WASHINGTON, DC, Jan 4 — Is America experiencing a new “Orwellian Era?” Think about it. “Orwell feared that a failure of Western democracies to stand firmly against communism would result in a rapid capitulation, leading to the end of freedom as they knew it,” says author Shawnna Morris in a feature entitled, Orwell’s “1984”: How to Misread a Classic. The piece was published a couple of years ago on the Foundation for Economic Education [FEE] website, but it resonates today in the early days of the “woke” movement.
When Orwell wrote the book in 1949, the cold war was in its early years. Russia, under Joseph Stalin, was consolidating its gains from World War II, which included its takeover of the greater part of Eastern Europe to create the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]. In Orwell’s book, he wrote about Oceania, which fictitiously consisted of North America, South America, the British Isles, Australasia, and southern Africa.
“Big Brother” was in charge and controlled his continental citizens by redefining words and rewriting history similar to the wokesters of today. Just a few weeks ago Stanford University announced its “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative [EHLI],” an Orwellian sounding resource, if there ever was one. Among the “initiative’s” recommendations is to stop calling ourselves Americans because it insinuates “that the US is the most important country in the Americas.”
Stop saying “immigrant,” instead say a “person who has immigrated, according to the EHLI protocol under which it’s also not nice to use the term “beating a dead horse.” Why? Because it promotes violence against animals. The list goes on, suggesting you shouldn’t call a heterosexual person “straight” because it “implies that anyone who is not heterosexual is bent or not ‘normal’.” Duh? It goes on and on. And, by the way, do not refer to the EHLI as a “seminal” work because “the term reinforces male-dominated language.”
David Johnson is a communications expert. His take on the political correctness of words is that progressive elements in our society are redefining the words we use as a means of indoctrinating our youngest citizens. He’s quoted in a recent Newsmax feature as saying that the left is seeking to indoctrinate our children. The idea, he says, is to make them “think this way, and use these words, and it will become common knowledge. The ideas they are advocating, beyond the use of words, are perverted. They are more alarming. They are trying to take away America.”
In other words, it’s an Orwellian way to overthrow the America we know, the America that revolted, fought for the independence of its citizens and showed the world that a free country is a productive country, a caring country. The ideas that the progressive left are introducing to our children is a way to sow the seeds of a different kind of rebellion, one that seeks to turn future generations into slaves of the state. “The ideas they are advocating, beyond the use of words, are perverted. They are more alarming. They are trying to take away America…We used to see, in the past, even with the left, that they still believed America was a special place. Today’s liberals don’t,” says Johnson.
Kalev Leetaru penned an article for Forbes magazine some time ago. It focused on the wake-up call America needs about now. It is a lesson that needs to be taught to our youngest citizens if we are to Make America Great Again. As Leetaru put it, “in the end, as we rush towards an ever more Orwellian world of surveillance and censorship, perhaps we might all take the time to reread 1984 in order to better understand the world we are rushing towards.”
No need for bullets in the next American Revolution, words will do the trick, as George Orwell might say.
John Grimaldi served on the first non-partisan communications department in the New York State Assembly and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Priva Technologies, Inc. He has served for more than thirty years as a Trustee of Daytop Village Foundation, which oversees a worldwide drug rehabilitation network.
Orwell tried to warn the world of the various means Marxism could be subtly introduced and then permanently instituted into society. His goal was to try and warn / educate the free world, so they would NOT fall for the siren song of socialism / communism. Unfortunately, he didn’t take into account human nature and its tendency to ignore most subtle threats until those threats have manifested themselves in much harsher and direct terms. By then it comes down to either standing up and pushing back to stop the now immediate and clear threat or simply choosing to submit, through either apathy or a simple lack of will to stand up to the threat.
It seems most Americans have opted to go with the latter option. As it is obvious we, as a nation, are moving rapidly to adopt many of the tenets of socialism / Marxism here in the United States and there has been little to no pushback. Society as a whole seems to merely shrug its collective shoulders, grumble a little bit and then roll over waiting for the next shoe to drop. Put simply, soft times tend to produce soft men and soft men become easy prey for those pushing a socialist / Marxist message.
People who become used to a lack of any real, sustained adversity over time lose the ability to spot a potential threat early on in its appearance. This can be called a lack of situational awareness on a societal scale. So the threat is allowed to fester and grow unchecked. Year after year. Decade after decade. To gain ground and spread through a larger and larger portion of society over time, until society itself considers socialism or Marxism perfectly acceptable and actually preferrable. That is pretty much where we now find ourselves today. Sheep being led to the inevitable slaughter.
Here we are in 2023, and 1984 in Full Force with more destruction of Freedoms on the way.
All because Americans don’t know their U.S. Constitutional Rights and are too lazy to Fight for their Freedoms.
As I said before. You don’t FIGHT for yourself and your Freedoms then you deserve what you get.
Welcome to 1984.
No one wanted to touch 1984 which speaks volumes of cow towing to Stalin
I had a English teacher in high school, early 1970s, who had us read 1984, F451, Brave New World. To him, long past now, I wish to thank him again. He saw and knew the American people beginning to trade freedoms for what they thought were lives of luxury and perceived safety. The authors and my teacher were also historians. In class we studied the rise and fall of the Roman’s, and other society’s who have fallen to socialism and Communism. Today is almost a replay in the America so many of us love.
I read 1984 and Animal Farm a number of years ago, and they are real eye openers. Also, if you recall, Khrushchev stood in front of a United Nations gathering in, I believe the early 60s, and told us that Russia would conquer the United States without firing a bullet. He said the population would gravitate toward communism, and there was nothing the U.S. government could do to stop it. How foolish that sounded at the time, and how accurate it is becoming now. What a shame, a country that has so much for which to live, is pouring itself down the drain.
Prophesy??
The question is, “Why are they so blatant in their Big Brother role adoption?” It’s evil is commonly known.
It’s not Big Brother I worry about, it’s Globalism. Climate change to the extreme. Climate engineering. The world has become a giant mixing bowl with countries in Europe and North America being over run by millions of illegal immigrants. Not all refugees. Well dressed, using expensive luggage, accompanied by their children and their pets. They were invited by our compromised president Some of these populations will never be compatible with our Christian or secular attitudes and that will lead to a lot of crime. The most strident. Islam. One of the most dangerous, Soros.
Samuel Adams warned in 1776, “How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!”
We are “NOT” a democracy, but a compound REPUBLIC. You will not find democracy anywhere in our Constitution. So please stop calling America a democracy. It is WE THE PEOPLE,