Have Attacks on History, Free Speech, and Independent Thinking Put America on an Orwellian Slippery Slope?

1984 Book Cover

There have been troubling trends of late that have pushed me to start re-reading the 1949 dystopian novel by George Orwell, “1984,” because there have been attacks on the history of the United States as well as attacks on free and independent thought by both political parties. When we start pulling down statues, claiming that news is fake, and the masses begin blindly parroting our politicians from both parties, we are allowing others to do our thinking for us and that is a very scary proposition.

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

This quote from 1984 has more relevance today in America than I ever thought possible, “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” It is scary, but this is happening from both ends of the political spectrum. With social media, smartphones, and other devices, we are truly living in a time when thinking can be controlled by just manipulating the news feeds to contain the desired messaging whether it is the truth or not. Because, again from 1984, “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party…