George Orwell’s
novel, “1984” was first published in 1949.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) is a dystopian novel by the English
writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book.
Thematically, it centers on the
consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of
people and behaviors within society. Orwell,
a democratic socialist and an anti-Stalinist, modelled an authoritarian
socialist Britain on the Soviet Union in the era
of Stalinism and the practices of censorship and propaganda in Nazi Germany.More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts
within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated.
Censorship - Trump has sued a variety of news outlets if they publish anything that is critical of him.
Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, said it has agreed to pay $16 million to President Trump's foundation for his future presidential library to settle a lawsuit he filed over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during last fall's elections.
The settlement includes Paramount paying Trump's legal fees, according to a statement from the company late Tuesday. The settlement does not include any statement of apology or regret, Paramount said.
As part of the settlement, Paramount said, 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates in the future after they've aired. They may be redacted due to legal or national security concerns. The suit also settled all claims by Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who had joined Trump's suit. The White House referred comment to the president's legal team.
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/02/nx-s1-5290171/trump-lawsuit-paramount-cbs-60-minutes-kamala-harris
He also has sued Harvard -
In an April 11 letter to Harvard, the Trump administration had called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university and changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus and stop recognizing some student clubs. The administration has argued universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel's war in Gaza.
Harvard University announced Monday that it has filed suit to halt a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration's demands to limit activism on campus.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5372214/harvard-sues-trump-administration-research
It has gone through several revisions
since then, including a 75th anniversary edition in 2024, a revised
edition in 1977, and a graphic novel version by George Orwell and Fido Nesti in
2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Since we have been living in a dystopian society since January 20, I thought it would be interesting to compare the ideas in the novel to the world we are living in today.
I decided to borrow the graphic version
from the local library for a little variety.
Although the book DOES have about 35
pages of printed material, the majority of the book is made up of illustrations
that were reminiscent of the novel “Maus”.
A quick skim of the book today mentioned three key phrases:
1) War is Peace
2) Freedom is slavery
3) Ignorance is strength
Here is how they apply today:
1) Trump just ordered massive bombs to be dropped on Iran, ostensibly to end the conflict between Israel and Iran - and now he wants the Nobel Peace Prize
2) America has a long of history of supporting unions, but his administration has been trying to discourage unions
3) Educational institutions have been forced to eliminate courses on CRT and DEI, since the administration only wants a sanitized view of history taught.
Like “Maus”, “1984” has been banned.
Ironically, the book was banned in the USSR for being anti-communist, and it
was banned in America for being PRO communist.
For starters, the first paragraph shown
above sums up where we are today.
Totalitarianism – Donald Trump, a convicted felon, has little regard for the
law, since he has disregarded court orders numerous times. In addition, the
Supreme Court gave him at least some immunity on July 1, 2024.
In a landmark ruling
with potentially major impact on the 2024 presidential campaign, a U.S. Supreme
Court majority ruled that presidents — including former President Donald Trump
— have immunity from prosecution when carrying out “official acts.”
“Under our constitutional structure of separated
powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to
absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive
and preclusive constitutional authority,” the court wrote. “And he is entitled to
at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There
is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
The July 1 decision in
Trump v. United States fell along partisan lines, with the six conservative
justices voting in the majority and the three liberal justices dissenting.
The ruling follows the June 27 presidential debate and comes amid a
campaign in which both political parties have cried foul over perceived abuses
of presidential power. This issue is sure to become an issue on the campaign
trail.
Somewhere between 5 and 6 million people participated, but attendance for Trump’s parage was only a few thousand people
The ninth
iteration of the Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership series, Project 2025 is based on a controversial interpretation of
the unitary executive theory that states that the entire executive branch is under the complete control of the president. The project's proponents say it would dismantle a government bureaucracy that is unaccountable and mostly liberal. Critics have called it an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan that would steer the U.S. toward autocracy.] Some legal experts say it would undermine the rule of law, separation of powers, separation of church and state, and civil liberties.
