“2 + 2 = 5″. quote from Winston Smith in George Orwell’s novel, “1984.”
Orwell’s “1984″ was written to warn us of the dangers of totalitarian government. Written in 1949, this is a novel based on the author’s experience in Spain and Russia before the second world war.
In the novel, the authoritarian government of Oceania was headed by “Big Brother.” It is amazing how Orwell was able to predict many elements of our 2022 culture.
Big Brother used two-way television to keep track of everyone. Your television had to be on 24/7. The people never knew if they were being monitored or not. Our society today is being watched by thousands of video cameras. They range from our own front door-bells to parking lot cameras, speed cameras and cameras in stores. Even closer to Orwell’s two-way television are the phones we all carry wherever we go. When we use our phones, and personal computers, “Big Tech” is constantly recording our every activity, email and text message. Apple and Google are storing all this data. We have no idea what they are doing with it beyond selling advertising based on our activity.
In the novel, “1984,” Winston Smith, and thousands of others, worked in the Ministry of Truth. Winston’s job was to actually delete all record of events and people that Big Brother found inconvenient. Winston would replace deleted history with new facts, based on the current party line. By the way, there were no printed books or newspapers and all news was broadcast. The people had no way to record the news. It was all maintained by the Ministry of Truth and available only from that source.
This was a way to control all records of reality. If a person was no longer useful, all records of his birth, education, family, jobs, etc. could be erased at the Ministry of Truth. The person ceased to exist.
We do this in our nation today by “cancel culture.” We tear down statues, re-write history textbooks and delete tweets and Facebook posts. When this is done, we have a new reality, or history, of events. The writer of the tweets or the owner of the Facebook page has no recourse. After all, big tech is a private enterprise. Today, only the government, and the telephone company, are required to allow free speech.
In the novel the government was constantly eliminating words that could be used to describe things and events. It was called Newspeak. Only words in theNewspeak” dictionary could be used in government, correspondence, business and in newscasts. This was a great way to reduce the things discussed in the media or even privately. The goal was to eliminate any means of dissent.
In our society today we have many new words being introduced we are required to use, as well as some we can no longer use. These are words we use to describe things like gender, social goals, criminal activity and every day conversation. We must take great care to avoid offending anyone.
Big Brother had absolute control of the government, social activities, information and the lives of the people. Big Brother could shut down or restrict: stores, churches, social interaction, schools, government offices, bars, restaurants, entertainment venues and sports activities or require masks and vaccinations. Does any of this sound familiar? Certainly, a free, democratic, constitutional government like ours would never be able to take any of these actions.
In the novel Big Brother continually announces that production of goods and services is at an all time high. Despite this optimistic announcement, Winston and others notice, for a while, that it has become difficult to find these goods and services in the stores. It does not matter, because the price of everything seems to be getting higher. They must be wrong, however, because Big Brother continues to reassure the people that prices are at an all-time low. Because all the media repeats the same news, all the time, people come to believe the pronouncements of Big Brother.
When Winston started to doubt the official government announcements, he was arrested and tortured. Winston endured the torture for a long time, but he finally admitted that Big Brother was right; “2+2 does equal 5.”
The price of gas in Creston was $1.86 a gallon on Jan. 20, 2021, and now sells for $3.79 a gallon. Our president says his policies will continue to reduce the cost of gas.
Mike Lang, Chairman,
Union County Republican Central Committee.