in 1984, Orwell's character, Winston Smith, worked at the Ministry of Truth
"altering the past." This, too, has begun to
happen in Britain. There is talk of removing the works of Shakespeare from the school
curriculum; of not teaching British history in schools, and beginning to
teach history lessons about other countries and continents, particularly Africa. The attitude is that British history is
"shameful."
In 1984, "doublethink"
was used to influence what people believed because a lie repeated ad infinitum,
"becomes the truth." In Britain this concept has been reborn
as "Spin," and the Government has hired a large number of
"spin doctors" to baffle the public by changing facts and
statistics in a litany of endless repetition.
There are too many examples to present here, but one need only consider
how inflation figures have been juggled to see "spin" in
action. To make them look better and conform to Government predictions,
housing market statistics are no longer used because they
are such strong inflation indicators. Without them, it is easy to claim
false figures.
Orwell's novel presented a Britain in which telescreens spied on everyone.
Today, CCTV cameras are everywhere, in streets, stores, public buildings. Within the past two years, thousands of spy cameras have been placed on roads throughout Britain and thousands more are planned. The claim is that they will reduce accidents, but the huge fines
they enable are bringing tens of millions of pounds into the coffers of the Government and police departments with the result that the police are, according to some opinions, spending less time catching criminals and more time
on minor but lucrative speeding offences.
To see the Orwellian horrors we managed to avoid in 1984 suddenly
appearing in 2004 is ominous, and a cause for great concern.
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