George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 2020)

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

Published 1949

Dystopian novel

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Reading Orwell 24

Reread

Orwell knew. 

He knew what the future would look like if good people did nothing.

I have re-read 1984 numerous times and always understood it to be a dystopian novel, which it is, considering it is "an imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible." But it is not only a dystopian novel. It is A WARNING! An urgent premonition to future generations of free people everywhere, but particularly Britain and the United States because each nation [had been] protectors and promoters of individual liberty and economic freedom. 

Orwell saw first-hand what happened (during WWII) when masses of people worshipped a man, granting absolute power to him, or in the case of 1984, one "Party." When that happens, that leader or party gets away with everything. They use dictatorial methods to control every aspect of private life, and they destroy everything in their path that threatens or challenges or exposes their schemes and lies -- especially the truth. 

TOTALITARIANISM

This is called totalitarianism, and this is what I want to write about, as opposed to just reviewing 1984 again. Totalitarianism is nearer to us because the masses have not heeded Orwell's warning. In fact, many are clamoring for its acceleration. 

Totalitarianism is centralized government bent on absolute authority over everything. Imagine everything. Now imagine government with total control of it. They get control by agitating all logic and reason, causing people to doubt what is right and true. Totalitarianism continuously assails the masses with contradictions and hypocrisy and prompts people to question their sanity. It is psychological abuse, bullying, and supremacy. One by one, the people break.

I will return to that rant, but first: 

In 1984, the world was divided into three regions, which were always at war with each other, although it could never be confirmed. It could have been that the Party bombed their own people just to keep them in perpetual fear and submission. 

All people lived in a three-level caste system made up of mostly Proles, the general population of workers who lived in a state of poverty. Then Outer Party members, like the protagonist Winston, had it slightly better than the Proles. They were trained in the dirty work of government, such as demolishing the truth, rewriting history, reinventing language, and extinguishing individual lives. 

Finally, the Inner Party members were the smallest class of government elitists who drank the Kool Aid. They implemented policy and controlled the lives of everyone else. Only the Inner Party enjoyed privacy and luxuries. The Party was supposedly led by one named Big Brother, but no one knew if he was alive or real or one or many. 

WHAT IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS POWER AND CONTROL?

The point was POWER. Power is alluring. Power is everything.

When Winston was finally arrested for having revolutionary thoughts and tortured into loving the Party, O'Brien, Inner Party member, told him:

When we [the Party] are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. but always - do not forget this, Winston - always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever. 

The goal of totalitarianism is to break another man down by removing all prospective joy, hope, love, beauty, and power -- no more personal privacy or potential improvement; no more independence or individuality. Aside from causing him to think he has lost his mind...he must give up all reason to fight to protect truth and his own life. Once he is broken down, he will fearfully submit to this power. For some it is easier and quicker than others.

I mention this because I want to show that we have lived through the start of the above scenario already - a likely test run. The Covid scam was a test run in totalitarianism. I was in California at the time, and even as late as early 2022, the governor was still playing the Mask-On-Mask-Off game, dictating when everyone had to mask up because cases rose or when masks were no longer necessary because cases went down. Governor Gavin Newsom is a prime suspect for totalitarianism, and if the people oblige, he will go as far as he can if no one will stop him. Thank God, there were a few legislators, a church, and a court that did stop his overreach. For now.

TWENTY TWENTY

Look what the media did in the United States. They spread lies, suppressed truth, and protected only the voices they agreed with. They helped instill fear, which is a catalyst for mass compliance to a corrupt  government, or otherwise: "man worship." And it wasn't President Trump the masses worshiped. It was that short little Anthony Fauci who was the epitome of parched power, but mostly teeming with hypocrisy and contradictions. 

I also say "they" because I do not count myself as part of the majority that lived in absolute terror of the virus, yet, still donned a mask and mingled with crowds of people, as if material protected them just because they were told it would; or those who knew the mask was foolishness, but complied anyway with fear of standing alone in truth. And the little colored circles that littered the floors of stores and windows reminding us that we were in kindergarten and had to stand six feet, which was also an arbitrary measurement. Did anyone believe that they were safe from a deadly virus if they stood six feet away from another human? 

