A few weeks ago my daughter had to wear her full Number One Dress Uniform to school on a day that wasn’t an Assembly Day; wasn’t a day when visitors were expected; and wasn’t even an exam day. No, it was a day that a school bus was to take them downtown to a dramatization of
Animal Farm, the novella by George Orwell. She came home that evening thoroughly depressed and asked, “
Why the pigs?”
That ‘why’ is a long story, but it can be summarized by a quick look at Orwell’s life. Not that he was born with that name, nor was he buried with that name. He was, in fact, Eric Arthur Blair, born in Imperial India. He didn’t know his father until he was nine years old, having been brought back to Britain when he was less than one. He managed to get scholarships to Eton but slacked in his studies – or collided with authority, whichever story you prefer – and his academic results meant there was no chance for him to go to University.
Instead his family signed him up for the Indian Imperial Police Service, for which he did pass the entry exams, and he was posted to Burma. He grew to hate imperialism and showed a disdain for authority even though, at one time, he was responsible for the safety of over 200,000 citizens of Burma. He caught dengue fever (spread by daytime mosquito bites, and also a problem in the wake of the recent cyclone in Burma) and resigned the Service.
Living in poverty, with a major part of his time on the streets or working menial jobs in bookstores, life only became a reality for him during the Spanish Civil War, in which he fought for the Republicans. He became a propagandist for Indian loyalty when he joined the BBC’s Eastern Service, broadcasting on short-wave into the Indian sub-continent. Although unhappy with his role, he had the fortune to be working alongside such fellow intellectuals as T. S. Eliot and E. M. Forster.
Animal Farm was published in 1945 and was an undisguised criticism of Stalin and his Soviet dictatorship. Stalin was the boar on the Farm; the only boar, going by the name of Napoleon.
I was reminded of this when I realized that this year is the 60th anniversary of the publishing of Nineteen Eighty-Four, in 1948. If you wanted an example of how to rule by fear, it is
perfect, and you can clearly imagine it as a good example for the Bush White House, the Rumsfelds of the world, and all the keen followers of their Rovian techniques. Orwell would certainly have needed to visit the Ministry of Information during the war, which was housed in what was then the tallest building in London: Senate House Library of the University of London on Malet Street. It is an obscene building that was rumored to be Hitler’s planned British
head office after victory, and orders were issued that it should not be bombed. (A great pity for many.) It became, in Orwell’s story, the Ministry of Truth.
The fear of being continually at war with one, or the other, or both, of our overseas enemies; of suffering collateral damage; of the constant monitoring of our movements; of what torture awaits us in Room 101 at the Ministry. Doesn’t all that sound familiar?
And it’s not just at the governmental level. I have been receiving press releases recently from an organization calling itself Americans For American Energy, although its
web site is a dot-com, not a dot-org.
Based in Lakewood, CO and Washington, DC, their main purpose seems to be to commercially free up the oil shale in Colorado, commonly known as part of the US Naval Oil Shale Reserves (a war protection started in 1910 by President Taft to guarantee fuel oil for the US Navy). They are also funded by an Oregon PR company,
Pac/West Communications, who, it is said, received a $3 M no-bid contract from the State of Alaska to push for oil drilling in the state. Hmmm.
But they have thrown up on their web site a lot more potential US energy sources that "should" be grabbed, beyond shale and Alaska: deep ocean energy; clean coal; nuclear; and even a token acceptance of the need for renewable sources.
All their press releases point out the US dependence on foreign oil, and how the terrorists are intent on us not getting that oil. How about this:
“AMERICA IS AT WAR!
“And The U.S. Naval Oil Shale Reserve is Under Attack!
“While Americans fight overseas defending America's access to vital energy supplies, we are under attack here at home.
“Liberal lawyers and environmental extremists are attacking the U.S. Naval Oil Shale Reserve, trying to prevent America from producing American energy there.”
The fear factor is for the Editor to pass on as he/she quickly chops and tunes the release to turn it into a printable story. But not a single one of those releases seems to be available on their web site…
Now,
that is Big Brother. Protecting his collective butt.
