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Like many other people across the country, members of the River Highlands Book Group are reading George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel, Nineteen Eight-Four. In fact, sales of this classic novel have skyrocketed during the last couple years, especially after Trump spokesperson Kellyann Conway taught all of us a new term: alternative facts.

The novel, however, has often captured our attention. When first published, World War II was only four years in the past and the Cold War was beginning. Time Magazine, at that time wrote that "any reader in 1949 can uneasily see his own shattered features in Winston Smith, can scent in the world of 1984 a stench that is already familiar."

In 2003, while the United States grappled with the horror of the 9/11 attacks, former Vice-President Gore accused George Bush’s administration of “taking us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, Big Brother-style government -- toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book '1984' --- than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America."

Then, in 2013, as news of NSA surveillance surfaced, leaker Edward Snowden frightened us with his observation that "The types of collection in the ["1984"] -- microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us -- are nothing compared to what we have available today. ... We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person."

In 2017, as people compared Orwell’s concept of Doublethink (the ability to “hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accept both of them�) to Kellyann Conways’s “alternative facts� comment, sales of the novel exploded making 1984 the #1 bestseller on Amazon’s list for a time. In fact, Amazon reported that sales of the book surged 10,000% between Trump’s inauguration and Conway’s claim that the administration had “alternative facts� regarding the size of the inauguration crowd.

Clearly, Orwell’s book written almost 70 years ago, still speaks today.

The protagonist, Winston Smith, works as a low-ranking ruling party member at the Ministry of Truth where people rewrite historical documents to reflect the Party’s ever-changing positions. The Party controls everything and everyone, even history and language. Employees of the Ministry of Truth even erase from history persons whom the Party “erased� for crimes, actions, and even thoughts against the Party.

However, largely because Winston is involved in this rewriting of history, he comes to doubt the Party and its Truth. Because the Party--Big Brother--is always watching, Winston can only imagine he might not be the only person with doubts. Soon, however, he meets Julia, also a member of the Outer Party and comes to learn that she, too, resents the Party. A second person he meets, O’Brien who is a member of the Inner Party, Winston suspects of belonging to a secret Brotherhood resistance movement.

As the plot unfolds, Winston learns the truth about Julia, O’Brien, and the resistance which then leads the reader to one of the most disturbing, dark endings in literature…� He loved Big Brother.�

While reading or re-reading the novel, it is easy to see why the novel has once again captured our attention. As the world watches the United States President deny facts, even those recorded on tapes, and sees him rewrite history with made-up versions of events, many have come to associate the novel, 1984, with the attacks on facts, truth, and the institutions and norms of government.

Readers of 1984, however, will quickly see that the world of that novel is not our world. The government of Oceania, instead, is a prime example of totalitarianism while ours is one slipping into authoritarianism, a step along the way to dictatorship. So, to compare our situation to 1984 is an exaggeration, but that does not mean we should ignore its warning.

While true that some of our leaders and media are trying to get us to internalize “alternative facts� by bombarding us with them, keeping us distracted and overwhelmed, and even slyly promoting violence and intimidation of those who resist, we are not yet in the world Orwell portrayed.

However, we are living in a dangerous time so must call out the lies and the attempts to rewrite history. We must seek to protect the institutions and norms of our form of representative democracy. We must hold our leaders accountable for their duty to uphold the Constitution. And we must not sink into despair by believing we are presently living the world of Orwell’s 1984.

We can still resist by informing ourselves with credible sources, participating in the right and responsibility to vote, frequently contacting our government leaders, and yes, even protesting.
We must each do our part to keep this country from sinking into authoritarianism, fascism, and even totalitarianism for to sit on the sidelines and deny the stress fractures in our system is to bring the world of 1984 ever closer.