George Orwell's America

I just got done reading both George Orwell's Animal Farm, and 1984. Both are fantastic stories about government run amok (is there any other kind?), and the destruction of personal liberty. I can do nothing but recommend these books.

Both books relate a terrible tale, almost an outline, for how a minority of people can use government and the military force that goes along with it, along with horrendous abuses of personally liberty in order to take over the vast majority and remain in absolute power. Both books are almost the same story just put into different words - Animal Farm is almost a children's version of 1984, using animals and a lack of discussion of sex and torture (although a few animals get their throats ripped out). Both books were written in an effort to show the truth of socialism, and the horrors of communist rule. 1984 was almost censored and not published because England was seeking an alliance with Russia at the time. And Both stories drop epic bombshells in the last paragraph of each book (no spoilers, I promise!).

Of course, both stories were to be satires and metaphors for the Communist take over of Russia and neighboring states. But the stories don't have to end with Russia - the true message of the stories is that of how a totalitarian leader takes over a country and establishes his tyranny.

As I was reading them, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the books and the current status of the US. I'm sure I'm not the first person to take note of this, and I surely won't be the last, but I must type what is. Surely comparing the US to the totalitarian states represented in Orwell's works is a bit unfair - I am fully confident that life today in the US is fantastically better than life under Communism - but there are nonetheless relevant and accurate comparisons. These comparisons show that the US may be slipping down the slope into totalitarian government. This article will discuss such a slope.

It is relevant, also, to point out that the US Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, but (as I discuss in other articles) the federal government is the only entity that is really allowed to define what the Constitution means. For example, while Article 1 Section 8 gives a clear and concise list of powers to Congress, and the 10th Amendment clearly states that this short list of powers is a complete list of powers, Congress regularly usurps powers not delegated to it and when challenged does not give up the newly acquired powers.

Here is a short list of important aspects of both books and their terrible similarities to real life.

Three Nations and the Unkillable Enemy

In both stories there are three nations. In Animal Farm there is the Animal Farm, Pinchfield farm, and Foxwood farm; in 1984 there are Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. At all times in both stories there is always an alliance between two, and one being the enemy - however which two are in the alliance and which is the enemy is always changing. This concept is a major point in 1984, as Winston Smith (the main character) is almost sure that the nation that Oceania is at war with changes, but his government always demands that they have always been at war with Eurasia (then later Eastasia, and then again Eurasia - Winston is correct). In Animal Farm Napoleon regularly changes which farm they are at war with and which farm they are friendly with.

Whenever the friendly nation changes, the main enemy of the state is said to be involved. This is the most important part: when Oceania realizes that it is 'really' at war with Eastasia and not Eurasia during Hate Week, it is immediately announced that the evil Goldstein was responsible for the mistake and that Oceania had always really been at war with Eurasia; and when the tyrannical leader of Animal Farm, Napoleon, realizes that it is in his best interest to switch allegiances (for prosperity of trade and other business reasons) it is immediately announced that the evil Snowball is preparing an army, or some other nonsense, on the new enemy farm.

But what relevance is this to the US?

There are three major 'nations' relevant to the US - the US, the ally, and the enemy. When we were preparing to invade the enemy of Iraq there was the coalition of the willing, we now have the entire world fighting against our enemy terrorism - a military tactic- and now Iran is on the table. The enemy we were (are) at war with changed (changes) frequently, and so did (do) our allies: remember freedom fries? why did we hate the French?

While, in reality, the 'main enemy' of the US doesn't really move from country to country, there is (was) a constant focus of who the enemy was; the person didn't move, but the concept of who our enemy was always did. At first it was Osama Bin Laden and his band of terrorists, then it was the Taliban, and for some completely unanswerable reason, it was also Saddam Hussein in Iraq, for a while it was even the French. There is even some talk, now that Iraq is off the table, of Iran ('some' is an understatement).