When this current so-called executive was installed, he wickedly sought a legal way to FORCE EVERY HUMAN WHO WORKED FOR A PAYCHECK TO BE POISONED simply because he believed he could do it, but no way was found. Praise God! 

Then all those lies about masks, lockdowns, isolation, closed schools (for years in California), lost jobs, firings, and forced injections against one's better judgment came home to roost, and all of those liars had to admit (but did not) that you could still get sick; only the injected were getting sick; and in fact, they are getting sicker. Some had even died. Isolation was not a bright idea; masks did not work; and we have to admit, they disrupted a robust economy (it is still struggling), probably intentionally. 

You see, a crisis "arose" and totalitarian-bent authorities and their supporters reacted accordingly by establishing fear, then provided a sense of hope and salvation through obedience without investigation, which the people responded to subordinately. Never mind that the facts changed daily and the "guidelines" were like a roller coaster. There never was consistency, but always contradiction. Nothing made sense, and everyone was confused, anxious, and combative, which was the perfect atmosphere for totalitarian government to lay its tentacles. 

By the way, I am thinking about little dictator governors of select states, and also unelected officials, health officials, and globalists, besides this current federal administration. President Trump did not continue to push for lockdowns or masks or keeping kids out of school or closing churches. He did, however, give into dreadful advice about pushing through a deadly pharmaceutical poison, but he never supported forcing anyone to be injected with it or be fired, like the  current mean executive, whose name I cannot utter. 

Remember the psychological warfare that abounded and was encouraged and protected? Doctors, scientists, or anyone who shouted otherwise against the ever-changing/concrete science-god Fauci were muted and booted. Thousands of doctors, immunologists, virologists, and anyone who contradicted the narrative lost their voices and simply disappeared from public view. Some lost their jobs and businesses. Even certain information was not searchable via the internet. 

Remember the faux checkers -- modern day Thought Police -- who flagged, docked, and ostracized anyone who posted the wrong articles or voiced the wrong opinion? Eventually, some lost their accounts and were unable to participate in further discussion. Free speech was dead; only the right ideas that aligned with the ones in power were permitted. Did that not mold you to think before you posted? It sure did. You were molded to keep quiet because your opinion was labeled dangerous.

After a few years of this, people no longer knew how to think, and they no longer trusted themselves. Since objective truth is unacceptable, people need government to tell them what to think. And people will believe anything, even absurd things like drag queen story time for children is good; all white people are racist; there are more than two genders; five year olds can choose their gender; and a man is a woman if he says so. BELIEVE ALL MEN! And much more absurdity. If these are what the political class, media, entertainment, and elites pretend to be truth, then it is virtuous to LIVE BY LIES, as Rod Dreher taught us.

In a totalitarian state, thoughts are owned and operated by the powerful, and all people who participate are deprived of liberty, privacy, and identity. Likely they will never rise up, form a personal opinion, or be creative again. They are all dead. 

WHAT WE CAN DO

In 1984, Winston knew the Proles (who made up 80-85% of the population in Oceania) were capable of overthrowing the Party if only they rose up against it. All that it takes to tear down a totalitarian regime is to reject the lies and not participate. Orwell wrote 1984, as I have said, as a warning, to trigger as many people to act against totalitarianism; to turn away from the lies and push back at the statist cult.

He recognized the importance of being critical of leaders or government (even those you support), in order to "work towards what could be better," instead of accepting everything they said and did as right and true. He believed that if we did not continue to expose the lies, then we were cooperating with totalitarianism, allowing it to expand and increase in power. 

But let us have cheer because there is hope still. Orwell meant to bring to our attention the responsibility and urgency we have to hold accountable those in authority and check their power while we still can. Humanity is not hapless if we are willing to act.

~George Orwell

FINAL THOUGHTS

Nineteen Eighty-Four is an essential work on my personal canon because it speaks directly to me. I love personal liberty and freedom so much, and to live under the weight of an oppressive, totalitarian government is a nightmare. I would rather die, though I am sure that is not a biblical attitude to have. I am trying my best to suffer through the burdens of this world while I await my real home.