The project calls
for the replacement of merit-based federal civil service workers by people loyal to Trump and to take partisan control of
key government agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), Department of Commerce (DOC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Other agencies, including the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) and the Department of Education (ED), would be dismantled. It calls for reducing environmental
regulations to favor fossil fuels and proposes
making the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) less independent while defunding its stem cell research.] The blueprint seeks to reduce taxes on corporations, institute
a flat income tax on
individuals, cut Medicare and Medicaid, and reverse as
many of President Joe Biden's policies as
possible. It proposes criminalizing pornography, removing legal protections against anti-LGBT
discrimination, and ending diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DEI) programs while having the DOJ
prosecute anti-white racism instead. The project recommends the
arrest, detention, and mass deportation of illegal immigrants, and deploying the U.S. Armed Forces for domestic law enforcement. The plan also proposes enacting laws supported by the Christian right such as
criminalizing those who send and receive abortion and birth control medications and
eliminating coverage of emergency contraception.
During his campaign, Trump threatened to deport 10,000.000 people, which is a really bad idea , since it has cost $330 million so far. Stephen Miller, the Nazi in the White House, wants ICE to increase the number of arrests to 3000 people a day.
Most of Project 2025's writers and contributors worked in either Trump's first administration (2017−2021) or his 2024 election campaign. Several Trump campaign officials maintained contact with Project 2025, seeing its goals as aligned with their Agenda 47 program. Trump later attempted to distance himself from the plan After he won the 2024 election, he nominated several of the plan's architects and supporters to positions in his second administration. Four days into his second term, analysis by Time found that nearly two-thirds of Trump's executive actions "mirror or partially mirror" proposals from Project 2025.
Trump threatened enough GOP representatives that both
the House and Senate versions passed with very thin margins, despite the fact
that the budget was opposed by at least 60% of the voting public.
Mass surveillance
–
Perhaps
more surprisingly is who comes in second place. The leader of the free world,
The United States of America, has an average of two cameras for every 10 people
in its major cities. With the country’s security on higher alert than ever
after the recent attack on the Capitol building, surveillance has never been
tracked more carefully as law enforcement look to limit the risk of domestic
terrorism. Online surveillance is no different, despite tense debates over online manipulation, the
government indulged in requests for over 800,000 of its citizens personal data
in 2019 alone.
In addition, DOGE now has access to more of our personal
information.
The Supreme Court, on Friday, for now gave
the DOGE team launched by Elon Musk unfettered access to information collected
by the Social Security Administration, data that includes Social Security
numbers, medical and mental health records, and family court information.
In an
unsigned order, the court, acting at the request of the Trump administration,
temporarily overturned actions by two lower courts that had limited the DOGE
team's access to sensitive private information at the Social Security
Administration. The high court sent the case back to the Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals in Richmond, Va., to rule on the merits.
Sadly, most people have never heard of
Palintar, a company that has the ability to consolidate information from
various sources, which has enabled ICE to more easily track down illegal
immigrants.
The company’s founder, Peter Thiel, has
made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes. His
support helped J.D. Vance get elected in Ohio.
The company has
four main projects: Palantir Gotham, Palantir Foundry, Palantir Apollo, and
Palantir AIP. Palantir Gotham is an intelligence and defense tool used by
militaries and counter-terrorism analysts.
Its customers have included the United
States Intelligence Community (USIC) and United
States Department of Defense. Their software as a service (SaaS)
is one of five offerings authorized for Mission Critical National Security
Systems (IL5])
by the U.S. Department of Defense. Palantir Foundry has been used for data integration and
analysis by corporate clients such as Morgan Stanley, Merck KGaA, Airbus, Wejo, Lilium, PG&E and Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles. Palantir Apollo is a platform to facilitate continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD)
across all environments.
Palantir's
original clients have been federal agencies of the USIC. It has since expanded
its customer base to serve both international as well as state and local governments,
and also to private companies
The company has been criticized for its role in
expanding government surveillance using artificial
intelligence and facial
recognition software. Former employees and
critics state that the company's contracts under the second
Trump Administration, which enabled the aggregation of sensitive data on
Americans across administrative agencies,
are particularly problematic.
