Last year, June 2024, marked the 75th anniversary of George Orwell's soul-shaking novel, 1984. One would expect that almost three-fourths of a century later, our societies would have taken a lesson from the book and history and avoided much of what Orwell was predicting in his alternate future. In reality, we are closer to 1984 than we have ever been. 

Key elements evoked in the novel are easily identified today, including: 

• Engineered news and communication
• Language changes for political correctness
• The lack of any viable privacy in accepted society
• A shared uneasiness of stability
• The majority of poor are increasing
• War is inevitable

War is Inevitable

There was always a hidden but identified grand enemy in 1984. The book's early chapters would constantly play with the concept of a national threat burping on the controlled news daily. Eurasia and Eastasia were the revolving enemies of the author's primary narrative state, Oceania. However, just when the reader thinks they got a lay of the land in terms of international politics, the next news announcement the main character exposes the reader to is that the sides have changed. On Monday, Eurasia the enemy, but on Wednesday it's Eastasia. Don't forget, Saturday both countries are the enemy and on Sunday no one is the enemy. Got it. ??? This flippity-flop of in-story politics might seem comical if it wasn't for the fact that the delivery of the news was through radio and state-controlled broadcasting system (insert today's social media tools).

The idea that government can easily control the masses through news channels is not new, but the ability to do so pervasively when it becomes the primary source of immediate information has never been more possible than today, thanks to the Internet. You would think this would actually make news and information more diverse, but in reality today's media sourced are quickly being gobbled into a tight cabal of a few primary mega-companies online, and that's a recipe for easy Big Brother information control, as well as disinformation. After all, if you can't dispute information that is incorrect, what else are you left to believe? The babblings of old people who remember otherwise?

Frequent Language Changes for Political Correctness

Pessimism is outlawed. One could easily argue my article's opinion is simply regurgitated pessimism, and that could be an accurate description on its face alone. However, it also falls in line with the thinking so pervasive in so much of modern society today, always maintain the accepted dogma. Don't identify or talk about issues of concern. They don't exist. We follow the party and the party takes care of us. Sally Sunshine types are looked down on immediately in both the corporate world and now social life. Anyone who complains about the current system outside of the mainstream path is considered a malcontent and needs to be looked into.

Other examples are popping up almost daily. Thinking different is now a virus. Education is where good minds die. Diversity is wokism. Being racist is now defending white people's rights. Wanting to be employed to earn a viable living wage is socialist and anti-capitalist. The story goes on...

Goodspeak is right around the corner at this rate. Go back to your grunt job or kitchen slaving over a stove, shut up and let leaders think for you, do your work for peanuts, have babies, and go to church. Be good little commoners and don't vote anymore.

Think that view above is simply chatter? Let's look at some of the actual responses that have occurred in the last few years.

• In Marion, KS, a local police department raided and confiscated all relevant equipment, data, files and computers of a local newspaper critical of the Police Department and its connection to a local business involved in criminal activity (drunk driving). 
• New York Police Department spent almost $9 million on software tools for scraping social media sites in 2018.
• The Department of Homeland Security has engaged in AI capture of social media postings of people, both citizens and immigrants as of mid-2023.
• The FBI came to light a few years back with the use of Carnivore to find and collect data on people and their communications online, but that activity has since been updated with the agency's current use of Babel X highlighted in April 2022, specifically targeting bulk surveillance of social media with user-defined parameters such as a geographic area.
• "Stingray" operations have been a well-known problem given the availability of cell tower networks that can be "legally" hijacked by law enforcement to monitor local communication activity. 

 I would also note, all those bullets relate to activities occurring well before 2025 when things have ramped up further.