Both sides of the American political spectrum, including the electorate, accuse the other side of ushering in a 1984-world; but if either side were truly opposed to that nightmare becoming reality, then we should witness both working tirelessly and loudly to defend and guard constitutionally-protected life and liberty, speech, privacy, religion, and especially truth. Are you seeing any of that? 

It's questionable.

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For an example of a future 1984 totalitarian nightmare the globalists seek to impose on the whole world, see The Great Reset.

To further expound on Orwell's plea for people to act, here is an example of that action against totalitarianism: parallelism. And it is already happening. Listen to Pam Popper read an article on her show about how parallel societies are popping up (thanks to her) all over America. #MakeAmericaFreeAgain

Well-Educated Mind Poetry: William Carlos Williams

 

William Carlos Williams

1883 - 1963

American poet

⭐⭐⭐

The Well-Educated Mind Poetry

Well, I am going to be brutally honest: I had never heard of William Carlos Williams or any of his poetry before The Well-Educated Mind Reading Challenge, and I do not think I was missing anything. At least from the suggested list. If that was his best...pfff. 

I know -- I talk like I know poetry. I don't. 

But I can read something and know if it was worth it or if it was impressive or beautiful or if I can at least relate to it or take away something from it. Williams' poetry was mostly experimental; he is called an Imaginist. He did not follow rules of writing poetry (or made them up as he wrote). He did not write sentences with punctuation. He just improvised in style. In the poetry world, I suppose it was successful because here he is on a list for me to read. But I could have just skipped it and I would not have missed anything. Except one or two, which I will get to in a moment, which were above acceptable.

Here were the suggested titles I had read, and following is a brief impression of each.. 

Asphodel That Greeny Flower (Love letter asking wife for forgiveness. Somewhat interesting.)

The Descent of Winter (journal writings…really long and not interesting)

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (about Bruegel’s painting! Clever.)

The Last Words of My English Grandmother (That was odd.)

Proletarian Portrait (I think he lost me.)

The Red Wheelbarrow (really experimental)

Self-Portrait (very weird)

Sonnet in Search of an Author (WHAT DID I JUST READ??)

Spring and All (OK, better…)

This is Just to Say (I forgot.)

Tract (I have no idea.)

To Elsie (depressing)

Overall, I gave Williams three stars because some of his poetry was agreeable, though mostly I found it tolerable, which means: I tolerated it (but I don't know how). His topics were widely varied, which was fine, but his expression of them were very peculiar; and again, I do not understand why poetry has to be strangely obscure. 

"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" was my only favorite because it caused me to revisit the painting by Bruegel. Williams pointed out that no one had noticed what had happened to Icarus, even the fisherman at the water's edge, a few feet from where Icarus entered the water. It was all kind of humorous.  Possibly, Bruegel meant it to be, and Williams was moved to write about it. 

And "Asphodel," the love letter to his wife (or ex-wife), was worthwhile, too. He wrote it near the end of his life or when he was very ill, and he was convicted to ask her forgiveness for his unfaithfulness. What a way to do it, if you can write poetry. 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon

 

Speaking of Unread Books...

I finally finished Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Finally! That book had been on my dreaded unread shelf for maybe a decade?? And after reading that tome, I think I will forgo The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (I'll explain later.)

I also just started The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, which had only been on there for a year or so. 

There are still 58 more unread books remaining that I am leery to get through. I made the mistake of buying too many used books from library sales in the past, when I was not able to read as quickly. At one time I had close to 200 unread books. I read some, I started others, but mostly, I had to be honest: I was never, ever going to read many of them; hence, they were given new homes. These are all that are left.

Some Unreads

Of the remaining, these are the top ten, as of today (because I'm moody), that I would like to read soon:

1776 / John Adams / The Pioneers by David McCullough (all three)

Anthem by Ayn Rand

One Bad Apple by Rachel Kovaciny

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Woodlanders by my favorite Thomas Hardy (This would be a re-start.)

The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall 

The Greatest Faith Ever Known by Fulton Oursler. 

