Orwell A-Go-Go

Keen observers of the political scene have long noted the similarities between Orwell's fictional worlds and our non-fictional world. But while the fascistic bent in U.S. polity is nothing new, it seems to be accelerating of late. What's more, elements of this trend has even been noticed (if not named for what they are) by the mainstream media in the last few weeks. Let us briefly tot them up.

Welcome to Airstrip One. It's all war, all the time, for the rest of our lives. Not only is Iraq slated for destruction, but Mr. Rumsfeld assures us that the U.S. is perfectly capable of kicking North Korea's ass at the same time. Moreover, Narco News has reported, citing "reliable sources", that U.S. Marines will join the civil war in Colombia come February. And don't look now, but the job has not been finished in Afghanistan, and Iran appears to be next in line for U.S. carpet bombs.

Dubyathink. George W. may never have opened his mouth without practicing in Doublethink. But his quip that Iraq's arms declaration marked "a disappointing day for those who long for peace" may have been the capper. So, the U.S. spends as much on the military as the rest of the world combined, the U.S. is preparing for war on Jehova knows how many fronts, the U.S. has re-written its internal rules of engagement to a strike-first, nuke-first stance, the U.S. has vowed to invade Iraq without the consent of the international community, the U.S. has flooded the Middle East with arms since the end of the first Gulf War, etc., etc., etc.. Yet, it's Iraq that is disappointing those who long for peace. Okay.

Down the Hole. There's a website devoted to the contemporary Memory Hole phenomenon, first elucidated by Orwell. The idea, of course, is that officials pursue actions and make statements completely contradicting actions and statements of an earlier date -- sometimes even just a few days earlier. The mainstream media has not actually commented upon this phenomenon. But given that it happily regurgitates State Department rhetoric without comment, if one were to keep a clip file of all the stories concerning Iraq, let's say, one could easily hang the media with its own rope. Last year's striking example was the shift in Afghan war aims from capturing bin Laden dead or alive to overthrowing the Taleban. When that goal proved to be attainable, suddenly we were led to believe that that had been the goal all along. This year's best shift may have been the rearranging of potential actors to take part in the upcoming Iraq massacre. Throughout the Summer, and into the Autumn, the invasion was to have been undertaken by an international coalition comprised, presumably, of forces from all the world's countries. But on or about November 13 (check your local newspaper's web archive), the actors became a "coalition of the willing". Who forms this "coalition of the willing"? The U.S. and Britain, apparently.

Torturous Times. One recalls that Winston Smith was finally broken by unrelenting torture. The U.S. is using torture methods in interrogating suspected terrorists or sympathisers in Afghanistan ("rough tactics", the newspaper headline terms it). Not too surprising. But perhaps surprising that the Washington Post would up and denounce the practice.

Big Brother is Watching. First there was the PATRIOT act. Then there was the Feds' desire to snoop into library patrons' web surfing habits. Then there was Operation TIPS. Then there was Total Information Awareness. Now it comes out that the Bush Administration is going to lean on ISPs to help it "Secure Cyberspace" (that is to say, spy on users). Yeah, leave it to the party of "small government".

So is the United States truly sliding toward Fascism? Well, as Orwell argues in this blog's eponymous essay (and as should be readily apparent), it hardly matters to overseas victims of U.S. foreign policy: twelve million or so dead Native Americans; a half-million dead civilians in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, and Dresden; two million dead Koreans; five million dead Indochinese; a million dead Iraqis; tens of thousands of dead Central Americans; and so on. And as World history's premier gulag state, the massively disproportionate numbers of non-whites wasting away in the slammer probably also think things couldn't get much more repressive.

So it boils down to, then, is the U.S. government going to start imprisoning and whacking white, American dissidents? Probably not -- although it will certainly attempt to spook us into silence. But given that the repressive machinery of the State will not fall upon whites, that means our responsibility to speak and act out against the administration's foreign and domestic policies is so much the greater.

Posted by Eddie Tews at December 31, 2002 06:01 PM