Funny Thing About 1984

I just read George Orwell’s book 1984 is making a resurgence on the reading lists.  It is again becoming fashionable for the metropolitan elites to read it as they question the government under Donald Trump and the Republicans.  The funny thing is the conservative movement has been talking about 1984 since 2009 when the Democrat’s swept into power.  Funny how perspectives change as we strive to crush the constitution, limit free speech and expand government surveillance and control.

In 2013, I wrote Ben Franklin Had It Right, talking about how if we are willing to give up our freedoms for the illusion of security we will ultimately lose those freedoms.  For the past 8-years supporters of the President were willing to do precisely that, now supporters of the new President appear willing to allow him to remove even more, and of course the opposition is outraged at the thought.

The unfortunate thing is once you’ve surrendered those protections, you cannot easily get them back just because you don’t like the new administration.  You can bluster, you can protest, you can destroy, and you can argue about “alternative facts” but you’ve allowed the precedent to take place and that is all that really matters unless some fundamental shift in the real-politic occurs.