If you haven’t yet read the book “1984” by George Orwell, you absolutely must.
I loathed that novel when I read it as a teen, because I hated the entire idea of an authoritarian government controlling its people so deftly. The dystopian world it described was just so depressing, so wrong, from the first page to the last. And yet, here we are, almost 75 years after Orwell first penned the book, and we see how that hellish science fiction novel is now playing out before us.
Even the left-leaning Wikipedia describes the book as a “cautionary tale” whose theme centers on “the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people and behaviors within society.” Modeled on the authoritarian states of Stalin’s Soviet Union and of Nazi Germany, the book takes a deep dive into the role of truth within a society and the ways in which truth and facts can be manipulated by government to control the population.
What you saw and heard with your own eyes and your own ears, the government denied and demanded you cast it aside and not believe it.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, “1984”
Through the Ministry of Truth, the government (referred to in the book as “Big Brother” or “the Party”) engages in endless propaganda, intense surveillance, and the open and obvious negating of historical fact. Individual thought and questioning of authority led to immediate persecution. Why deny facts and rewrite history? Well, as Orwell says in the book:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” ― George Orwell, “1984”
Now, let’s fast-forward to the present day. I will begin with this profound statement that keeps churning over in my head: “They must really think we are stupid!”
The “they” is our government (federal and state). The “we” is you and me and the other 300-plus million Americans across our country.
Alas, here we are, entering the final quarter of 2023, and we have the U.S. government and many state governments (including New York’s former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, current left-wing Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the super-majority Democratic legislature) proclaiming for all to hear that they did not force anyone to do anything detrimental these past 3 1/2 years.
UNBELIEVABLE! Did you hear this? They’re actually saying with straight faces that they didn’t force you to wear a mask, or lock down and shutter your businesses, or choose between taking an experimental drug or losing your job. ... Nope! They did none of that. And you—well, you are flat-out crazy if you think they did. You are lying. You are exaggerating and totally overreacting.
Unfortunately for Big Brother, oops, I mean unfortunately for our 100 percent reliable, never-lies-to-us government, we have actual documents (including lawsuits), news stories, social media posts, and videos of the government at all levels mandating and forcing us to do all of those things, and more. Here’s just one example of Biden himself, the “Big Guy,” mandating the COVID-19 shot:
Biden isn’t alone. No, no. His entire administration is right there with him. His head of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Douglas Parker, is also now lying through his teeth about the OSHA mandate that REQUIRED (not suggested) that all employers in the entire nation with 100 or more employees force their employees to get the COVID-19 shot, otherwise they had to wear a mask and test constantly for COVID-19. (That OSHA mandate was struck down by SCOTUS in 2022 because it was unconstitutional, by the way). Then there’s the head of HHS, Xavier Becerra, saying there was never a mask mandate. What?! Another blatant lie.
Please take the two minutes to watch this clip from Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.). You truly won’t believe your ears with the [expletive] these Biden agency heads are spewing! As Mr. Kiley says in the video, the government is trying to tell us that “2 plus 2 doesn’t equal 4.” You don’t get much more Orwellian than that!
Why are they backtracking now?
Easy answers: 1) they didn’t have the authority to do any of it (all of it was unconstitutional), so they can’t justify and defend it now, and 2) if they can convince you they didn’t do it before, then you won’t mind as much when they do it again.
This should make your blood boil. It’s particularly infuriating to those of us who were speaking out from basically day one trying to tell people that the lockdowns, the masking, the shots, the limited number of people at your wedding or at your Thanksgiving table were all violations of the Constitution and our basic human rights! My colleague, Jeffrey Tucker, who’s the founder and president of Brownstone Institute, where I am a fellow, wrote an article the other day on this topic. At the end of it, he concluded:
“The major media is tacitly conspiring with the political establishment, the corporate sector, and the administrative state to pretend like that fiasco was completely normal and also entirely forgettable, not even worth naming. We did the best we could with the information we had, so just stop complaining about it!”
“This is not going to work. It is too close to living memory for this level of gaslighting to be effective. The more these official institutions engage in this crazy form of denialism, the more they discredit themselves.”
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Bobbie Anne Flower Cox
Author
Bobbie Anne is an attorney with 25 years experience in the private sector, who continues to practice law but also lectures in her field of expertise—government over-reach and improper regulation and assessments.
