The Genius of George Orwell...

Not too long ago I read 1984 by George Orwell, and the book was just scary prophetic.  At first I read it thinking, "wow, that's really good" but at some point I turned a page and thought, "okay, this is just too right on, and this isn't funny anymore!"

Quite profoundly, Orwell was looking at trends in 1948 and making predictions about the future.  Watching government control grow through the degradation of individuals and their individual freedom in his own time, Orwell understood the mechanisms a control state would have in place to oppress its people with impunity.

Cover for 1984

One of the most frightening of these mechanisms in 1984 was the party slogan "Freedom is Slavery."  At first I was confused as to how people actually applied this in our society today (the other two slogans, "War is Peace" and "Ignorance is Strength" aren't too hard to understand how they apply), but what this slogan is saying is actually cunning as all get-out.

It says to the masses, "Instead of being truly free, you people are merely free to be enslaved.  Whatever it is that enslaves you, wherever you find a lack of self-control within yourself, you are now free to give yourself over to that lack of self-control and/or to whatever else it is that binds you.  You are now free to be a slave to that thing that holds you back from becoming a truly powerful person."

Once I understood this slogan in Orwell's world, I saw it everywhere in mine.  This is now a battle cry in our society.  Basically people are finding themselves enslaved to all sorts of bad habits, lifestyles or character faults.  Rather than say, "I want to be free and will do anything to be free from this oppression in my life" people are saying things like "I want to be free to be a slave or at least live like one.  Leave me alone and give me the freedom to not have to change or bear any responsibility for doing so."

In so doing they are declaring in unwitting fashion "Freedom is Slavery" right along with Orwell's dystopia.