By Irene F. Starkehaus –
Out of all the dystopian fictions that I've read over these many decades, there are only two that make me nod my head and say, "Yeah, we might just end up doing that." Only two. Most are nothing but the literary onanism of frustrated authors who have suddenly realized they will never change the world as they believed they would when they decided to matriculate in postmodernist deconstructionism back in the day.
The first book to earn the distinction of being plausible from my perspective was the requisite 1984 by George Orwell. I actually had the added benefit of reading Orwell's masterpiece back in 1984 when the mainstream media was claiming the fulfillment of his vision because Ronald Reagan wouldn't play nice with the Soviets. In the media's view, Reagan's unwillingness to negotiate with Godless, conscienceless totalitarians was a sign that America had fallen under the grip of an insane megalomaniac. His lack of conciliation was certain to bring about nuclear annihilation. Ronald Reagan, therefore, was obviously the embodiment of Big Brother.
You may have noticed that no such nuclear winter occurred, but it would seem that being a political analyst is a lot like being a meteorologist. You don't have to be right as long as the day ends up being sunny and warm. So it was for the eight years of the Reagan Presidency, and so it remained for two decades after his tenure in spite of the progressivists best efforts.
But I completely digress. Anyway, the other book that struck me as being eerily plausible was the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Huxley described his story as being what comes after 1984 (although it was written more than a decade before Orwell's story.) While I appreciate this interpretation, I've always viewed his horror story as simply a different route to the same tyrannical destination. Ultimately, the abhorrence of every freedom loving person is the system that works to obliterate free will and truth.
Brave New World is a storyline set within a primer that instructs the reader in methods for subduing the human spirit. The important thing to understand about Huxley's predictions is that most of his characters were conditioned to be happy slaves in this fictional dystopia. There were only three characters who were not content to be drug-addled, sex-addicted, consumption-driven relativists in a post-free will world.
The first was a man that Huxley called the Savage. The Savage was the son of a civilized woman who was accidently trapped on a North American Indian reservation that was considered a last vestige for self-determination in a world that had been conquered by central planners. The second character was Helmholtz Watson who was raised in civilization as a successful and privileged Alpha-Plus. The third man was a social outcast named Bernard Marx. Marx was a socially and physically awkward Alpha, rumored to have been stunted during his gestation by alcohol in his blood surrogate.
These three men could not reconcile themselves to Huxley's world and found themselves rebelling against it until an intervention was required.
Of these three men, the Savage became so inconsolable about civilization's spiritual bankruptcy that he hung himself. Helmholtz was deemed too individualistic and was sent to a place where other nonconformists lived without the creature comfort of central planning. Happily, because he was free.
Bernard was a more complex character. He was a nonconformist, but it turned out that his nonconformity was solely because society had rejected him. He wasn't a true believer. His individualism was born of convenience.
As stories often go, Bernard had a turn of fortune and found himself at the center of positive attention for the first time in his life. The novelty of acceptability caused an evolution in his thinking, and Bernard was suddenly fine with the sex addiction, intoxication and materialism that he had railed against so forcefully. His change in circumstances ultimately revealed his true character, and his true character was that of an unprincipled hypocrite.
What's this got to do with Donald Trump? Good question. Interesting little factoid. Aldous Huxley would have called what's happening right now "hypnopaedia." It works like this. "Sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth." That's how they did it in Brave New World. That's how Donald Trump did it to Ted Cruz.
Lyin' Ted Cruz. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. Come on, Donnie Boy. Say it again. You said it once. You said it twice, so it must be true. I'd like to hear it again. Maybe this time you can get some Trumpeteering Bernards to chant it with you and make it even truer. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z.
Ted Cruz is the liar? Really? You mean like:
"You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot," Trump told "Fox and Friends" Tuesday. "I mean; the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this?"
What is this, indeed. But Ted Cruz is the liar. Donald Trump is a thug and a bully and a character assassin. But never mind. Let's hear it again. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z. Hmmm. I guess Ted Cruz is a liar. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z. Oh! I See! Ted Cruz is a YUGE liar.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump – on an entirely different topic which is exactly the same as the last topic because the only unscripted thing he can manage to say coherently is that he's winning, and that ought to tell you exactly how far we have fallen as a people:
"If we win, it's over. Then I can focus – then I don't have to worry about LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z.
I don't care if he endorses me or doesn't. I couldn't care less – but – but I don't have to worry about Lyin' Ted Cruz. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z."
It came to me today as I was driving my kids to school, and we were listening to a news story about Donald Trump talking again about Lyin' Ted Cruz. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z.
You know what? I am a true believer. I really, really am. I really think that what we got started in the 1980s was a great thing worth fighting for. I really believe in the conservative principles that Ted Cruz espouses and I wanted him to be president.
Since Ted Cruz didn't get the nomination, it has long been my intention that I would move on and support the nominee.
Voila. I was once again going to hold my nose and vote for the party's nominee even though the party's nominee is Donald Trump who makes me so physically ill when he speaks that I want to barf out my lung – even though I think he's so stupid that I often wonder how he manages to keep breathing without involving his teleprompter. I was willing to vote for Donald Trump even though I think that Donald Trump is a YUGE putz. I'm told that's what team players do. Team players vote for YUGE putzes.
Except…you know what else? I've heard one too many of the "Lyin' Ted Cruz. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z," sound bites today.
I've had a "LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z" overdose, and all of a sudden, I'm feeling politically persnickety and I'm not going to budge this time.
The "LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z" was supposed to put Ted Cruz supporters in our place. It was supposed to rattle the cage. It was supposed to paralyze, but the "LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. L-Y-I-N'-T-E-D-C-R-U-Z" chant went one day too long for me. And it changed me. And I'm free at last. I don't have to defend an idiot. I don't have to show allegiance to a party that would sooner throw me under a bus than keep promises. I'm going rogue.
Because I'm not going to vote for Donald Trump.
Furthermore, I happen to agree with Donald Trump on one YUGELY important political point. I don't care if LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ. LYIN' TED CRUZ endorses Donald Trump or doesn't.
I couldn't care less.
