1984 - It Never Happened

If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened --that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture or death.
~ from 1984 by George Orwell ~

While the very idea that the powers that be could alter the consciousness of the past sounds alarming and frightening, it shouldn't. It happens all the time!

To provide one example, fiscal conservatives like to wax romantically about the 1950s. This was a time when America was great, we are told. Business was booming and America led the way in innovation as well as the generation of wealth.

In their narratives, however, one fact has been scrubbed from the official storyline. During those glorious days of yore, the marginal tax rate was as high as 91 percent on the well-to-do. The collection of those tax dollars is what raised all boats and made the US the envy much of the world!

With this portion of the story snipped out, today's fiscal conservatives can boldly say that the only way America can return to this time of milk and honey is to lower an already low marginal tax rate!

Today's fiscal conservatives have taken the concept of doublethink to new heights!

This series of posts based on George Orwell's novel, 1984, will be rather avant-garde. My focus will not be to explain Orwell's premises or what HE meant -- it is more about what his prose stirs in me., often in relation to the way I view the world today. Some of my observations may fall in line with Orwell's intent, but others will go off in a wholly different direction. To read my intro to this series, go here.