There are reasons you might feel you are living inside a modern dystopian novel. It’s because George Orwell’s warnings in fiction like 1984 and Animal Farm are becoming real life today in America.
And if we don’t want to turn into some kind of mindless biological robots, you have to start fighting and being loud by making some, as the late John Lewis would say, “good trouble.”
The signs of a new, faulty order are all over.
In daily communication, people don’t really talk with each other any more. They talk at each other — or stare mindlessly at a glowing screen to keep up with whatever the latest idiotic influencer or computer algorithm is spewing.
In business, we’re too willingly letting artificial intelligence take over in countless ways. Some of it actually boosts efficiencies, but some of it is just plain scary. Just ask ChatGPT to outline why AI is scary and here’s what you’ll get:
“It could lead to mass unemployment by automating jobs, and deep fakes or AI-generated misinformation can erode trust in reality. AI systems, especially when poorly regulated, may be used for surveillance, control, or even autonomous weapons. Additionally, biases in data can lead to unfair outcomes in areas like hiring or law enforcement. As AI becomes more powerful, there’s a real fear of losing control over systems we don’t fully understand, potentially threatening privacy, freedom and even human safety on a large scale.”
In government, there are too many ominous signs of increasing authoritarianism and loss of freedom:
- Immigration. There are government deportation camps like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz that fuel illegal seizure and deportation by power-mad Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in clear violation of constitutional rights.
- Redistricting. The Republican-led Texas House, blinded by a zeal to deliver more GOP-heavy congressional House seats through a greedy power grab, actually detained a Democratic lawmaker in the House chamber when she wouldn’t succumb to signing a pledge to return and having a law enforcement nanny monitor her activities. Meanwhile, California and other states are upping the ante with redistricting efforts that make a mockery of election fairness.
- Voting. In yet another effort to distract, the president of the United States is federalizing law enforcement efforts in the District of Columbia with patrols of National Guards troops, including 200 slated to come from South Carolina thanks to Trump sycophant Gov. Henry McMaster. The ACLU of South Carolina’s Jace Woodrum correctly notes: “The president has once again demonstrated his willingness to use our military against our country’s own people. Governor McMaster is empowering this extraordinary abuse of power instead of keeping our troops at home where they’re needed.”
If you want the America of just two years ago to be around in three more years, you have to start fighting the continuing political and societal power abuses at local, state and national levels.
Speak up at public meetings. Fight for your rights. Protest peacefully. Otherwise, your local bookstore might start shelving Orwell’s grim imaginings in the Current Events section.
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