ORWELL WAS BOTH RIGHT AND WRONG

George Orwell's classic 1984 is a work which has probably exercised more influence upon me than any other. I read it first in high school and a couple more times when I was in my twenties. Then I blissfully forgot about it through my college years and later, immersed as I was in pre-modern historical issues, while the trends he predicted were inexorably moving toward their realization. Since 9/11, having been forced to recognize what century I'm living in, I have re-discovered its relevance.

Orwell's achievement was so great because he based his work on James Burnham's The Managerial Revolution . It was Burnham who first predicted that the societies of the future would be ruled by faceless bureaucrats, not the showy military "man on horseback" or the charismatic demagogues our Founding Fathers feared. If only they could have read his book! For without his insights-- which were not yet possible in the eighteenth century-- the Founders constructed a nation which they thought was protected from both these types, but which was in fact defenseless against the new type of ruler. They foresaw the Imperial Presidency and the influence of Big Money. But they did not foresee, nor provide any protections, against the type of institution which would make the victory of these evils possible, despite all their precautions. They did not foresee that when dictatorship came to the United States, it would come under cover of a largely anonymous and unelected civilian bureaucracy. The prototype of that bureaucracy was born in this country in 1947, two years before Orwell's death, as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Over the past sixty years, it has been increasing its power and practicing the techniques of despotic control in Third World countries. And now, following a spectacular "terrorist attack" wich was probably staged by itself (see Webster Griffin Tarpley, 9/11: Synthetic Terror and David Ray Griffin, 9/11 and the American Empire: The Intellectuals Speak Out)it is bringing those techniques home. Of course it is not alone-- we now have a vast intelligence bureaucracy, both military and civilian, which, supported by the big corporations, actually rules this country. Presidential elections have become a mere game like the world series, with no relevance to our future-- whoever wins the policies will remain the same, for they are not made by the president, but rather the president is made by and must answer to an elite more powerful than the nominal head of the executive branch. Homeland Security is the vehicle by which an that elite plans to seize total control over this nation: if one wants to know the terrifying details of what it has in store for us, one should read Douglas Valentine's essay, "When the Phoenix Comes Home to Roost", available over the net.

Where Orwell was wrong, as Bertrand Russell pointed out long ago, was in concluding that the worst threat to freedom would come from the Left. Despite its many atrocities and initial success, Communism was not a good vehicle for an enduring totalitarianism for three reasons. First of all, it possessed an unworkable economic system which was bound to fail in the end. This economic system rested in turn on a misperception of human nature, an ignorance of the ineradicable influence of greed. It also underestimated the appeal of power for its own sake, and failed to see that its leaders would be corrupted by excessive power whether or not they had renounced the struggle for economic gain (which in fact they rarely did). But its most serious misjudgement was its inability to grasp the power of tribalistic loyalties, be they racial, ethnic, religious or whatever, over human behavior. The most admirable aspect of Communism was its belief in the brotherhood of Man-- at least the working man-- as expressed in the Internationale. But this was also its greatest weakness. For in fact humans, like all social animals, are programmed to fight for their own group against all other groups. that is why the form of totalitarianism with the most promise for the future is fascism. Today's fascism-- a peculiarly American brand-- does not express itself, as Mussolini's and Hitler's did, by endless parades of goose-stepping soldiers. But the ubiquitous flags with which Albert Speer adorned Nazi rallies are there, every time I walk down my own suburban street. They are hung out not by order of the state, but by individuals who, having been born into a democracy, have freely given their support to policies which are slowly but inexorably killing that democracy. They indicate the extent of public support for the torture and the murder of people who are not "like us"-- not "Americans" as the average American defines that term.

From writing my biography of Albert Speer, I have come to see how effectively the primitive tribal instincts of the average man and woman can be manipulated by a dictatorship to support a policy of brutality and genocide. I have seen how an elite, concerned above all with the perpetuation of its own power, can convince people to surrender their own freedom for the sake of a chimerical "security" and superiority over groups they conceive of as foreign (even if, like German Jews and American Muslims, they are little different from themselves). For three years I immersed myself in the writing of this book, little noticing what was going on around me, although the staged attacks of 9/11 had occurred during those years. When I emerged from my ivory tower, I was shocked to find that the very thing I had been writing about was happening here, that our government was appealing to the lowest common instincts of the man and woman in the street, the hatred of the "other", in exactly the same way the Nazis had, although the trappings were different, less militaristic and more suited to American tastes. After all, we like to think of ourselves as nice guys. We would never accept a doctrine which openly preaches the idea of a master race conquering all the others, and our elite is shrewd enough to know that's it's a good idea to have friends among every ethnic group, if nothing else so that it will have someone to blame for so-called "terrorist attacks". It is also shrewd enough to know that it must accept a certain number of people who are not white, Anglo-Saxon or male into its ranks, and so it has. But in fact, its tribalism is every bit as vicious as that of the Nazis, even though the American nation can hardly be conceived of as a Volk, an ethnically homogenous group. The reaction of the American public to the continuing disclosures of the use of torture-- even in cases where the acquisition of intelligence is not the goal-- has been a mixture of superficial indignation and indifference, or perhaps something worse than indifference. Our ruling elite knows human nature so well that it is possible to buy T-shirts proclaiming "I'd rather be torturing detainees" over the net. And when I go out in public with my button displaying the famous "hooded man", with the caption "Got Freedom?" as a protest against torture, I have not once received either a supportive compliment or an expression of discomfort at this symbol of suffering.

How many of these people displaying flags or stickers saying "We support our troops" give a thought to the real victims? How many Americans who read 1984 (probably as an assignment in college, for why else would they read a work of serious political criticism?) recognize in Winston the real counterpart of the thousands now imprisoned by our government in its so-called "War on Terror"? How many realize that the methods that the CIA and its clones are using against foreigners will soon be turned against American Muslims and dissidents? As Judge Howe says in the film Judgement at Nuremberg, "A nation is not a rock. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult." When it came to slavery, the closest analogy to the present gulag of secret prisons, the American people showed what they stood for. They were willing to fight a bloody Civil War to end it. But something has happened to us since then. For most Americans will not even lift a voice of dissent against the outrages of today, let alone take up arms. We have become a nation of moral cowards. As for me, I can hardly sleep at night when I think of the agonies of the victims and hear their screams in my nightmares. I cannot help but think of the words which Orwell put into the mouth of O'Brien when he was torturing Winston, which express so well the mentality of our ruling elite: "Power is not a means, it is an end... Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. The old civilizations were founded upon love and justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world, there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement... If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stepping on a human face-- forever."

I love the American Constitution and the ideals upon which this nation was founded. But when I walk down the street and see all those flags and stickers, can I be blamed for seeing the swastika banners with which Nuremberg was draped during Nazi rallies? Is it surprising that the sight of the Stars and Stripes, once so dear to me, now makes me sick? For what Jefferson said concerning slavery holds true here as well: "God has no attribute which can take side with us in this contest."