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Wartski: A Boat to Nowhere

 

A Boat to Nowhere

Maureen Crane Wartski

Published 1980

Historical Fiction

⭐⭐⭐

I read this historical fiction to my kids as part of our study on communism in Asia. 

A grandfather and his two grandchildren, Mai and Loc, whom he had cared for after their own parents died, lived in a remote village on the farthest point of South Vietnam. The Vietnam War had ended and the communist government had moved into the South, though it had taken some time to get into this particular area. 

The day the government officials made their way into the village, it was apparent they meant to make changes immediately, instituting the confiscation of half of everything the villagers manufactured, produced, sold, or caught from the sea. If one did not agree or comply, he must attend a re-education camp. That is precisely why they intended to take Grandfather since he knew too much already. 

However, before the officials could take him away, Kien (his adopted teen grandson), along with Mai and Loc, encouraged him to escape by way of the village fishing boat, Sea Breeze. Only Grandfather knew how to navigate the stars at night and the sun by day. With his knowledge and Kien's fishing skill, they could make it to Thailand. With very little food or supplies, they evaded the officials and headed west, hopeful to make a temporary home elsewhere with the promise to return to Vietnam in the future. 

They became known as the Boat People. 

It is estimated between 800,000 to two million South Vietnamese escaped between 1975 to 1995. They fled to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and  Indonesia. Some were turned away and countless died at sea. 

Why did people flee Vietnam after the Vietnam War? Because communism is incessant and promises only hell on earth. The South Vietnamese feared retaliation, re-education (brainwashing), and imprisonment (torture). They would rather face death on the open sea -- dehydration, starvation, sharks, storms, and shipwreck -- than fall into the hands of an ideology that is cruel, wicked, and inhumane. 

While I was reading this book, I was sure it was a true story, but it is not. At best, it is an historical fiction. Sadly, Vietnam still embraces Marxist/Leninist ideologies and is governed by only Communists, but today it is considered to be a Socialist Republic. I do not know much more about what it is like to live there now and I wonder if any Boat People returned to Vietnam, like Grandfather had hoped to. 

Grandfather had never made it back to Vietnam. And he never got to see his grandchildren rescued at sea. 

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Popov: Tortured for His Faith

Tortured for His Faith

Haralan Popov

Published 1970

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reread

A lie is always a lie. Neither Marxists nor Leninists 

will ever succeed in building an earthly paradise upon a lie.

Haralan Popov (1907-1988), a Bulgarian Christian pastor, was arrested in 1948 for "treason" (ie. being  Christian) by the communist state government. [Recall: following WWII, Eastern Europe fell under the authority and influence of the Soviet Union.] In prison, Popov survived thirteen years of unimaginable hard labor, starvation, isolation, separation from loved ones, and barbaric mental and physical torture. He did not see his wife and children for at least eleven years. 

This is a startling, shocking, and yet, inspiring story about perseverance through persecution; by God's grace, Haralan Popov lived to tell it. 

COMMUNISM REQUIRES BRAINLESSNESS 

So, why did the communist government arrest pastors? Because communism (like most tyrannical governments) cannot compete with religion, particularly Christianity, especially because Satan knows that  God's Word demands that we use our mind to think about why we believe. Communism cannot afford for people to think. It requires absolute empty-headedness, that one would be ripe for brainwashing. 

As Popov explained in the breaking of one's will and brainwashing, one meant imprisonment, the other  freedom...

Let me point out again the difference between breaking our will and brainwashing us. My will was broken after six months of being beaten into helplessness, until my human body reached its very limits and physically crumbled. It was temporary. 

Breaking the will led to imprisonment, starvation, and suffering.  

Brainwashing is permanently convincing someone communism is good. They could break my will, but they could never brainwash me! 

Successful brainwashing brought the false sense of freedom. 

UNDERSTANDING COMMUNISM, IN POPOV'S WORDS:

Popov saw a sign posted on [the guard house] that read * Man is something to be proud of, a Maxim Gorki quote. Popov found this ironic considering they were treated like animals. He thought about how "God's Word teaches that man is the crown of creation," and that "nothing on the face of the earth is greater than man." And yet, how odd that commies who refuse to receive Christ and do not value human life would post such a quote for all to read. 

