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 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.
Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, Tehran 1943
Fast-forward eighty-odd years and we have Putin, Trump and Starmer, their countries no longer allied and one of them no longer a superpower, with China having stepped up to that third role.And surely anyone who read Orwell's dystopian parable of a world in which three superpowers of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia were all fighting each other in a perpetual war in a disputed area mostly located around the middle-east would surely concur that "living in Orwellian times" has become apposite shorthand for the times we are currently living through.
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. Fake news is swirling round from all quarters in an attempt to obfuscate what it really going on.
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. I was going to call it Fuck Knows, but I've rowed back on that. Rudolph KnowsThey used to laugh and call him namesthey 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.More rabid than eagles his coursers cameas 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 at the after party.a celebration of mendacity.They wheel in the AI deepfake cakesugar-coated to disguise the taste of deathEat your slice and keep your mouth shut.Rudolph knows that the 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 ;-) Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
