So you may have heard that sales of George Orwell's "1984" shot up a billion percent (actually Amazon's reported it as 7,000%) these days. That's nice. I guess not everybody remembers how disturbing that shit was when they read it in high school and they need a reminder. But all the Cliff's Notes we need is happening in politics/society right now, although for the wrong book.
People are fond of affixing the term "Orwellian" to the"alternative facts" era of the Tromp administration. "1984" famously described a dystopian world where people worked for mindless institutions that made daily work of altering facts and simplifying words to fit the ethics and edicts of the current society's government. One could even argue that Orwell's "Animal Farm" better suits the flavour of the political landscape right now. But honestly, if any sci-fi author may be invoked properly at this time, it's not Orwell. It's Huxley.
Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" presents a distinctly shinier, happier UTOPIA (albeit a dark one) in which people are born in test tubes and given occupations according to their abilities, and all are allowed so much free drink, drugs, entertainments, and guilt-free sex that no one stops long enough to think, much less question the regime. Right now, in a twist worthy of the worst "Black Mirror" episode ever, we have been given an egocentric Twitter-obsessed toddler of a leader whose every opinion is shat onto the interwebs and every statement immediately becomes top news. He's a goddamn reality show star treating his new civil servant job like a goddamn reality show. The public are so enamored by his personality (whether through love or hate) that each mini-missive blinds us to the one preceding it.
This is a hallmark of the Huxley model of a disturbing future: a society so focussed on shallow entertainments that they forget to question the ethics of their government's actions. If the "alternative facts" were to be taken as gospel by the entirety of the nation, then we're in Orwell territory. Luckily for us, there are still checks and balances to keep our personified id from shredding the U.S. Constitution. Already, judges are dismissing the week-old travel ban due to unconstitutionality. Thank the Founding Fathers we have them. If citizens and the fourth estate (an institution that the president has already ordered to "shut up") are diligent, the Tromp cannot actually become Napoleon the pig.
So truly, as long as the people do not become their own worst enemy by willingly submitting to metaphorical nationalistic endorphin festivals soaked in cheap alcohol and laced with appeals to sexuality, they will survive this administration with a justice system intact. See you after the Superbowl.
