George Orwell, English writer, “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous”

George Orwell (1903-1950) is perhaps best known for his novels ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’, two novels in which he warned about the dangers of totalitarianism. Both have given us euphemisms that are continuously used today as well as the term “Orwellian” to describe real-world examples of the themes presented in his books.

While the former was an animal-based fable set on a farm that took a dig at Stalin and his regime in the Soviet Union, the latter was a generic dystopian look at life in Oceania in the province of Airstrip One, what had once been Great Britain. In 1984, the Party, under Big Brother, keeps control over the population through mass surveillance, manipulation of the truth and perpetual war.

“War is peace”

The world of ‘1984’ is divided up among three competing superstates that are perpetually at war, Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. Orwell explained this state of affairs saying: “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. The war is waged to keep the very structure of society intact.”

Thus the “WAR IS PEACE”, part of Oceania’s national slogan, with the rest being “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” Through dedicating any surplus of resources to the war effort, the Party can keep society impoverished and more easily managed. It also provides a distraction, broadcast onto screens everywhere as mandatory viewing, from the dreadful living conditions the population experience.

Almost 80 years after ‘1984’ was published some feel like we are living in a real-life version of the dystopian novel. Everywhere you go there are cameras and microphones monitoring and recording your actions as well as GPS tracking your movements.

Unscrupulous politicians and their lackeys are selling us false narratives of events and telling us not to believe what we see with our own eyes, modern day “newspeak” and “doublethink.”

And lately it seems that we are using military actions to distract from their scandals and inability to effectively govern. How long will the latest war last? Perhaps indefinitely.

Trump said of the war in Iran that the U.S. has “a virtually unlimited supply” of weapons, adding, “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully.”

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