George Orwell (not his real name) first anticipated life in a 'post-truth' world in his mid-20th century dystopian political satires 'Animal Farm ' and 'Nineteen-Eighty-Four '. The latter, in particular, examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which by cynical chicanery both can be manipulated. He has bequeathed us such deeply disturbing terms as Big Brother, Doublethink, the Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Thoughtcrime and Thought Police.
A journalist by trade and a democratic socialist by nature, Orwell had the terrifying models of totalitarian rule in the Soviet Union and the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany close to hand to inform his frightening visions. His inspiration for writing 'Nineteen-Eighty-Four' in particular came in 1943 with the Tehran Conference between the three allied superpowers of Russia, the USA and Great Britain.
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| Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, Tehran 1943 |
And surely anyone who has read Orwell's dystopian parable of a world in which three superpowers of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia all fight each other in a perpetual war in a disputed area mostly located around the Middle-East might surely concur that "living in Orwellian times" has become apposite shorthand for the world today..
Right now we have the 'leader of the free world', the man who considers himself most worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, being coerced by the Israelis into embarking on an illegal war of choice against Iran. Chicanery is manifest. Netanyahu's clever, dishonest talk has duped the most powerful nation into turning its back on diplomacy and joining forces to do Israel's will in the region against all conscience and common sense. Two weeks into the conflict, the war which Trump has already claimed "is already won" and is "very complete" now sees him demanding on his propaganda channel Truth Social that NATO members should send warships to the region "or it could be very bad for them". Fake news is swirling round from all quarters in an attempt to obfuscate what is really going on. Ironically, Putin seems to be the biggest beneficiary of this global turmoil right now. Nice one, Donald.
Just to add...In the wake of his cheap jibe about Starmer being "no Winston Churchill" for not sending warships and planes to help in the latest assault on Iran, I don't know if Trump knows (and if he does, even cares) that in 1939 Churchill asked for American support in the fight against Nazi Germany and was politely refused, only to meet with the same uncooperative response in 1940 and 1941. And that even after the USA entered the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, they charged Britain (under the lend-lease deal) for the assistance they provided in the eventual defeat of the Axis powers, a war debt (with interest) that this country only finally finished paying off in 2006!
Who knows how it will end. In the meantime, here's a new poem of sorts. I was going to call it Fuck Knows, but I've rowed back on that.
Rudolph Knows
They used to laugh and call him names,
they wouldn't let him join their games.
He vowed one day he'd have revenge,
he'd make them pay. He'd know he'd won
when truth was all undone.
when truth was all undone.
More rabid than eagles his coursers came
as raving and drooling he called out their names:
Now Lancer! Now Dancer! Now Prancer and Cancer!
Epic Fury unleashed to the woe of the world,
dash away, dash away, do it for fun.
And grinning madly at the after party,
a celebration of mendacity, he has them
wheel in the AI deepfake cake
sugar-coated to disguise the taste of death.
Eat your slice and keep your mouth shut.
Rudolph knows that his race is run.
I leave you with these words from a silent witness:
"Truth is a fundamental virtue. Without truth, there is no knowledge, no understanding. A society built on lies and deception cannot function. Without truth, there can be no harmony, no peace."
Thanks for reading. Stay wise, S ;-)
15 comments:
Extraordinary how present times echo 1984. Excellent blog to point out that fact.
Rudolf knows.
I so agree about your view of Trump and the parallels with the past. Creepy how history repeats. Loved the poem. The word Chicanery fires in all directions.
Well done Donny boy. You sacked the experienced diplomatic advisors and installed ignorant racists and blondes. Suck it up buttercup.
I believe even Trump's mother called him a sociopath and said she hoped he'd never get elected. Great Rudolph parody poem. A hard rain dear's gonna fall.
Trump sounds increasingly unbalanced. His Truth Social message today reads: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will." Batshit craziness or brinkmanship, it doesn't augur well for any of us.
I couldn't agree more Steve.
Spot on. I'm not an end of times person, but I recall reading a long time ago, that the final Armageddon would start in what is now the middle east. But who ever thought it would be America, prodded by Netanyahu, pushing the buttons?
With Steamer, the UK has indeed become Airstrip 1. And to what end? It is very clear that any ally who aids the US in this illegal uncalled for attack, will be targeted as an enemy. Which is exactly what the US would do.
It hasn't helped that Israel has managed to influence the world into accepting that any criticism of Israel, is a to Semitic rather than anti Zionist in its present form of genocide of Palestinians (and now Christians).
It was never about "freeing" Iranians from the clutches of an evil regime. Trump has now shown he couldn't care less about the Iranians -its about their oil. I don't hear anything about the predecessor - the Shah, who had a reign of terror, aided by his secret police, the SAWAK. But the west loved him - as he chimed with their abuse of resources that properly belong to the Iranian people.
We read Animal Farm at school. I've never read Nineteen Eighty Four but I get the thing about political satire and how the world is starting to resemble some dystopian hell. 'Power corrupts' and 'Divide and conquer' are eternally true , aren't they? I like the way you've twisted the reindeer song to represent Trump the psychopath.
Orwell certainly predicted the current double speak and thought crimes! A great read thanks Steve
Assassination time!
What no one in Trumptown mentions, and in fact only one of your readers has picked up on, is that in 1953 (just ten years after that superpower summit in Tehran), the USA and the UK conspired to bring about a coup d’etat in Iran, with the CIA and MI6 working together to overthrow the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadeq, the leader of Iran’s social-democratic party. The reason? Mossadeq proposed to nationalise the Iranian oil industry, run it and use the proceeds to improve life for Iranians - much to the displeasure of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later to become British Petroleum, nowadays BP) which had been used to managing the industry in monopolistic colonial fashion and making huge profits in the process. It's always been about the oil. The Briitish persuaded the Americans that Mossadeq's plan was to make Iran a communist state allied to the USSR and that was enough to hook the USA. (By the way there has never been a shred of hard evidence that Mossadeq planned such a shift.) The British and Americans, in their plot for regime change, even turned to the Ayatollahs for support in ousting Mossadeq. The coup was successful and the western powers installed their puppet, the Shah. The Americans demanded a price for their involvement, the end of Britain's monopoly of Iranian oil. Five US oil companies were allowed in to exploit Iranian reserves, alongside British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell. The Shah, whose corrupt regime and infamous secret police remained in power and loyal to western interests for 25 years, was finally ousted - ironically - by those same Ayatollahs in the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, when Iran did finally kick the western oil companies out and started to manage and benefit from their own natural resources. Excuse the long comment. As a (retired) history teacher, I was paid to know this stuff.
I was reading that Netanyahu went to the USA in February and presented a war plan to Trump that showed how easy it would be to a) take out the top Iranian leadership, b) knock out the Iranian war machine, c) infiltrate Iran with freedom fighters and d) precipitate a popular uprising in Iran to depose the Islamic government and return a pro-western regime. That was the chicanery. Trump fell for it because he's stupid. And we are all suffering for it.
The whole concept of Trump's Truth Social is ironic doublespeak, but the MAGA sheep just don't get that. Have you read Edward S. Herman's 'Beyond Hypocrisy'? Keep pointing up our demented leader's fuckwit antics. Most Americans are embarrassed now. I like the poem.
Well 'shit for brains' certainly fell for Netanyahu's trickery. I wonder if Trump will claim credit for peacefully resolving the Iran War (whenever that happens). That's a great couplet "He's know he'd won/ when truth was all undone".
Unfortunately, badass mendacity rules. Lies cost lives.
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