1984 Is Now

by Bill Bowler

1984 is now. We are Winston Smiths
living 1984. The internets insist
history isn’t happening,
didn’t happen, never happened.
Hit the switch, turn out the lights:
no more birds, no more fish,
no more water, no more air.
no more troubles, no more cares.
They’re printing money left and right.
End Game in sight.

Orwell laid it out.
They called it science fiction.
Then along came Richard Nixon.
It’s a tale of tragic love,
Julia and Winston.
And da Man, Big Brother,
watching from the screen,
seeing all, controlling all,
beloved by all and loving all.
A dream within a dream.

O’Brien knew, von Clausewitz, too.
They brought the image into view.
Picture what’s in store:
Total Information War
conducted at a torrid pace
nose to nose, toe to toe,
in the Information Space
within the Deconfliction Zone.

Names in the Poem

Winston Smith — The protagonist of 1984. His job is to alter historical records at the Ministry of Truth to conform with ever-changing Party policy. He searches for love, understanding, awareness, and truth but is squashed by the Party and, in the end, cries out, “I love Big Brother.”

George Orwell — Author of the novel 1984. His dystopian vision of the post-truth surveillance society has proven prophetic and is now our mundane, social network, algorithmic reality.

Richard Nixon — 37th President of the United States who ran as a self-proclaimed “peace candidate,” the better to wage the Vietnam War. His covert surveillance of himself led to his tragi-comic downfall.

Julia — The tragic heroine of 1984. Winston and Julia’s love affair is the main axis of the novel. Their love is snuffed out by the Party.

O’Brien — Winston Smith’s antagonist in1984. Works at the Ministry of Truth with Winston. He is a member of the Inner Party and an agent of the Thought Police who deceives and then betrays Winston.

Carl von Clausewitz — The 19th-century German military theorist, whose On War remains a basic text of military academies. One of the theories he develops, later practiced by the Wehrmacht in WWII and now universally applied, is “total war,” now also known as “hybrid war” or “full spectrum dominance.”

Another of von Clausewitz’s theories was that physical war on the battlefield was always accompanied by an equally important war of ideas or ideologies, a “propaganda” war, that was critical to the outcome of the physical war. After the Vietnam War, General Westmoreland lamented to General Giap, “But we beat you in every battle!” General Giap replied, “It doesn’t matter.” (The American side had lost the war for public support.)