History, Totalitarianism, and George Orwell
There is little meaningful difference between how today’s Republicans and Democrats view the history of the Civil War. Most politicians support the powerful central government that emerged following the war. They also agree that it is necessary and proper to destroy a memorial in the National Cemetery. They have embraced totalitarianism.
Many hoped conservative politicians in America would take a stand and protect history. They have not. Even Senators from the most conservative or red states have failed. It is like they are afraid they will be marched off to the gulag.
There exists a soft totalitarianism across the political spectrum. It has curtailed thought and speech. Collusion between government and major media and social media outlets is almost accepted. They say destroying a memorial in a cemetery is not erasing history but protecting society from an incorrect interpretation of history. The central government is telling us how we must view history.
These politicians tout the same heroes and have the same villains. Republicans and Democrats claim Abraham Lincoln as their standard bearer. At the same time, any Confederate general or politician is a traitor and enslaver. Historians and journalists have whitewashed the history of the chosen 18th and 19th century politicians, so they withstand modern presentism.
In the past, many conservatives embraced George Orwell because he was useful for their arguments against the Communists. These conservatives have now become what they decried. They now must ignore Orwell’s famous perspective on history.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
The right has forgotten Orwell. He was a man of the left after all. The left has devolved into the tyrannical madness that he described in Animal Farm and 1984. We are in a time where “ignorance is strength”. The general ignorance of history is being exploited to change the understanding people have of their own history. One thing is certain, unchallenged, they will eventually come for something you care about.
