“…Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.” 1984
The Russian Immigrant was almost giddy as he discussed his possible vacation plans for 2025. He wants to visit Canada and Panama, and he might even take his son to Greenland. He wants to see what Trump has gotten us. Boris (name changed) has been here for a couple of decades, long enough to forget the hardships and dangers of living under an oligarchy. All that he has left is a fuzzy memory of an orderly society. And now, now he is going to be on the right team. He hates the same people the leader hates. It is all so black and white. His family did not escape Russia to live in a different Russia. His family overcame the challenges of moving halfway around the world to live freely in the United States.
Oligarchies and strongmen offer simple answers to questions you didn’t know you had. And if you aren’t focused, you might find yourself caught up in the mob.
The news has stories of Trump threatening Panama, trying to buy Greenland, whether or not it is for sale, and insult our two biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. Trump treats sovereign countries as if they are as weak and feckless as Ted Cruz. Is this a negotiation gambit or a distraction, a way to deflect our attention from his questionable Cabinet picks and Project 2025 domestic programs?
I think that we are suffering from a failure of imagination. It isn’t the fake hyper masculinity of the foreign policy or the embracing of the culture wars. It is both. The goal is to overwhelm, to create the sensory overload that would allow all of this to become possible. We are blindfolded and swinging at a Piñata while it is being moved just outside our reach.
Listen to Trump talking about Canada and you hear Putin talking about Ukraine. Are there only three countries, the U.S., Russia, and China? Read Project 2025 and you find the remaking of society. Control. Your choices are no longer yours to make. It is important to keep us off balance, our focus on threats, real or imagined. Fears of Haitians eating house pets will soon be forgotten as the next caravan of migrants come marching towards our border. But the next caravan might be amassing along the northern border! We must prepare ourselves. Who will protect us?
1984 ends with the protagonist, Winston, overcoming himself. It will not be so easy to get 300 million Americans to overcome themselves, to get us to willingly accept the equivalent of 1984’s:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The battle has already begun. It is up to each of us to stave off the transformation of the United States of America to the Trumpian version of Oceania.
Dave
Picture – Stay On The Trail – David L Cunix