Engineered News

Politicians today are quick to flare and yell, "FAKE NEWS," on any bylines or questions they don't like. However, a good amount of the "news" that people digest through mainstream channels is definitely selected and chosen based on regional and national priorities as well as corporate interests. This is not a new scheme; the news since the earliest newspapers has been biased to the stories chosen by the editorial team and newspaper owner. However, the diversity and spectrum of difference is gone. Further, those news channels that want primary access only get it if they agree to carry the desired news approved by the powers that be, government or corporate. Add in the element that many of the major news enterprises are now completely owned by billionaires actively influencing there news story choices, and yes you definitely have fake news.

Social media isn't any better. Marketed as an alternative platform for faster information sharing, social media instead has become highly vulnerable to manipulation. Cases of fake operators redirecting the attention of the masses have been uncovered again and again, the most recent on X (formerly Twitter) with its new addition of the content location identification feature. 

The Lack of any Viable Privacy

We can't feel too sorry for ourselves with the death of privacy. By embracing all the gadgets and techno that connects us to the Internet, we gave away our privacy. Everything from email content to location to literally what is overheard through actively listening is up for game. And in each instance, consumers willingly opened the door. It wasn't much of a problem when the usage was for marketing purposes. But the same tools are now regularly used for deep surveillance across millions of people at a time. That's in addition to the other forms of growing monitoring from tracking license plates on public roads to digital raiding of telecommunication channels with untargeted data sweeps to filter through later via name searches or keyword screening. Much of this is now being used to eliminate or shut down political undesirables by getting people doxxed, terminated from their employment or located for other activities like harassment and more.

A Shared Uneasiness of Impending Instability

Do you feel like something is about to happen in the next few days, week after week? Does everything in daily life right now feel just a bit more tense than it's been in years? You're not alone. Many have stopped paying attention to the news at all because it's too stressful and they just want a life of blissful ignorance. Less to worry about, less headaches, less decision. But for those who have to tune in, it has an effect on blood pressure, anxiety, stress and more. Chronic uneasiness also has noted long-term health effects too. All of this is well documented in health circles, and the ramp up of uneasiness is not an accident. Our current environment in 2025 is more of a tinderbox than it's been in a decade and a half. Social unrest, war triggers overseas, superpower conflict flexing, mass job losses and no hiring, pandemics and digital hacks are all adding to the pressure. An actual blowout, as bad as it is to say, would almost be a relief.

The Majority of Poor are Increasing

Most modern nations have always had poor and those living at the poverty level. However, homeless encampments and cities hasn't been a thing in developed nations since the 1930s and 40s. Yet now, here we are with homeless camps, migrating masses and poor everywhere in 2025.  What happened? The visible number of homeless on the streets in cities is actually a barometer of a failing system. People want to ignore the symptom, but when people have nowhere to go after losing everything, they migrate to city centers to beg. This is exacerbated by outer areas and suburbs chasing  the homeless out or, in some cases, busing them out unwillingly.  

As the poor increase, so does the police state to contain them. After all, nobody wants to see 21st Century replay of 18th century France. The boots and batons on the street are enhanced to protect the current system and avoid the power of numbers overwhelming the current paradigm. Mob energy can be extremely powerful, so keeping it down via fear keeps the growing poor in line. Unfortunately, it's only a delay. At some point riots break out, as they have repeatedly in history. Then comes the insurrection controls so common in authoritarian models.

Is There Hope for Something Better?

Of course there is, but people need to stop being brain-dead consumers and get involved social and politically. That means disconnecting from the Internet and it's false sense of empowerment with social media and instead actively engaging in community, regional and national politics. Control-types only get control because there is no one else in numbers around to stop them. They whittle away until all the key levers are in their hands and then they exert a shut down approach on any grassroots resistance to avoid debate, elections, diversity and more. If people keep tuning out and hiding in their TVs and suburbia homes, then that just makes 1984 that much easier to come to pass. 

International Examples of Centralizing Power

Canada - https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/government-agency-social-media-emergencies-act

U.S. - https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF11451 

Europe - https://euperspectives.eu/2025/08/surveillance-becoming-normal-in-europe/