(Author's note: In a previous post (3.3.17), I mis-spelled Laura Ingraham's name. As I have tremendous respect for Laura Ingraham, the work she does, and especially her passionate and well-stated opinions, I apologize deeply for the error. All other mis-spellings are purely intentional.)
Dear Friends: We all know what George Washington would do if there were treason amongst the ranks of our government. He'd kick ass now and take names later. (See Arnold, Benedict; he may have fled Washington's capture, only barely, but he'll never flee the forces of history that name him a treasonous coward. But in Washington's time, they hadn't yet invented political correctness or the moral-high-ground PC-police that enforces it, so any day now, they'll probably name Benedict Arnold a hero; it's a progressive thing.) Given such, what would George Orwell do? Absolutely the same as Washington, although Orwell might take names now and kick ass later. (That's just how Orwell rolled. And Orwell, although a war-wounded warrior himself (and because of it), would do it with his pen. But, it was a cool 007 super-spy pen that could see into the hearts and minds of men, and into the future, so. And, Orwell understood true irony.) And Orwell was a genius, and a warrior-poet, although he was not fond of his own poetry. So let's call him a warrior-prose-ist, because his ability with prose was as good, moral, and immortal to our history as history has ever known, and was paramount to his clear, precise, and prescient expression of the dystopian future (then) that we all face now. And clearly, he's a fan-favorite with us here.
Because remember how in his novel, 1984, you didn't watch TV, the TV watched you? Well guess what? Your fancy new smart-TV is watching you. And listening to you. And most likely, both. And how do we know this? Because the leakers are leaking on the leakers.1 And there isn't a plumber in sight. And why not? Because all our plumbers are too busy doing their deplorable jobs, the best they can. And raising their deplorable families the best they can. And wearing the badge of honor that being called deplorable by looney-liberals and preposterous-progressives is, and which isn't returned. Because plumbers could easily stop fixing all their toilets (call it the plumber's-protest of looney-liberals and preposterous-progressives, or a grab-your-boycott on fixing toilets for looney-liberals and preposterous-progressives), but all our plumbers are better than that. And they need the work.
And of course, salt-of-the-earth blue-collar workers working hard to raise their families probably can't afford a smart-TV anyway. But don't worry. Because that can't-live-without-it-now smartphone is also listening to you. And watching you. And if you can't afford a smartphone, because maybe you need to prioritize paying for your presposterous-Obamacare-premiums (which by the way, we're all for "repeal", but in now way for "repeat"), again, no worries, because that can't-live-without-it-now flip-cellphone in your belt-holster is also listening to you. And maybe watching you. Who knows? So if you're smart, like Orwell, you won't even own a phone. And if you're a bad-guy, you won't even use a phone, like Paulie in "Goodfellas". (And why can't we just have bad-guys like Paulie anymore? That bad-guy was a world champion at slow-chewing an Italian sausage sandwich. And he could slice a mean garlic. And he refused to deal in drugs. (Although Henry went all Benedict Arnold on him in that regard.) Then again, Paulie did agree to have Tommy killed. But, it was one of those Sicilian things. Tommy wasn't made. End of story. And that poor bastard's Mom couldn't even have an open casket for him. Again, because he wasn't made. And again, because it was a Sicilian thing, and you don't mess with the Sicilians. Because it's a vendetta thing. Ah, the good old days, when if you didn't mess with the mob, they wouldn't mess with you. Of course, today we have a different kind of mob-mentality; just visit any college campus out there. And we mean you, Middlebury.) And yet, we all still trust that all that technology is only being used properly, to only spy on the bad-guys, and not us ordinary citizens. (Let's all hang on to that hope, as naive as it may be, because hope is a good thing, especially in a bad world. And crucially, we all must maintain faith in our systems of law and order, and in our agencies of intelligence gathering, and our military, as they must have faith in us. It's an all-around win-win, if we all do our part.) Because now, the bad-guys know they're being spied on, and they'll take measures. And they ain't goodfellas like Paulie. And Vladimir Putin is laughing his communist ass off.
And yet, let's leave the high-level stuff to the professionals, but by never burying our heads in the sand, as we all need to dig in deeper against a more criminally devious enemy out there. Because although we're only ordinary citizens, we don't want to be naive about this: It's one thing for a government to spy on another government (see Putin, Vladimir), and it's another thing for a government to spy on its own political opponents (see Hosein Obama, Barrack), but it's another thing altogether if ordinary citizens despicable scum-bags can spy on other ordinary citizens. (Yes, let's call a despicable scum-bag a despicable scum-bag.) Because some despicable scum-bag may be spying on you, right now, in your home, or in your bedroom, and you wouldn't even know it. God forbid. (And may God place any such despicable scum-bags in their place. And we all know where that is. It's a real special place, set aside exclusively for despicable scum-bags.) But until then, all such criminally despicable scum-bags must be found, caught, and punished. Severely. These are not peeping-toms. These are criminally despicable scum-bags, violating our privacy, for whatever despicable purposes they conjure in their despicable minds, and we'd never know it.
Because at least Orwell imagined a future where we were all being watched, but we all knew it. Of course, it's no longer imaginary. But he never would've imagined the world today. And yet, Orwell was a man of passionate ideas and fierce hates, in the name of what he thought good and right, and he was as good a writer as the world has ever known, and used it to fight for what he believed in. And if he were with us now, he would demand we all take action to protect what we all hold dear: Our liberty. Our freedom. Our privacy. Even if there is no privacy left to us. But we better never get used to it. Ever.
1Kinda like the Watchmen watching over the Watchmen, or, well (couldn't resist), much more like a fact-checking website checking out the claim by a legitimate reporter that Democrats Wasserman-Schultz and Ellison, the so-called future of the Democrat party, among other lesser-Democrats, sat on their hands during the rousing ovation for Carryn Owens, and her fallen hero husband, Ryan, during President Trump's rousing speech, and then the fact-checkers lied about the facts that were actually factually reported. And had to retract their lie. The point: maybe the entire liberal-media-complex is the enemy, and should all be scooped.2
2Orwell would've been adamant about this. His number one guiding principal in his writing was honesty. He knew then, amongst the many things he knew about writing, and learned about politics, and which need to be reflected upon, that civility, and our civilization, will crumble if we are all lying to and about each other. He saw this happen in the war he fought, and extrapolated correctly from there, and we need to pay him more attention, because if all war is based on deception (see Tzu, Sun), the reporting of it should be based on the truth, the absolute truth, and nothing but the truth. So help us God.