The Orwellian Threat

By Aaron Kliegman It’s striking — and a bit eerie — how relevant George Orwell’s works are today. Not because of his prose, which flows beautifully, or his stories, which are intriguing. No, the reason is far more troubling: His warnings about totalitarianism. Orwell was certainly no prophet. He predicted in 1937 that “the upper-middle class is clearly finished” and in 1941 that the London Stock Exchange would imminently be “torn down.” He also wrongly foresaw the British Empire becoming “a socialist federation of states.” The great English writer, who died in 1950, could be blinded by his belief in democratic socialism. But that same writer also described so vividly the dystopian vision and tactics that left-wing radicals are now pursuing, decades later, to demonize, delegitimize, and destroy the American project. Of course, we begin with Orwell’s most famous novel, 1984: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered … History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” It’s no secret why a surge of interest in Orwell followed George Floyd’s death. Only the willfully blind could fail to see elements of this story unfolding across America — and western Europe — since that fateful day in late May. The heinous killing of Floyd triggered nationwide protests against racism and police brutality. But left-wing radicals — Antifa, members of the Black Lives Matter movement, and others — quickly marred and hijacked the protests, turning them into chaotic mobs bent on arson, looting, and rioting. Spurred by woke rage, they destroyed cars, burned buildings, and attacked police officers. The rioters also demolished statues and other historical monuments across America and Europe. They want to uproot from Western history those deemed racist or oppressive, which is bad enough. But when the progressive mob includes in this group the man who literally freed the slaves, the man who made the audacious claim that we’re all created equal, and the man who saved Western civilization from Nazism, then perhaps their agenda is more destructive and ambitious than combating bigotry. The rioters, and the progressive left more broadly, have shown that they are trying to erase history and silent dissent. They advocate tolerance, just not for those with opposing views. “Who controls the past controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past,” Orwell wrote in 1984. What’s so troubling is that elites in the media, Hollywood, and academia are supporting this radical agenda — or at least not opposing it. Just look at the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which seeks to define America as a racist country built on the backs of slaves by distorting history. Rather than stand up to this nefarious campaign, Democrats in Congress are instead defending Antifa. Add the Democratic mayors who refuse to stop the rioting and instead choose to defund the police, and the message is clear: This is a hostile takeover of America. Only a minority may be participants, but if elites with the biggest microphones on the left continue to allow, if not champion, such behavior, then it will only grow and spread. Newt has dubbed this campaign the radical Democratic left’s war against America, which he wrote about in his new book Trump and the American Future. One would be hard-pressed to describe it as anything less. When entire cities are allowed to collapse into anarchy, the floodgates of chaos really open up. For example, the woke among us are now trying to alter what we all understood yesterday as basic truths of our reality. Again, we turn to 1984. “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy.” Naturally, over the past week, many progressives have been arguing on social media that two and two do indeed make five. Why, you ask? Because, of course, saying the answer is four is a cultural imposition, a product of Western imperialism or colonialism. When it comes to altering our reality, one should look beyond 1984 to Orwell’s other writings, especially his brilliant 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell argues in this essay that people too often use stale, vague, and overly abstract language that is imprecise and lacks imagery. Writers often do this out of incompetence or indifference to what they're writing, but in the world of politics, people do it to defend the indefensible. Bombarding defenseless villages is called pacification, for example. It's a kind of euphemism. "Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." We see this phenomenon quite visibly today, more so than ever in the wake of Floyd’s death. The media, eager to defend anarchy in the streets, describes nationwide riots in America’s cities as "largely peaceful protests," an utterly meaningless phrase. The term “social justice” supposedly means redistributing wealth, opportunities, and privileges to right society’s wrongs by benefiting the oppressed at the expense of their oppressors. All this really means in practice is trying to create equal outcomes for blacks (but also some other minorities) by hurting white people — apparently with violence if necessary. Anyone who doesn’t find that problematic is complicit in defending the indefensible. The 1619 Project says its goal is to “reframe” American history. That sounds harmless enough, maybe even intellectual. In reality, however, it just means destroying American history, twisting the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the structure of the Constitution to make them into something they’re not — that is, racist. All this seemingly innocent language of the far left about justice and equality is meant to make a radical agenda digestible to the public — a public that otherwise wouldn’t be interested. Today, we need to reckon with totalitarian forces among us that, if given their way, would dispense with the American project and create a new system to ensure social justice and equality — as they define it and for our own good, of course. Perhaps the Woke Party would be benevolent at first. But eventually, two plus two may very well equal five. And in the meantime, the memory of America would steadily fade from existence, becoming nothing more than a rumor. Order Newt's Latest Book: https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future

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