Garland County GOP

To the young people around us those words are likely meaningless. To my generation they are terrifying! George Orwell’s classic novel “1984″ was first published in 1949 as his vision of a post WWII socialist/fascist world. Time Magazine recently listed it as among the best 100 English language novels published in the last 80 years.

In the book the governmental language “Newspeak” twists words to conceal their meanings. The “Ministry of Peace” conducts war, the “Ministry of Love” conducts torture. “Big Brother” is the symbol of government which constantly watches everyone to assure compliance with its ever changing manipulation of society. There are signs everywhere stating, “Big Brother is Watching You” to control people by reminding them of pervasive and invasive surveillance by the government. Even children are indoctrinated to spy on their parents to detect possible “thought crimes” which were the most onerous of crimes in the society. Hmmmmmm. Kids at school encouraged to rat on their parents? No wonder home schooling is becoming so popular these days.

The term “Orwellian” can refer to many devious things. It can refer to any totalitarian government action to control and pacify the population, but it frequently refers to the intentional twisting of words to make them indicate the opposite of what the words mean. It is simply propagandizing by misnaming.

In today’s world a congressional bill to deny workers rights to a free private vote on unionization is called the “Employee’s Free Choice Act”. The president states that illegal aliens are prohibited access in his government healthcare proposal while the bill he refers to prohibits checking for legal status.

He further refers to the provisions of “his bill” when he has never actually produced such a bill and he never indicates which of multiple bills he refers to. He is then free to claim or deny anything he likes. He calls accurate reports of the contents of such bills as “misrepresentation” and “lies” and makes a direct threat to opponents that if anyone disputes his claims he will “Call you out.” Caution: Big Brother is Watching You!!

It was amusing watching George Stephanopoulos’s recent attempt to interview “Big Brother” himself. When asking about government enforced charges to people declining health insurance under “Obamacare” Stephanopoulos attempted to remind the president of his promise not to increase taxes on the middle class. Obama insisted, that ” is absolutely not a tax increase!” George even read the dictionary definition of “tax” to him and asked, “How is that not a tax?” Poor George. After all those years as chief of Clinton’s spin machine don’t you know you can’t pull a dictionary on Big Brother? “Newspeak” is not recognized by Merriam-Webster.

Yep, old George “O” had it right on the button, only his date was off a bit.

Today the American people can no longer believe or trust their elected representatives. Political spin is king and governmental decisions are determined by focus groups to see what manner of twisting of the words will sell their schemes to a dumbed down public. Representatives respond to our inquiries with loads of double or concealed meaning statements that makes Clinton’s “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is” seem tame by comparison.

The IRS has become the veiled threat as the enforcement agency that is covertly or overtly held over the heads of opposition. Meanwhile, government officials and the administration’s friends are given a pass on even the most egregious of tax law violations. Look at the number of high level appointees that were forced to withdraw their nominations over public oppositions to their tax violations in just this year alone. In a nation of 300 million persons surely there are law abiding people talented enough for any job the government might need!

High level congressional leaders such as Charlie Rangel are allowed to hold their posts and chairmanships with records of tax evasion running into the millions of dollars. Meanwhile he (Tax Cheat Charlie) as head of the House Ways and Means Committee slips rules into the tax codes so the “little people” receive threats over the most minor of infractions and oversights in their tax records. A man that himself has a reputation of a tax cheat is appointed to head the treasury and the IRS . He is charged to run the system for the rest of us!

In the book the main character Winston Smith is symbolic of “everyman”. He works in the “Ministry of Truth” where his job is to rewrite historical records to match the current party line. Sounds much like the school textbooks of today where the average high school student graduates unable to recognize George Washington’s picture or what he did, knowing only that he owned slaves and had wooden teeth.

Winston’s job is secure since the ever changing party line requires a constant changing of records and the removing of “unpersons” who are not in vogue with the current party politic. Reality is ambiguous and has been changed so much no one really knows for sure what even the real date actually is anymore. Sounds an awful lot like today’s political spin machines at work doesn’t it?

The classes of “1984″ society are the small “inner party“, an oligarchy of high level party members, a somewhat larger “outer party” of government bureaucrats to which Winston belongs, and the “Proles” which is the non-party-members of the controlled society. You know, the average everyday folks like you and me and Joe the plumber.

In the book the main character Winston first describes the world of “1984″ as he perceives it and then becomes uneasy over what he finds. He enjoys his work but develops a curiosity for the true history that has been eradicated. He has an illicit love affair with another outer party member, Julia, and they long for a pre-1984 time where they could openly express their love. Its only a bit more far-fetched than the numerous people today that live together without marrying to avoid being penalized by losing government benefits or being moved into higher tax brackets that they can not afford.

Unfortunately in “1984″ everything is bugged and ultimately they are caught by the “Thought Police” for having individual thoughts not sanctioned by the party. Charged with a “thought crime” Winston and Julia are sent to the “Ministry of Love” where they are separately interrogated, imprisoned, tortured and reeducated. Is this really far from the legislation to establish “hate crimes” today? Crimes not based on acts committed, but the inferred thoughts that are supposedly deserving of higher punishment?

In the course of Winston’s interrogations and torture it is revealed that the true meaning of the controls are not to create a Utopian paradise at all, but simply a method for the inner party to retain power. Sort of like the perpetual office holders we see in government today. The more power they achieve, the more they desire and the more onerous the regulations they are willing to enforce on the society to achieve it. Regulations like a “Fairness Doctrine” that will preclude their opposition from access to the airwaves and will insure their perpetual reelection. Tarp payments that steal from the public treasury to reward buddies and political groups like Acorn and pay for their support while claiming it is to stimulate the economy. They are creating ever increasing taxes and declining value of the money supply to feed their insatiable appetite for power.

Do we really want to live a “1984″ society? As Americans we have inherited a proud history that our forefathers fought and died for, a history that values the privacy of individual thought and encourages individual freedom and achievement. Our capitalist system has created the greatest economic power the world has ever known by freeing individuals to excel.

But to do so individuals must also be allowed occasionally to fail. For that we historically have had charities, churches, family, and friends who lend a helping hand. Americans are the most charitable people in the world, but when the government takes from the people in taxes to turn that role over to bureaucrats it robs the people of the funds to help their neighbors that are in need. The overloaded bureaucrats are poorly equipped to discern the difference between true need and cheats who simply desire to feed off the system.

We are steadily and surely losing the charitable nature of our society in exchange for a government provided security net. Every year we are moving closer to the Orwellian hell described in “1984″. Wake up America. We are closer than you think!