Orwell wasn’t the only prescient author, nor the first. Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, Franz Kafka’s “The Trial”, H. G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”; all reported the encroachment of government into private lives, as did many others. At one time it was a new phenomenon, almost a fad to be dwelt on and examined, as it was so new. Early Twilight Zone episodes, series like “The Prisoner”, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, were investigations into political and psychological possibilities. Movies like “Brazil”, or even “Casablanca”. The subject has lost its appeal due to its ubiquitousness and commonality. What was once new and interesting as a subject becomes banal with repetition and acceptance. The political machinations that made Metternich, Bismarck, House, Goebbels, Dulles, and even Kissinger exceptional are commonplace now, and there is little remarkable about business as usual. Don’t discount the possibility that you are subject to the political reality of “1984” unbeknowingly. The success of totalitarianism is in the acceptance, whether active or passive, of its constrictions. The best prison is one that does not feel restrictive to the prisoner. To be a prisoner without knowing that you are, or providing incentives that make you want to be imprisoned, represents the ultimate success of totalitarianism, and a hundred years of refinement has certainly created a model that serves the purposes of governments well. Propaganda, revisionist history, nationalism, sectionalism, political divisions artificially created, and the creation of “them” work together to manipulate the citizenry ( a term used to describe the subjects of a country: citizenship connotes informed collusion) into manageable and controllable unit. Orwell served in the Spanish Civil War. He describes how both sides used misinformation to describe battles that never occurred while ignoring decisive battles that did occur, medals given to nonexistent recipients, military movements and actions that were completely created out of whole cloth, all to manipulate the perceptions of the public and the world. Hitler did the same thing when colluding with England and France on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, describing in radio broadcasts riots and lawlessness that did not exist in order to justify his rescue of the Sudeten Germansfrom non-existent threats from Bolshevik Czechs. Woodrow Wilson, with his establishment of the Creel Committee, whose sole purpose was to propagandize the people of the United States to support United States entry into war with Germany, established a precedent of using an official government entity to influence support for policies that he knew were unpopular with the public. 1984 was occurring long before 1984, and it’s refinement and implementation has methodically and effectively progressed and still is progressing. The threats to its continuation are represented by the likes of Eric Snowden and Julian Assange. When they are no longer threats, totalitarianism will have been fully implemented.
