1984 or 2023?

 
Randomly selecting another book as part of re reading books that we already have, saw me pick up ‘George Orwell’s 1984’.

It is now many years since I read this and while it came back to me as I turned the pages it was’t quite how I recall it. 

The greyness and dullness of the world Orwell creates is too frighteningly real as a possibility. The concept of always being at war to control acquiring those things to improve life, which avoids most people realising how poor they are really hit home.

The torture of the main character Winston is chillingly real when we have learnt so much about how regimes treat people, even so called civilised governments. Women told what they can and cannot wear in places like Iran and Afghanistan. People not allowed to protest by even holding up a bank sheet of paper in Moscow, and its happened in the UK so we are not exempt from the erosion of hard won rights.

What stands out today re-reading the book however is the way in which lies becomes truth as the past is constantly re-written. The control of the media means that in the end most people buy into it because they are too busy just surviving. I never thought I would live in a society where many, but not all, leading government ministers knowingly stand up and tells lies. The more they do so the more they seem to believe it themselves, so that even when their own pronouncements are played back to them, they deny that’s what they said or meant. 

In 1984 ‘Oceania’ needs to have an enemy be it ‘Eastasia’ or ‘Eurasia’ which constantly changes. Today certain politicians, newspapers and certain TV channels paint a picture of those who are to be feared. Usually they are those fleeing conflict, often the colour of their skin or religion is pointed out, and the language is that which creates an impression of being overrun. Meanwhile this hides the truth for as in 1984 ‘the inner party’ have a much better lifestyle, so do those today who seek to create an enemy and fear of them. How is it that NHS workers were to be clapped on our doorsteps as they risked their lives to save others and now certain ministers paint them as the ones undermining the NHS? Rising waiting lists were growing pre- covid because of a  deliberate plan to run austerity as essential, so underinvestment, while then paying far more than was required by the NHS for private services. Some people have made small fortunes. The same is true in education, water, social services and much more. 

As I write we literally have a Prime Minister say he was on the side of the less well off and will not allow certain policies to be put into effect to damage their incomes. So he won’t allow tax on meat, flying, it’s a no to seven bins for recycling, a no to compulsory car sharing etc none of which were actually policies or have ever been put forward. This is the world of 1984. Some people will fall for the lies thinking that was true because they don’t have time or perhaps inclination to engage in politics. Then to say he was committed to 2050 net zero on climate just does not stack up. Changing the deadline for cars to become electric with petrol  and diesel ones stopped being sold, or to phase out gas boilers much later, again flies in the face of reality. The crazy thing is that for all his wealth his own children will suffer the consequences of climate change just as his own jet flying style pollutes the air they breathe. 

1984 is an amazing book that tells of a time when the world is controlled by three small elites who have created a balance through constant war. It means 98% of the worlds population really live in a false poverty so that a minority can live in luxury. 

It’s not ‘1984’ yet, or the world of the ‘Handmaids tale’ but the erosion of human rights is taking place on the back of creating false fears. In parts of America we have book burning sadly often promoted by some right wing christian groups. This is all carried out by saying they are protecting young people from dangerous books, while they are content to carry guns. 

We just have to pray that enough people in the world use their God given freedom to Love the planet and their fellow human beings and actively oppose any government that lies, even my own. Just because we think we live in a  wonderful democracy it is still vulnerable to those would take power and misuse it against the population. Let’s not end up like the character Winston ‘Loving Big Brother’.

St Paul who was not perfect at least got it right in understanding the ultimate relationship between all people which was counter cultural and revolutionary.

‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave not free, nor is there male or female, for your are all one in Christ Jesus’