1984. A novel by George Orwell that has transcended its age and so profound in its descriptions of a totalitarian state that it has literally added several words and concepts to the American English language. The Orwellian Society was one so obviously devoid of freedom that it is an obvious caricature whose purpose is to make the reader recoil and know without a second thought, regardless of their personal politics, that this society is simply wrong. We are meant to feel this in every fiber of our being, because otherwise we might be confused. You see, the citizens of the Britain, because, yes 1984 is set in a much changed British landscape, are happy. The citizens are happy. The country is powerful and prosperous. The issues presented by the novel aren’t ones of happiness or prosperity, they are of freedom and individuality. They are of those issues so near and dear to the American heart that almost universally they are spoken of with reverence and positivity. Orwell’s world has long been a rallying cry for privacy advocates and the penultimate warning and example for doomsday and totalitarian fear mongers who thrive on exaggeration and slippery slopes. This comparison has become so common place that we dismiss it out of hand as hyperbole. This essay is not about Democrats or Republicans; nor liberals or conservatives; nor Tea Party, Green Party, Independents or Libertarians. This essay is about American values. Not big or small government or even the separation of Church and State, but basic essential, and inalienable rights. This essay is about freedom, privacy, and what we value as Americans. We have all heard the term “pursuit of happiness”. For this essay I will define that as “the right of a person to be themselves without infringing on the rights of others.” These are all values our founding fathers embraced and that we, as Americans, cherish. Each of these values are demonstrated in the documents left to us. Freedom: liberty, a word written constantly leading up to the Revolutionary War. Privacy from the government, as evidenced by the 4th Amendment against unreasonable searches and again in the prohibition against quartering of troops in private homes. Individuality; the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence. I am saying all this because what I am going to discuss next is not about politics or colors; but the threat that silently grows in our very own hearts and minds against these values we so deeply cherish. I beg and plead that you look beyond party politics and recognize the danger we face, whether or not we like where the danger comes from. With that said, we discuss what creates the world of George Orwell. In 1984, a series of steps have progressed through history which permit the otherwise gross overreach of power by the US government. The most important and first step is an endless war with a myriad of opposition. The state of perpetual war allows the government to curtail privacy and elements of free speech in the name of national security. At the same time, a wartime economy satisfies the masses with general economic health and dependability at the price of the lives of American soldiers. This entire process is overseen by a new bureau in the government called the Ministry of Peace.
The second pillar to the Orwellian world is the Ministry of Information. The Ministry of Information controls the hearts and minds of the citizenry through the media. In an admittedly clever tactic, the media systematically uses known and recognizable words and phrases in manners not quite, or in some cases, the opposite manner as the actual definition, even to the point of oxymoronic phrasing. This process, called “doublespeak” simultaneously erodes the confidence the public has in non-government information sources while brainwashing the public into belief, at times fanatical, in the leading powers. Doublespeak takes advantage of the tendency of people to dismiss and disregard things even suggestively labeled with pseudo-negative or implausible terms. These include mood sensitive terms like “could”, “might”, or “alleged”, possible” and “hypothetical”. By subconsciously eroding the trust of information with such titles, they can make a fact into a theory, a theory into a suggestion, and a suggestion into a lie. Doublespeak is the most insidious, and consequently, the most dangerous of the tools at the disposal of the Orwellian government.
The final ministry in 1984 is the Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Love is in charge of rooting out dissenters or perpetrators of “thought-crime”, which is the harboring of disloyal, distrusting, or doubtful thoughts and feelings toward the government. The ministry finds these “thought-criminals” and forcibly “re-educates” them until their belief and patriotism is reintegrated. Finally, when a “thought-criminal” is deemed unable to be reformed, they are instead eliminated.
Upon first glance, the world of 1984 seems impossibly extreme and unbelievably far away. In 2001, America suffered from an act of extremism which changed the face of the world. As a result, the government passed the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was an unprecedented expansion in government surveillance and power. It allows emails to be read for using a long list of keywords in the same letter. It allows private citizens to be monitored based solely on demographic information such as who they know or where they have been. The President at the time declared a “War on Terror” which 19 years later, continues to this day. “The War on Terror” is by definition, a perpetual war. Terrorism is an idea, which cannot be killed, cowed, or coerced. It cannot sign a peace treaty. Halfway through this time, Americans learned of a government program that created living, near perfect information profiles for every citizen in the US called “Meta-Data”. At the same time, we learned the same agency had created a program that literally copied every online action and website users of affected Internet Service Providers made, without warrants, notice and indiscriminately. These egregious invasions of privacy were revealed by one of the most vilified and controversial figures of the second decade of the twenty-first century, Edward Snowden. The second program is called “Prism”. Both of these programs were created “in the name of national security” by an agency, the NSA (National Security Agency), that reports to a bureau also created alongside the Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security.
In 2016 an American president described numerous articles of dubious origin as “fake news”. This was done until the majority of Americans recognized and used the term as something false. Then, without warning, the same man began using it to describe anything he disliked or disagreed with. The subconscious result is a tendency to disbelieve and disregard anything thus labeled regardless of whether it is true. That is exactly the use of doublespeak. Likewise, when an investigation into possible external interference with the most important decision making process in the most powerful country in the world was occurring, he described it as, first a hoax, then when it appeared he might be blamed, a witch hunt. A hoax is a prank, typically false, that is popularized into a rumor and possibly then into news. A witch hunt is a baseless search for a perpetrator to blame for misfortunes. The entire intelligence community, Republic and Democratic alike, former and current, agreed that an intentional attempt to influence the presidential election of the US likely did occur. That is not a prank. That is not a misfortune, nor a rumor, nor a made-up story. Calling it a hoax, fake news, a witch hunt, etc. is not merely inaccurate, it is doublespeak, specifically used as doublespeak is in 1984. In 2020, the same president described an impeachment hearing, a process so important it is described not in the Bill of Rights, but in the Constitution itself, as a hoax. An impeachment may be many things; an attack, an insult, a weapon but to refer to it as a prank? As something unworthy of solemn consideration regardless of the outcome? More doublespeak. It is possible that the President is not doing this damage on purpose. It is conceivable that the systematic damage to the American psyche is incidental and careless. However, I submit that intentional or not, a president who does such progressive and active damage to the American people must have the time of his power minimized lest his careless impact cause more lasting harm. However, should it be intentional, then America is one amendment repeal and one major security crisis away from becoming the happy, prosperous Orwellian society, peacefully cheering the establishment of its Ministry of Love. Does that sound so unbelievable? The repeal of the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, the sole barrier preventing indefinite executive tenure, would fundamentally alter the balance of power during a crisis, whether external in origin or politically exploited.
“The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”- George Orwell