George Orwell, Donald Trump, And The End Of Big Brother - A Final Repositioning Of American Democracy

George Orwell wrote 1984, a book about a dystopian future in which Big Brother was always watching, an all-encompassing, universal state where power was absolute, dissension impossible, and regimentation the rule of law and the ethos of civil society.  Citizens had been turned into robotic automatons, cogs in the great government machinery operating only in a self-perpetuating, unvarying rhythm.  The  state was father, brother, guardian, caretaker, and God. 

A frightening, cautionary tale relevant for every generation.  The Soviet Union was as close as any regime had ever come to the Orwellian vision, but as the leaders of the Politburo soon found out, complete obedience and fealty to the principles of Communism were not so easy to achieve.  Human societies since the first Paleolithic settlements have progressed, profited, and grown thanks to self interest, competition and the free flow of goods, services, and ideas; and muting that enterprise would be counter to nature.

Trading, bartering, buying and selling were part and parcel of human enterprise - private activity was not just an activity in society's early days but the activity. Public institutions came about only in the service of private enterprise.  Law, jurisprudence, contractual adjudication were all important to settle the most contentious arguments, and government infrastructure projects provided a needed foundation for expanded individual activity. 

 

Money was to be made in this new thing called government - the more government activity, the more revenues needed, and the more revenue in the coffers, the more expansive and aggressive government activities. Every society tried to figure out a way to include the necessities of the public sector - i.e. what private enterprise could not do on its own - while keeping the long arm of an increasingly interventionist sector at bay. 

Somehow the idea of government as the be-all and end-all of human society, the controlling, inclusive institution within which all individual activities would be included and regulated to conform to universal norms - came about, and for seventy years the Soviet Union ruled.  Private enterprise, individual liberty, personal accountability and responsibility disappeared and were subsumed within state aegis. 

The idea of a beneficent state, income and social equality, and a culture of cooperation and harmony instead of a constantly divided, contentious one has appeal, and the notion spread beyond the Soviet Union.  Communism, said American progressives, wasn't such a bad idea given Robber Barons, predatory capitalism, exploitation of the working man, and bourgeois greed. 

Given the window dressing of liberal democracy, these socialist ideas were adopted enthusiastically by FDR and the progressive Left.  Utopia was possible, and a more verdant, peaceful, prosperous world would come about if Americans rolled up their sleeves, gave up their selfishness, and worked for the common good. 

How government got so out of hand is part mystery, part human nature.  The mystery of how a profoundly individualistic country could cede so much power to government can be explained best by the common people's desire for miracles, mystery, and authority - Ivan Karamazov's conclusion drawn from the betrayal of Christ in the Temptation in the Desert.  Christ seemed to be offering individual salvation but actually provided the theological underpinnings for an all-powerful Church. 

The fight between liberals and conservatives has been fought over this issue for centuries, and if anything the fight is more engaged now than ever.  Donald Trump is the first president in recent memory who has vowed to reduce the size and importance of government and has actually done so.  Ronald Reagan provided the philosophical impetus - 'Government is not the solution; it is the problem', but Trump has actually thrown the bureaucrats out, left them on the curb, and pointed the way to a new, streamlined, efficient, and clean public sector.

 

What organizational consultants have observed is that after a certain point, bureaucracies have a life of their own - they are organic, protoplasmic things which if squeezed in one department ooze into another. No reformist government has been able to deal with this living, palpable, breathing organism.  Bureaucracies are repositories of all human ambitions, frustrations, abilities, and weaknesses, and in their hermetically sealed nature they are crucibles for the most exaggerated expressions of them. 

Getting rid of them or even reducing them in size is not nor ever has been an easy task. In fact liberal governments like the Biden Administration have encouraged the growth of the public sector.  Hearkening back to the socialist memes of Soviet days, he and his political allies said that government must grow in order to guarantee the rights of citizens and to protect them against the resurgent forces of conservatism. 

Of course progressives are howling and baying at the moon.  Trump has not simply vowed to readjust the public-private balance but to do away with government except in the most limited Constitutional areas. Government is the problem said Ronald Reagan but Trump goes further - it is an insidious, destructive, dehumanizing force.  It should not be allowed to continue in its present venally bloated form. It is to be removed, expunged, thrown out. 

 

Libertarians have always been on the right track,  We are not against government per se, they said; only when it is asked to perform what the private sector could do better; and it is on this principle that Trump is going full steam ahead. Starting from scratch.  Start with the assumption that government is not needed, and then select only those activities which only it can do.  A revolutionary volte face. 

Will this initiative, this commitment, this purpose be enough? or will the oozing, intruding, ever-growing public bureaucracy continue to intrude upon American life?

The American people have had quite enough of Biden era sanctimony and arrogant assumptions of right; and moreover had seen the Orwellian nightmare right before their eyes. Enough is enough. We will take our chances as individuals capable of judgment, courage, and consideration. 

The demise of the Soviet Union is a positive sign - such a traitorous, destructive regime could not possibly last - but the time it took and the global influence it achieved in 70 years is troubling. 

Orwell is the most famous political prognosticator of recent times. He understood the human nature behind both autocracy and bureaucracy and recognized its innate power.  Let us hope that we have finally learned Orwell's lesson.