Page 169 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

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A World of Orwellian Doublethink

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
-Albert Einstein

"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking
about peace."
-George W. Bush, June 18 2002

George Orwell once said that, "If liberty means anything at all it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear."' These words were included in the
original preface to the first edition of his classic work, Animal Farm. Orwell
understood that freedom of speech, as well as the free exchange of conflicting
ideas, are essential in a democratic society. It was the lack of concern with such
freedoms, displayed amongst political and social elites, that Orwell was commit-
ted to fighting. Orwell encountered many difficulties in his attempts to commu-
nicate what were often considered unpopular political messages in his day. He
was turned down by numerous publishers in his attempts to release Animal
Farm, as the work, while finished in February of 1944, was not released until a
full 18 months later. When the book was finally published, the preface was cut,
as Orwell was put on the defensive in light of the popularity of the Soviet Union
amongst the Allied powers at the end of World War 11.
Orwell's suspicion of communist reactionaries and their sympathizers was
confirmed after Animal Farm was released, as his work was subject to a number
of negative criticisms by those who viewed it mainly as an attack on the Soviet
Union. In anticipation of critical reviews, Orwell explained that, "At any given
moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-
thinking people will accept without question. . . anyone challenging the prevail-
ing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely
unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing."2 The same could be