I was helping host a CryptoParty last night so I didn’t have a chance to dig through much news. But I did see one story that gives me hope. Donald Trump’s election has resulted in massive protests, executive orders flying out of the Oval Office as fast as they can be signed, and a whole lot of Godwin’s Law (of which I’m guilty but I’m not sorry). However, it appears that one good thing has happened due to the election, an increase in literacy:
George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” is surging in popularity in the days since President Trump’s inauguration.
The iconic book, published nearly 70 years ago, is the sixth best-selling book on Amazon as of Tuesday morning.
Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday defended the White House’s statements about the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration by referring to it “alternative facts.”
She was referring to White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s insistence that Friday’s swearing-in was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” despite photos and videos showing that former President Obama’s 2009 inauguration clearly had a bigger crowd on the National Mall.
Many on social media compared “alternative facts” to the use of “newspeak,” a type of rhetoric in “1984” where the government lies to citizens and insists its lies are the only acceptable truth.
I commend Trump and his administration for their efforts to bolster literacy in this age of idiocy.
What makes me sad is that sales of 1984 go up whenever the surveillance state becomes prevalent in the news but either people aren’t reading the book or aren’t comprehending what they’re reading because nothing ever changes. Oh well, if people at least read the first chapter I’ll consider it a huge win for literacy. Yes, my standards have been lowered that far. That’s what happens when almost everybody around you was “educated” in a government indoctrination center.
…a whole lot of Godwin’s Law (of which I’m guilty but I’m not sorry).
Hear hear! Godwin himself has said that the invocation of the N-word does not mean that the analogy is invalid. Only that it’s inevitable. In the case of the course of the United States, in my opinion anyone who doesn’t consider the analogy valid has his head in the sand.
…either people aren’t reading the book or aren’t comprehending what they’re reading because nothing ever changes.
Change is glacially slow but if I’m not mistaken mistrust of government is on the rise. Enlightenment may yet arrive, and sooner than can be foreseen today.