“Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
The world of George Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four is divided into three totalitarian superpowers: Oceania, Eurasia, and EastAsia. And the novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, is a mid-level bureaucrat within Oceania’s “Ministry of Truth”.
Early in the book we learn that Oceania is in the midst of a protracted war with Eurasia.
But suddenly the party announces that they were, in fact, at war with Eastasia… NOT Eurasia. Everyone was simply expected to forget that Oceania was ever at war against Eurasia.
The ideological dictatorship of Orwell’s world demanded that all citizens memory-hole the old truth and internalize the new truth “Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
Watching what little of the Democratic National Convention I could stomach; I couldn’t help but think of this scene from Orwell’s novel.
I watched as the Party leaders this week announced new truths. For example, the Party is tough on crime. They have always been tough on crime.
Everyone is supposed to forget how their cities are overrun with crime; or how they have long since been the party of “Defund the Police”, or “catch and release” programs that put violent felons back onto the street.
They say that border security is a major priority of the Party. Border security has always been a major priority of the Party.
Again, we are all supposed to forget how they let millions and millions of illegals come across the border… and went as far as to sue the State of Texas in federal court in order to PREVENT Texas from taking up its own efforts to secure the border.
They say the Party will stand up to Iran. The Party has always stood up to Iran.
Well let’s all forget about these guys paying billions of dollars to Iran for US hostages and the failed nuclear deal… or the fact that their more radical foot soldiers have essentially set up Hamas branch offices in the United States.
They claim the Party stands for Freedom. The Party has always stood for Freedom.
Feel free to believe it. But first you have to memory-hole all of the censorship, vaccine mandates, and cancel culture they shoved down everyone’s throats over the past few years.
This isn’t even about blatant hypocrisy– though there was plenty of that on display. Remember a few years ago when they claimed that it was “racist” and “Jim Crow 2.0” for the State of Georgia to ask its citizens to show a valid form of ID before voting? Curiously, every attendant at the convention had to show ID to gain entry. But apparently that’s not racist.
Nor is this about blatant lies, exaggeration, or vague platitudes– and there were plenty of those as well.
They went on and on, for example, about Kamala’s honest character… even though she was Liar-in-Chief when it came to covering up Joe Biden’s obvious dementia.
This is about their full-blown, Nineteen Eighty-Four style memory-holing some of their most important principles and acting as if they never existed. Kamala has always been at war with Eastasia. Kamala has never been at war with Eurasia.
It’s also notable that the Party expects its members to memory-hole the real problems facing the United States.
Kamala didn’t mention the word “deficit” even once. There was no discussion of reining in outrageously high government spending. She said “debt” one time, only to claim that her opponent would increase the national debt.
She did not say the word “inflation” either, and only in a passing footnote did she even graze past the high cost of living.
These are among the issues that real people care about. But everyone is supposed to memory-hole those too, and act like the #1 issue in the country is… abortion rights.
Abortion factored very heavily into her remarks, and into the Party’s platform.
They’re still moaning the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which essentially turned the abortion issue over to the states to regulate.
But facts don’t matter. Because according to research cited by the Wall Street Journal, last year there were a whopping 1 MILLION abortions in the US, roughly 10% MORE than before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
So why exactly is abortion access such a huge crisis and a bigger priority than inflation, domestic security, global security, the national debt, Social Security, and all the other problems that the country faces?
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, part of Winston Smith’s job was to alter or destroy old newspapers, films, and any other evidence that the Party had changed its policies.
The legacy media will continue to serve this role for Kamala and her Party. They’ve already expunged their own headlines from a few years ago proclaiming “Kamala Harris is the Border Czar”. Now they insist “Kamala Harris is not the Border Czar. Kamala Harris was never the Border Czar.”
They’re also memory-holing every poll that showed how Kamala was widely disliked and incredibly unpopular. Kamala is so fake and wooden that she makes Hillary Clinton look folksy by comparison. And the polls reflected that.
But those polls are gone. Poof. Now we’re expected to believe the new polls, that Kamala is exciting and popular.
Look I’ve said before that I don’t buy any of it. In fact, I’m stupefied that anyone believes these people.
But I’ve also acknowledged that the Party and the media and all of their allies will pull out all the stops to take the White House. And that scenario has major consequences.
It’s no exaggeration to say that a Kamala Presidency represents a major security and economic risk. For example, I cannot see the US dollar surviving as the global reserve currency by the end of her first term.
The outcome this November is far from certain. But their Nineteen Eighty-Four is reason enough to have a Plan B.