He said,

This is the difference between communism in theory and communism in reality...four or five thousand men had been gathered inside the barbed wire enclosure. We were called enemies, because we hadn't surrendered and hadn't permitted the communists' ideals to triumph over our minds and hearts. Communism demands complete conformity and subservience. We had refused to conform and were the vilest enemy. According to the words* on the guard house, these men, at one time, had been something to be proud of. In reality the quotation is a good argument against communism. It hurt us that only we, the enemies of communism, could read them.  

WHILE IN PRISON

Popov courageously rose to the occasion and continued preaching the gospel to his fellow prisoners, and with God's help, he did move mountains. 

We have faced not men, but Satan himself. Though he has done his work well, I for one am more determined than ever that in the end God will triumph. Brethren remember, 'He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.' they have won the battle, but with God's help we will win the war.

I remind my readers, when man is without God there is no limit to his depravity or to the depths to which he will sink. These guards descended the ladder of humanity step by step until they had no humanity or kindness left. 

Popov admitted that "men in prison are at the end of themselves." Their normal lives consist of a family  and a job, as well as material things, "which can dull a man's need for God." In prison, "all this was taken away. Men had time to think. Their values became clear in prison and many genuinely realized their need of God." Hence, Popov found great demand for a prison pastor.  

Once a Bible was found tucked away in the prison library. (How that escaped the noses of the commies, only God knows.) From it, Popov memorize 47 chapters before it was discovered and confiscated. Popov also taught Scripture while pretending to teach English to other prisoners. The guards did not know or understand English, and therefore were ignorant of these truth-sharing opportunities.

As more men wanted to hear the truth, they learned a kind of morse code and tapped it out on the prison walls to one another. This way the gospel spread and prisoners were saved. Popov praised God: "Thank you, Lord, for the new congregation you sent me."

HIS RELEASE!

Finally, after thirteen years of witnessing and experiencing savage horror, Popov was released from his prison sentence. He admitted this:

I could honestly and truthfully say that it was worth those 13 years of torture, beatings, starvation, suffering and separation from loved ones to be a pastor to the thousands of communist prisoners my path had crossed. 

Outside of prison he prayed that "he could faithfully serve God in freedom as he tried to do in prison." Since he was prevented from traveling outside of Bulgaria, much time would pass before he would be reunited with his wife, who was living in Sweden, and his grown children. 

Therefore, he made himself useful to God. His next mission was to help the local churches. He found that the commies took over the Churches and destroyed them. Uncooperative pastors were replaced with malleable types. Attendance had fallen from two and three hundred to under twenty. 

HOW TO BEAT A COMMIE

As Winston learned in 1984, you cannot overcome the communists; the best you can do is break their rules. Therefore, the underground Secret Church was formed. People started to meet in homes for faux funerals and birthday parties. Lots of birthday parties. People had multiple birthdays all year long. 

A beautiful thing began to happen in the Secret Church. As the fires of persecution grew, they burned away the chaff and stubble and left only the golden wheat. The suffering purified the Church and united the believers in a wonderful spirit of brotherly love such as must have existed in the Early Church. Petty differences were put aside. Brethren loved and cared for one another and carried one another's burdens. There were no "lukewarm" believers. It made no sense to be a halfhearted Christian when the price for faith was so great. 

And to the Commies great regret, this was the healthiest thing they could have done for the church, for the insincere gave up but the true Christian became aware of what Christ meant to them...

But there was one more obstacle. Bibles were very difficult to find. People started handwriting their own Bibles from a lone Bible, which was a lengthy and arduous project. Popov realized that someone needed to get word out to the Church and "awaken fellow Christians living in the free world," to find a way to get Bibles to the persecuted Christians. Then by God's will, Popov was granted a passport, and on New Year's Eve 1962, he made his way Stockholm to reunite with his wife. He would be the one to carry the message to the free world.

Some years later, he founded a mission, Door of Hope International, to help persecuted and imprisoned Christians all over the world. And today that mission is still doing a good work all because of the love of Christ by one man, Haralan Popov, and his wife, Ruth. 

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First review can be read HERE.