As America revved up its nationalism and brought its Army out of its 'sleep' (it was never asleep), the enemies of our leaders constantly changed - 'Kill Osama' quickly and immediately turned into 'those damned Taliban', quickly changed to 'Hussein is an evil tyrant!', we even heard 'those damned French', and, now, we are preparing attacks against Iran and Pakistan.

The evil leader and his location, is always changing.

But the most relevant part of this discussion is that the same person can be an ally and then later become the threat. Just as Oceania was allied with Eurasia but later declared it had never been allied with Eurasia and that it was actually at war with them, the US had been allies with Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Iranian dictator, and even the French! But now we hate them all and don't even talk about the relevance of why we changed sides or for what purposes we changed allegiances, or even if the policy of switching allegiances is a good one, or even if the idea of alliances in general is a good policy: we just say 'we are at war with X - ignore the fact that we were once allies'.

This is the most shocking similarity between George Orwell's work and our current and continuous situations throughout the world.

Your Papers

This argument is only relevant to 1984. As Winston Smith discusses how the people are kidnapped or abducted by the Thoughtpolice, he always mentions that they 'ask for your papers'. I feel that this is a very important aspect of the book, and to my argument in this article.

Why are 'your papers' important to tyrannical governments? Well, obviously, any government that has total information over its subjects also has total control over those subjects: the government would know where you live, who your family members are, your food allergies, where you work, and just about any other relevant piece of information that might be required for taking away your liberty. Anonymity is a very important aspect of liberty - just ask every ghost-writer who was afraid of retaliation from their critical works.

Why is this relevant to the US?

Well, for starters, every 10 years the federal government sends out a census to learn amazingly unimportant facts about you. The only real purpose of the census is to be a head-count to know how many people live in which districts so as to allow the House of Representatives accurate representative power - each state is allowed a number of representatives based on population. It is also relevant to the original Constitution, in Article 1 Section 9 the census is mentioned as the only way to apply direct taxes - but the 16th amendment destroyed this. The census, however, has come to be a gross invasion of privacy. If you fail to answer the questions, you are fined. If you fail to answer the questions accurately you can be convicted of a felony (these fines are unconstitutional, by the way - remember the 5th Amendment? ...good times...).

Here is a quick sample of unnecessary information that the Census demands. How is any of the following information necessary to the operations of the federal government? -it demands that you provide names, sex, birth date, race, ethnicity, other residences, and other information of people that live together in the residence. It also, just for kicks, asks for your telephone number.

Also relevant to this discussion is the recent discussions of the RealID. Once again, this is a power that is no where delegated to the federal government in our Constitution, and it stinks of totalitarian government. Basically, a RealID will be like your drivers license, but with far far far more information on it - there is even a provision in the legislation to allow your biometric (DNA and Thumbprints etc.) to be included on your ID!!! - and it will be required at just about all times - when you get busted by the police, they will undoubtedly be demanding your RealID. One of the major 'reasons' we 'need' the ID is because of terrorism - the ever changing enemy of our state happens to be terrorism, and this is the reason why Big Brother should take away our freedom.

"Help me help you!", demands the stern face of Uncle Sam, "I just want this information to protect you from the ever changing evils of this world!"

... perhaps terrorism, Hussein, Iran and all the other enemies wouldn't be an issue if we hadn't interfered in the first place? ...

Language

Throughout both stories language is an important theme. The animals who can read (the pigs and a few other animals) have amazing authority over the other animals. In 1984, language is such an important theme that it is discussed at length in the appendix. The Ministry of Truth attempts to create a Newspeak so as to render it impossible to make remarks against Big Brother and absolutely render it impossible to express certain unpatriotic feelings.

