1984 Redux

Lately I have begun feeling like I am living in some vaguely comedic, sci-fi version of 1984.  Or maybe it’s just America 1850 revisited, only this time around it is republicans doing the threatening, rather than Southern Slavery-adherent Democrats.  In any case, it no longer feels as though I am living in the America I knew, grew up in, and loved.  See, I did live through a lot of shit in my country.

Think of it:

• ·       1930s –full-on depression resulting from the all-out greed of the stock brokers of America. Money was hard to get at best, and my mum had to work really hard just to keep us in a flat with some food on the table;
• ·         1940s – filled with War (remember that WW II thing), but at least there was work, and, therefore, a bit more money for food;
• ·         1950s – post-war war, Korea, the beginnings of Vietnam, that Cold War thingie. Still, nobody was bombing us;
• ·         1960s – OK, got some heavy duty war in Vietnam, triggering lots of anti-war protests all over the country, but especially in Washington;
• ·         1970s – Vietnam finally winding down, but heavy duty political turmoil, and republican crap (remember that President, oh what was his name, oh yeah, Nixon, resigning in 1974?)
• ·         1980s – finally some calming down, although then we got St. Ronald of Reagan in the presidency.  Remember St. Ronnie . . . yeah dumb as a pet rock, and he actually believed in that Laffer curve stupidity. Can you believe that?
• ·         1990s – We calmed down a bit. No actual wars, well aside from the war that never ends in the Middle East. Just some Clinton fun and games. Remember Big Bill Clinton, a president who demonstrated he could multi-task—yeah, get a blow job, while speaking on the phone to a government colleague.  That’s the stuff great men are made of;
• ·         2000s – Ahh, the Shrub years. Nothing to see here folks, just a few fake wars in the Middle East to demonstrate that we were better than Daddy at putting those nasty Iraqi’s down.  Yeah, Shrub . . . such fond memories. Remember his evil-doer Dickie-Bird Cheney shooting someone in the face, just cuz?
• ·         2010s – first a really good man, Barack Obama, overseeing a reasonable period—you know, standard turmoil worldwide, but actual decency in the White House, followed by President Doofus, who reintroduced us to the world of STUPIDITY. Trump made all prior idiots, like Reagan, look like absolute geniuses. Clearly the dumbest man in the universe, who seems to have triggered this new period of comedic, sci-fi-1984.

So, why 1984? Remember Orwell’s novel? 1984 has been characterized as a social dystopian novel. 1984 was published on 8 June 1949 as Orwell’s ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centers on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviors within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.

Big Brother (Donald trump??) the leader of the Party, enjoys an intense cult of personality despite the fact that he may not even exist (hahahaha). Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. It also popularised the term "Orwellian" as an adjective, with many terms used in the novel entering common usage, including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "Thought Police", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "2 + 2 = 5", "proles", "Two Minutes Hate", "telescreen", and "Room 101"

Yeah, we could be describing America, 2016-2020, right?

And the “comedic”?  Well, Donald trump has been providing our late night comedians a daily dose of comedy material. He seemed to either act out, speak, or tweet something so terminally stupid on a daily basis that it could only be described as “comedic”. I mean, he invented a new word . . . coeveffe . . . how many politicians give you such material? He seems not to speak English very well, although we are not aware that he speaks any other language either.  Maybe he never learned to speak until he was 40 or 50.

And sci-fi?? Well, it is my best understanding that a republican office holder thinks that lightning is actually laser beams being thrown at the United States from a Jewish outer space enterprise.  I assume that is why Mike Pence invented the US Space Force, so as to counter those alien Jews.  I mean, c’mon folks. How much more “sci-fi” can we get?

And so, we now live in this alternate universe of Truthiness.  Republican office holders now are allowed to say anything they want, and are not held to things called “Facts”.  Thus, they can make up stuff like a child predator ring operated by Hillary in the basement of a pizza parlor that has no basement.  Or that Ted Cruz’ dad was responsible for the JFK killing.  Or that Mexico is actually paying for Trump’s border Wall. Or that you can and should drink bleach to eliminate the COVID virus from your system.  Or that it’s perfectly ok to have your kids on the official government payroll.  Or that no one on the republican payroll can or should be held to account for encouraging insurrection (or “erections” for that matter).  Or that the term “Unity” actually means allowing republicans to say or do anything they want and simply smiling at them. Go along to get along is now the official motto of America.  Oh and it’s ok to threaten Democratic office holders with death by beheading or maybe just shooting, just cuz they’re Democrats. Yeah, that’s a common feature of this “Unity” thing.

And so, this world I now inhabit is, I now think, simply a dream state introduced into my aging brain just to keep me amused.  TV shows are apparently not enough. I evidently am never actually awake any longer. I simply occupy this weird-space.  Every once in a while one of my kids calls to ask me if I’m ok, and I always say, “Sure, why not. It’s better than the alternative”.  And then I go back into my dystopian dream state and listen to the latest republican Truthiness.

Truthiness now rules the entire globe, and, with that Space Force, maybe all of outer space also. Our new world is complete, and Mike Pence has gone to live on Saturn I am told.