"1984" in 2026: America at 250

The novel 1984 seems particularly relevant as America turns 250.

Published in 1949, George Orwell's work was prescient. Along with Anthony Burgess's later novel A Clockwork Orange, 1984 became a classic of dystopian fiction, exploring themes of totalitarianism, paranoia, and the loss of freedom of expression. It also helped coin the term "Orwellian," which describes situations in which Big Brother, the government's overseers, are watching.

I read the novel in high school and found it dull. The concepts of loss of freedom and mind control felt distant, vague, and irrelevant.

I got more enjoyment out of “1984,” a fast-paced song thematically inspired by Orwell's novel, from David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs:

Someday they won't let you, now you must agree
The times they are a-telling, and the changing isn't free
You've read it in the tea leaves, and the tracks are on TV
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984

Today, under our flag-hugging, orange leader, nationalism is regularly confused for patriotism. Free speech is under attack. Big Brother is, indeed, watching.

Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth” rewrote history to align with the political narrative of those in power. Sound familiar? 

Reflecting pool renovation a fiasco? Blame vandals.

Tiny crowds at the Great American State Fair? Don’t believe your eyes. Fox News and Karoline Leavitt, the blonde, mendacious Minister of Propaganda, claim it's packed.

Lost an election? It's fake news. The other side cheated.

Then there is cruelty, which is used as a means of submission and as an end in itself in 1984. Of all the reasons I detest our current administration, from its corruption to its hypocrisy, its love of cruelty is at the top of the list.

It once seemed so remote. While visionaries like Orwell and Bowie understood the government's capacity for absolutism, the rest of us were just exploring themes that did not pertain to life in America.

I never imagined us living in a perpetual 1984. Its jaw is indeed savage.

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