His View: George Orwell’s ‘1984’ presaged today’s GOP

It was 40 years ago this month that Winston Smith, protagonist of George Orwell’s “1984,” finally mustered the courage to denounce Big Brother. He sat at a table in his grimy apartment, hidden from the government camera that spied on him constantly, and began writing in a diary filled with empty pages.

It was a dangerous undertaking, for the state was all-knowing and all-powerful, but Winston Smith saw through the lies, intimidation and fear that the Party — his Party — used to control its members.

The parallels between the Party of “1984” and the Grand Old Party of 2024 are striking.

“Even the humblest party member is expected to be … a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation and orgiastic triumph,” Orwell wrote. “He should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war.” Blessed with supplicants of this caliber, Big Brother can twist reality into any shape he chooses.

Sound familiar?

The Big Brother on the cover of Orwell’s book was a fleshy man with a thick mustache who bore a striking resemblance to Joseph Stalin. Today’s Big Brother is a fleshy Florida Man with thinning blonde hair and a deep orange complexion.

In “1984,” common citizens laughed and cheered at newsreel footage of warplanes strafing refugees in lifeboats. They guffawed as desperate mothers tried to shield their babies from the bullets. And they howled with glee as mangled bodies tumbled into the sea, where blood mixed with brine.

Just guessing, but that newsreel footage probably would elicit a similar response at campaign rallies for today’s Big Brother.

In Orwell’s dystopian novel, the Party’s fundamental genius was its use of “doublethink.” Also known as “reality control,” doublethink allowed Party members to swallow unbelievable oxymorons without choking.

“Doublethink,” Orwell wrote, “means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” More broadly, doublethink is a process in which logic is continually at war with logic, thus allowing its practitioners to “repudiate morality while laying claim to it.”

Now think back to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Recall the scenes from that day: The gallows; the “Hang Mike Pence” chants; the thugs beating police officers with a flagpole — bearing the American flag, no less. Recall that angry mob smashing its way inside the building, vandalizing, looting and defiling the very seat of American democracy.

Today’s Big Brother lauds those goons as “patriots” and promises to free them from prison if he regains power. Swallow hard, because — presto! — Jan. 6 has been recast as just another day filled with peaceful sightseers at the U.S. Capitol. The fact that more than 130 law enforcement officers were injured that day is, well, an inconvenient truth for those who claim to “Back the Blue.”

The official ideology of today’s GOP is riddled with contradictions, but Party members dare not speak this truth lest they be denounced as RINOs — Republican In Name Only. Once you’re a RINO, you cease to exist in today’s Party (see Cheney, Liz; thoughtcrime; unperson; memory hole).

With no members willing to decry its hypocrisy, today’s GOP claims to abhor government intrusion while simultaneously thrusting its hands between the legs of pregnant women who require an abortion. Never mind what a woman and her doctor decide, the party of “local control” marches to the dicta of wise old men in distant capital cities.

Cloaked in their phony patriotism, nothing is too idiotic for today’s Party faithful to swallow. The distinction between truth and falsehood isn’t important because facts are uninteresting. Party members enthusiastically parrot ridiculous lies while denouncing the heresy of simple truth. Objective reality has been crowded out by delusion.

All of which begs the question: Why are Party members — particularly those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder — so blindly loyal to a leader who gives them so little? Big Brother inherited immense wealth from his parents, so he fancies himself the peer of dictators and captains of industry. Little people like you and me count for nothing in his world.

In the final analysis, today’s Party is a caricature of what it purports to be and its leader is a career conman who makes Caligula look good. But these are facts, dull and uninteresting, so they are of little concern.

“Ignorance is strength” was a Party slogan in “1984” and, 40 years later, it is still true.

Brock has been a Daily News columnist for more than 20 years. He has lived on the Palouse even longer.