The US government has been involved in loosely similar activities. 'Enhanced Interrogation' really means torture, but it sounds much less horrible. 'Freedom Fries' emerged as a kick at the French for not blindly following us into Iraq. And even though our government is supposed to be chained by a constitution, the meaning of the words of that document are regularly changed to completely conform to what the government in power wishes - 'General Welfare', which originally had little to no meaning now has come to mean that the federal government can do anything it wants in relation to the welfare of the population; 'interstate commerce' has come to mean that someone growing marijuana in their backyard for their own private use can be regulated (even though the plant is illegal) by the federal government because it might interfere with interstate illegal marijuana trade.

The Benefits of being the Leader

Also, in both books, the leaders are treated fantastic by comparison with the general populace. The pigs get beds, clothes, whiskey, and better food. The members of the government in 1984 got to have just about every luxury imaginable while the people were practically starving.

Today, while the federal government is demanding universal health care, Senators, Representatives, and the President all get some of the best health care, for life, available at the expense of the population's taxes.

Torture

Both books cover the issue of torture, and the US is currently involved in torturing people.

'nuff said on this issue.

Propaganda and the Populace

In both stories the populations are utterly obedient to their state and they both have utter faith in their leaders. Orwell fantastically shows why and how this is a horrible thing.

In Animal Farm the population blindly follows that which its leaders demand. Whether it be that the leaders get better food, shelter and treatment, and even if the benefits the leaders are granted goes directly against the seven commandments, the population allows it. Throughout the story, whenever one of the animals is about to challenge the benefits or change in rules benefiting the pigs (the leaders) they are always drowned out by the propaganda of the sheep' bleating "Four legs good, two legs ba~ad!".

Thankfully, in the US we do not have government enforced media. But how well has our media done in challenging the state's positions? We were all led by outright lies about WMDs and other travesties throughout the Bush administration and not only was it a rare thing indeed to hear or read about the lies, but not a single person was directly held responsible. Bush, Cheney nor Rumsfeld were ever impeached throughout the whole ordeal! The leaders in power twisted the information and lied to the public through the media, and the media just spat the lies right back out at us without even attempting to analyze them. Now we have almost a carbon copy with Iran. Everyone is talking about how the Iranian government is working on nuclear weapons, there is not evidence for such a claim, but we just hear the statement regurgitated by our 'independent' media.

Yeesh!

In 1984, Orwell repeatedly describes events of raw patriotic displays by the government, such as Hate Week, along with the sheer eagerness of the population to hear from the government. They have a daily 5 minute hate, where the enemy of Oceania, Goldstein, is broadcast over the telescreen to all of the population while they shout hatred and rage until - suddenly - the glorious image of Big Brother returns to the screen to restore order and establish dominance. And everyone eats it up and goes nuts with happiness and displays of sheer love.

Notice how similar this situation is to the image I've included with this section. The stabilizing patriotic Uncle Sam showing pride and power; his larger-than-life image displays nothing but confidence over the adoring crowd below. The crowd is completely engulfed in cheering and love at the sheer sight of Uncle Sam.

Fear of the Government

In both books, the populace eventually succumbs to absolute fear of bad-mouthing the government. This fear is established by militaristic means (Napoleon's dogs, for example), 'confessions' of 'enemies', and spies throughout the population (the thought police and the telescreen).

The last part of the list is the most relevant to the US today. Every time anyone boards a flight in the US, their luggage is searched ruthlessly, they are questioned repeatedly, sometimes for no reason whatsoever except for the US government enforced mandatory random checks. And more recently the passengers bodies are checked, now more so than ever, what with the naked radiation bombarding scanning techniques being implemented.

But not just these travesties are being forced upon us by our Uncle Sam. We also have our phone calls monitored thanks to the patriot act. Our homes can also be searched without a search warrant, and many other heinous acts can be carried out against the US population - and no one seems to care.

These abominations against liberty all are meant to use fear to keep the population from committing crimes and expressing dissent against those in power.

In Conclusion

This article was written only to show the disturbing similarities between the tales of tyrannical governments taking over the populace by George Orwell, and the current state of affairs of the United States of America.

Beware of Big Brother.