Stray Thought, All the News that Fits Dept. 0

It is an irony that predictions sometimes come true not in the ways envisioned by their predictors.

George Orwell envisioned Big Brother as a remote dictatorial figure enforcing uniformity and compliance through lies (“through lies” is important here), and he predicted a surveillance state in service to Big Brother.

We have a Big Brother, but, rather than promoting unity and conformity in service to the government, it sows chaos and division to undermine government (and governance) through lies (again, the “through lies” is important).

It’s called Fox News (and its many clones and imitators).

We have a surveillance state designed to track our every movement, one to which many persons offer up their deepest secrets willingly, even eagerly; a surveillance state conceived not to enforce uniformity, but to sell advertising, yet which also serves to spread said Big Brother’s lies.

It’s called “social” media.

As Professor Shade was fond of saying, “History is irony.” The irony here is that both of the above resist attempts by government to spread truth.

For example. And another. And another.