George Orwell was a huge influence on my early journalism career as his book Animal Farm contributed to my early resolve never to fall under the spell of Marxism. But when it came to Orwell’s famous confrontation with Henry Miller in Paris (debating the merits of joining the fight against fascism in Spain), I came firmly down on Miller’s side of remaining a pacifist. Orwell was soon shot through the throat, and fortunately miraculously recovered with his voice intact, enabling him to assume a prosperous career as a commentator for the BBC.
I’ve already exposed Orwell’s mysterious connections, and the possibility he was working for MI6. (Journalists make some of the best spooks.) Orwell always cited Somerset Maugham as his biggest influence, and that was long before Maugham was unmasked as an agent of MI6. Upon his deathbed Orwell gave a full confession regarding every spook he knew and who they worked for as best as he could determine. He was a patriotic citizen to the end, although his last book ended with a bold flourish, for it exposed cynical insights into the emerging national security state post-WWII, a system closer to fascism on steroids than democracy.
The great insight of 1984 was that the revolution was secretly orchestrated by the state in order to ID and neutralize budding revolutionaries. It was all part of a grand charade. There never was any real hope of reform. The world had been carved into oligarchies that shifted alliances to maintain perpetual war. In the book, random terror is created by missiles raining down on the city periodically, although we know suicide bombers are cheaper and harder to trace through the wilderness of mirrors, which is why they are the preferred instruments of modern state-sponsored terror. But Orwell’s analysis of the social strata was off considerably because as the security states grew stronger, the upper strata of the oligarchy got progressively smaller. Today’s chart has .01% at the top, and a mere 1% occupying the second rung. The middle class has effectively been melted into the proletariat, creating the new 99% working class stiffs.
Most people imagine Orwell as the protagonist of 1984, but I can more easily imagine him as identifying with the leader of the fake opposition delivering the protagonist to the Ministry of Truth for his re-indoctrination mind-control.
On the dawn of a new year, I wonder if a cycle of change might not be on the horizon and the power of the .01% to call the shots might not be fading somewhat. As an indication of this novel trend, I cite the difficulty of Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton to corral the next election exclusively for the old guard. At the same time, one must carefully evaluate any messiahs before selecting one as real because the so-called whistleblowers covered by the mass media are spooks. Real whistleblowers are eliminated and discredited (just google Danny Casolaro) and never appear on the cover of Time magazine.
I feel a glimmer of hope our millennials might one day rise above petty earthly attachments long enough to shatter Monsanto’s toxic influence over our economy, rip the profit motive out of the medical establishment, and invest our wealth in free schools and hospitals, not wars of aggression over oil and opium. Technology has provided the solution, and the Internet can easily be deployed for a weekly or even daily referendum process, in which national opinion could shape shots before they get called.
Everything You Know is Twisted