Politics and the English language

In these pleasant times when the Kremlin is busily replaying the 1930's and the theocon administration of George W. Bush establishing the "unitary executive" (as liberty must really be destroyed in order to protect it) one reaches instinctively for Orwell. This is not to say that he would have been perfect, or not faintly ridiculous - he was deeply flawed and faintly ridiculous. It doesn't matter one bit: his fearless, moral analysis is one of the high points of our liberal, enlightened civilization. And now that those values, of liberalism, of enlightenment, are engulfed and growing ever fainter, his example shines even brighter. You don't find such analysis, such honesty in the modern mainstream media. News are merging with the entertainment industry and fewer and fewer serious efforts are made to penetrate the political kabuki theatre of spin and obfuscation. 

The masses are kept satisfied with mindless entertainment and tired with the ever increasing demands of work efficiency, the elites, blind, shortsighted and greedy are no longer motivated by our enlightened heritage - we go on, but with no real conviction, no memory. So one does reach instinctively for Orwell: he surely wrote and lived in even darker times, bleakly surrounded by hysterical, irrational ideologies and hatreds. It doesn't matter what the odds are: our only obligation is for truth, not power. The mainstream media might be quiet as the grave, but the net is full of islands of understanding and honesty, a strengthening chorus of protesting voices is slowly gathering. History is not predictable, hope will never be lost.