Hillary Clinton’s Odd (and Revealing) Misunderstanding of Orwell’s 1984

George Orwell wrote one of the most prescient, terrifying novels ever in his book, 1984.  It is truly a novel for our times.

However, Jim Geraghty over at National Review suggested that the left needs to stop invoking it:

1984 has become something of a touchstone for the anti-Trump left. New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani undoubtedly spoke for many Americans when she recommended shortly after Trump’s inauguration that readers revisit Orwell’s masterpiece post-haste: The dystopia described in George Orwell’s nearly 70-year-old novel “1984” suddenly feels all too familiar. A world in which Big Brother (or maybe the National Security Agency) is always listening in, and high-tech devices can eavesdrop in people’s homes. (Hey, Alexa, what’s up?) A world of endless war, where fear and hate are drummed up against foreigners, and movies show boatloads of refugees dying at sea. A world in which the government insists that reality is not “something objective, external, existing in its own right” — but rather, “whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth.”

He then points out that “Kakutani’s shout out to the NSA is curious, given that its infamous domestic surveillance program began under President George W. Bush and expanded under President Obama.”  He also points out that “And I doubt the ruling party’s casual disregard for the truth bothered her when Obama was promising that, ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan’ and claiming that he ‘didn’t raise taxes once’ and ‘excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs.’

But some liberal writer for the New York Times getting Orwell wrong is not big news.  What is startling is that former Democratic nominee for President Hillary Clinton — in her new book called What Happened — discussed Orwell and somehow made the exactly wrong conclusion:

Bizarre misreading: @HillaryClinton thinks the lesson of Orwell’s 1984 is that you should trust experts, leaders and the press pic.twitter.com/7rPbrq11fV

— JamesHeartfield (@JamesHeartfield) September 12, 2017

She literally wrote that “we need to rely on… our leaders, the press, experts who seek to lead public policy…”  What?

A self-governing society is one in which people rely on ourselves – to make the best decisions for our family, to make the decisions as close to home as possible.  When this nation was founded, the government acted only to protect life, liberty and property. Now, it has encroached into every area of life, so we endlessly debate the healthcare, education, and economic policies our so-called leaders hand down to us. However, the citizens should make these crucial decisions. Who decides? According to the founders and Constitution, we do.

The whole point of Orwell’s book is that a totalitarian government will use, abuse, and lie to you. Consequently, a healthy distrust of politicians and the media is never a bad thing.  Frankly, it’s shocking that Hillary allowed this bizarre interpretation of this book to see the light of day.

My guess is that liberals — with their heavy handed government programs — will never notice.

Image Credit: WallUp