Politics in 1984

Last year we had to read the dystopian novel by George Orwell, 1984, in our English class.

I asked my teacher outside of class, during our ‘tutorial’ period, whether or not she saw that this could still happen, whether or not the events of 1984 might still become reality later on.  This was in March, so it was after President Obama took office.  She said that no, it could not happen, and that we avoided it…in basic paraphrasing…because of the movements of the sixties and seventies. I do not know if she referred to them as such…cannot remember, but in essence the ‘hippie’ and other movements going on at the time.

Even though I can see her point, I respectfully disagree with it…I could not get into any depth at the time because class was about to start.

But I think the point here is what most political movements in history…the recent ones especially after the American Revolution…is simply a kind of my big government versus your big government.  That these forces can be hijacked, and usurped from the inside, and turned into something that is very different from its original intent.  That they do not like the kind of government control that was being offered by the other side, mainly in regards to the Vietnam War, but that they want their own kind of big government, one that is socially responsible and provides for the social welfare of the people.

Which has been a rather constant thread throughout human history, most uprisings, revolutions, and rebellions only established their own version of the problem, some disgruntled person or persons led the charge against the current leadership, overthrows them, and then eventually someone else comes into power.

Which is one of the things that make the American Revolution so unique, it was a revolution to over throw the current system, and then completely replace it with a brand new government, different from anything that came before, with a whole lot of unique freedoms.

But more on that later.

Right now we are going through much the same thing, both parties and all sides are offering us two different versions of Big Government.  Two sides of the same coin with little difference.  Now while there is a lot of people genuinely interested in getting government off the backs of the people, that does not mean that the leadership of any of the parties want this.  Both are taking us down much the same path.

It is unclear though, who is who, who really cares because they do, and who is actually trying to say ‘follow me, I can do it bigger and better than the other guy’.

It is also unclear to me how much of 1984 we are actually going to get in the long run.  Where exactly we are being taken with this dangerous growth of government into all of our lives at this moment in time.

But what I do know is that we should regard with suspicion, and danger, the growth of any government.  In our lives, or in other people’s lives across the globe.  We should be on guard against that and have an open and honest debate, to question with boldness if the government does decide it needs to grow.  Whether it is in the name of national security, or in the name of social well-being.