IS TRUMP REALLY ORWELLIAN?
Many consider President Trump an Orwellian figure. Sure, he stretches the truth. Okay, he is a bit more autocratic than Obama. But is really a dystopian figure out of “1984?”
In “Politics And The English Language,” Orwell suggests we need specificity in our language. Vague diction is a political tool. Obfuscating hides a malicious intent. This can be political, as when a missile strike that accidentally kills civilians is deemed “collateral damage” or a ghetto is referred to as “an economically disadvantaged area.” As Orwell puts it, “political language…make(s) lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give(s) an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
What Orwell objects to, then, is the way politician’s present themselves in a completely oppositional way to how they act. Institutionalized hypocrisy is his mortal enemy. Hence his concept of Doublespeak…“War is Peace,” “ Freedom Is Slavery,” “Ignorance Is Strength,” are all frightening slogans in the novel “1984,” because they show how easily reality can become untethered from experience.
But is this what President Trump really does? An argument could be made that Obama was a more Orwellian figure. After all, it was Obama who received The Noble Peace Prize yet killed tens of thousands of civilians via drone. It was Obama who spoke eloquently about bringing all races and creeds together yet stoked outrage and violence against police officers with his speeches and policies. Then, too, it was Obama who engaged in illegal surveillance of the Trump campaign via a phony FISA warrant while simultaneously accusing Donald Trump of being unethical.
To be sure, Trump is certainly duplicitious. Indeed, one of the more duplicitious Presidents ever. Still, with Trump, at least, you know what you are getting. He doesn’t use as much Doublespeak. He is quite blunt. He fulfills campaign promises. Whether it’s improving border security, renegotiating trade agreements, moving the Embassy to Jerusalem, exiting the Iran deal, providing tax cuts, stimulating the economy, or adding manufacturing jobs, Trump is fulfilling nearly all of his campaign promises (some really hate those policies but it is hard to argue he is sticking to his word).
As for his lies, they are generally insignificant. He may say he is worth eleven billion dollars when his really worth five billion dollars. And? He may insist there were more people in his crowd at Inauguration than was actually the case but again….so what? For the most part, then, Trump seems to engage in a kind of P.T. Barnum exaggeration. There seems very little sinister intent behind it all, other than his own survival in the political landscape.
In short, Orwell might actually have liked Donald Trump; or, at least, disliked him less than other Presidents. Who knows? He may have even have voted for him.
