The Propaganda Industrial Complex

The nostalgic posts of communists yearning for Ceausescu's communist reign of terror are the human equivalent of dogs howling because they miss their chains. - Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh

Orwell’s Novel, 1984, highlights the Ministry of Truth which controls the lives of citizens through the dissemination of constant propaganda, an unrelenting assault on reality and truth.

The infighting citizens of Oceania do not really know what is going on in the world, only what they are told. They are controlled, regimented, and mass-surveilled by Big Brother and The Party to make sure that they conduct themselves as they expect them to always behave.

The ‘proles’ are the communist-controlled proletariat who are impoverished and have no access to any luxuries enjoyed by the Party members. They have no rights, except those granted by Big Brother and the Party, and their only escape is revolt. But is revolt easy to mount without any weapons or ability to organize under the strict control of 24/7 surveillance?

Having lived for twenty years under such an oppressive regime under the boot of the Communist Party, I know that rebellion is impossible to accomplish, given the fact that the Communist Party controls everything and has a huge standing army at its disposal, security police, financial and economic police, and thousands of paid informers among neighbors and hungry relatives. What chance does the unarmed, sick, cold, underpaid, and hungry proletariat have?

There are so many similarities between the fictious population of Oceania and our current political situation, that I do not have space to compare all of them in a short article.

How many Winston Smiths are there who work for the Ministry of Truth, altering current and historical records to fit the Party’s ideology and daily narrative? How is dissent punished in our current society by the authorities?

The main theme of 1984 is totalitarianism as expressed by an oppressive government/leadership that manipulates the truth and controls every aspect of society and private lives. The severe indoctrination devoid of reality is best exemplified by the phrases, “War is Peace, “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.”

Fear and conformity to the mandated collective are expressed through surveillance and control enabled by 24/7 computer screens and the Thought Police. Such shadowing creates constant fear and uncertainty, raising the levels of cortisol and disease.

Winston’s Party manipulates the truth, using euphemistic language and approved history through Newspeak, shaping reality in a fantasy world. In our current U.S. fantasy world men can menstruate, get pregnant, have babies, and become women on demand just by wearing a dress and declaring themselves women. And the population goes along with their insane fantasy.

How many Winstons do we have today who rewrite the truth, historical past, and present reality in the bureaucratic rule of government? And how many leftists do we have today whose well-paid jobs are to protest, riot, and destroy in the name of fighting fascism while acting like fascists themselves?

Orwell’s Winston and his love interest, Julia, struggle to find some personal freedom and individuality away from the collective which controls everyone’s lives. Their eventual capture is meant to indoctrinate the masses to the fact that rebellion is futile against an all-controlling regime.

The current propaganda industrial complex is run with the help of the government bureaucracy staffed mainly by leftists, the main street media controlled by the left, leftist Hollywood stars insulated by their wealth from the struggles of the general population, teachers, administrators, and professors indoctrinated by academia and their communist parents, corrupt politicians on the take from the highest bidders, leftist billionaires with financial interests across the globe who don’t care about their own country, and the United Nations with its myriad of leftist NGOs. Generous taxpayer contributions fund our enemies, fundings that politicians are unwilling to cut.

How powerful is this Propaganda Industrial Complex and how encroaching is it? One monarch, who controls free speech with the designation of hate speech and hate speech laws which jail the offenders, controls trillions of dollars’ worth of land across the globe.

One highly placed bureaucrat said recently, “there is free speech and there is hate speech.” Who decides what the parameters are? Have they passed hate speech laws in America? What is the punishment if one just wants to express an opinion?

Will you be defeated just like Winston? Ask the jailed Katie Hopkins what her weekly comedic routine got her in England. Ask the banned-from-England Michael Savage. He claims to have spent $400k to clear his name but was unsuccessful. One cannot win against the Ministry of Truth.