never recover its greatness without a relentless and bloody civil war against these psychotic mental defectives and sociopaths who have taken over our culture, economy, and most of our government.
Inspirational novel. After reading it in 1984 I decided to have my feet fitted for boots.
I would add the ability to monitor the population to things Orwell got right. Monitors and screens that can transmit as well as receive. Monitors and screens everywhere. Security cameras everywhere – not the mention the ability to send drones virtually anywhere. Finally, and perhaps most importantly the fact that cell phones are handy tracking devices, and everyone has one.
Orwell painted these invasions of privacy as things citizens didn’t want but had to endure; however, our younger people willingly submit to this.
I suggest reading David Eggars book The Circle, it tells how people voluntarily put own their own chains through social media and peer pressure. Just remember to replace The Circle with Google. Then Orwell’s 1984 is just a few years away.
1984 was meant as a warning. Not a blueprint.
I had a long time uberlibtwit friend – now former – who replied when I asked him if he’d reread 1984 recently, “1984 came and went! NOTHING happened!” That’s pretty close to when he became “former”…