The day the New World turned Brave

     Years ago perhaps inspired  by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley I wrote a short story about the day, the one particular day and hour, the world changed into that brave new one. It wasn't a very good short story but there have been times over the years when I have been reminded of its message and wary of what my government is doing. In it, a man of the 50s came home from his job to his house in the suburbs. His wife had prepared a pleasant dinner, his polite children sat at the table eating quietly while the adults spoke to each other. After dinner the perfect wife began clearing the table and washing the dishes while the husband returned to his favorite chair and turned on the television news. You get the picture, the bland, stable 1950s.

     During the broadcast there was a static interruption of the signal and a new face and voice came out of it first pointing out how great life for people was and then saying that recent improvements to the general benefit of the society as a whole were now to be laws and that the lives people lived, the jobs they held (ending labor unions?), the homes they owned (subprime loans?), the schools their children attended (private charter schools?) had transformed into a rigid structure for the benefit of all. To maintain order (these days terrorism would be blamed) a new National Security Force had been formed which would replace the former military and police departments (providing police departments with military hardware?); this would be couched in terms of efficiency and cost-cutting. Life would go on as usual, the inanimate face's voice said and everyone would be better off for it.

   Static buzz again and then the former newsman came back on and began reading the news again. The man in the chair had barely absorbed what had been said, but something in it bothered him enough to stand up and walk out onto his front lawn. He looked left and right up and down the street and saw several others looking aimlessly around or into the sky. Finally when he couldn't put his mind on exactly what had happened and deciding there couldn't have been much to it, he went back into his house and settled back into his chair.

    Like I said, not a very good story. But my point was things can progress in tiny increments until one day you look around and it's too late, the damage is done, the billboards are up and we hardly notice that instant when all the parts merge and finally evolve into that Brave New World.

   These days I see the attacks on the press, leading the less informed and ignorant among us to distrust what they read or watch, that consists of lies or fake news if you will. The rest of us may wonder but seldom do much. We build up the military at the same time we dumb down the population by slowly curtailing education and opportunity and grow the percentage of the population that is enveloped in ignorance. With that body of ignorance overwhelming the electorate, we elect leaders who through bombast and bullying challenge every aspect of a constitutional democracy that has claimed to be based on the elusive and difficult to define atmosphere of freedom.

     By whittling away at all aspects of that freedom and in order to do that turning the ignorant majority against those who protest at each step of the way and putting the blame for problems onto them, the governors reach the point where with one simple turn of a switch sending a televised message into every home in the country, they only make formal the state where all those freedoms have disappeared and the oligarchs now own the utopian nightmare. That was the day I was attempting to describe, never thinking that threat would actually materialize and  I would be watching the country growing dangerously close to the day when we are living in Airstrip One or 2540 London happily sucking down soma and believing we are happy.
     Fortunately in the current situation, the opposition fighting every step of the way appears to be slowly gaining the upper hand but we can't be complacent, the fight has to be kept up. It might be odd to say but maybe it's a good thing that Trump is president at this time. A more intelligent, educated, less flamboyant man would be much more dangerous. Look at the vice president and the speaker of the House.