It is unfortunate that in recalling the significance of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Kiru Naidoo (Mercury, June 21) allows his anti-Trump prejudice to cloud his objectivity in perceiving the Big Brother role of the mainstream media today.
There is no connection between President Trump’s brash and often impulsive nature and the treachery and evil of the communist system of which Orwell wrote. But there is a connection between the strident efforts of the mainstream cable and print media – CNN, New York Times, Washington Post – to promote convergent thought, known as political correctness, and what Orwell described as the efforts to erase independent thinking.
Too often today differences in volume and tone are hailed as proof of variety and diversity when in reality they propagate the same message. In time such political correctness becomes holy writ. Views that differ, diverge from and oppose are ridiculed, or written off as “deplorable,” according to Hillary Clinton and her media allies.
As American poet Ezra Pound wrote: “Real knowledge is for the few who insist on pursuing it. For the rest, education is mere shepherding.” Whatever views on Trump one may hold, both as candidate and as president he has injected diversity into thinking and trampled the electrified fences in the realm of public debate intended to shepherd politically correct thinking.
Thus, the relevant message of George Orwell’s famous novel is his warning of the danger of convergent thinking and political correctness.
Sent into The Mercury and published, June 22, 2019
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