Fourth estate a shield as democracy attacked
Newspapers are the unacknowledged guardians of democracy. Without muckrakers, a democratic republic would crumble under the weight of crooked politicians, false-narrative websites, conspiracy-laden news outlets — even totalitarian oligarchs.
Newspapers are the last defense, the firewall protecting our fragile system against Machiavellian demagogues with phony populist optics and an unquenchable thirst for power.
George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” — first published in 1948 — narrates the life of Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of a political party who became disillusioned with the ubiquitous and nefarious “Big Brother.” The amorphous Big Brother is so named because he represents the party, whose lying and twisted ideology is the power base of the system.
Of course, Big Brother is an embodiment of Nazism and fascism.
George Orwell, whose real name was Eric Blair, believed language was the key to power. He understood Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Reich minister for public enlightenment and propaganda, who maintained: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Even Goebbels had dreams of achieving power and drafted a 1926 resolution to expel “petty-bourgeois Adolf Hitler from the National Social Party.” After the attempt failed, the boot-licking politician became Hitler’s most passionate and trusted supporter, using his rhetorical powers and magnetic voice to consolidate support for him.
Hitler consolidated his power by thrusting newspapers into chaos — and truth was the casualty. He wrote in his memoir that news outlets were primed for spreading disinformation and manipulation because “the receptivity of the great masses (populism) is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”
Once totalitarian politicians seize power, they disparage newspapers with denigrating snipes like “fake news,” then erect lines of communications to only a so-called enlightened few who know the correct p’s and q’s — hint, hint: Qanon. They establish their own “Ministry of Truth,” which means, “whatever I say is the truth.” Totalitarians dream of absolute control of print and digital media, thereby controlling information.
In “1984,” history is rewritten (archives falsified, bogus memories ascribed to historical figures, disagreeable moments erased) and serves the party. For Big Brother, doublethink becomes the new mantra (“War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” “Ignorance is Strength”).
I was amazed that “1984” was banned in some places because of social and political undertones, including in Jackson County, Fla., a right-wing stronghold.
There is no reason other than reactionary politics to censor a book that serves as a warning to future democracies. Perhaps in 2021, it’s time to reread “1984.”
Constitutional checks and balances may prevent totalitarian regimes from taking over, but an educated electorate needs to elect representatives who serve their constituency, not some mob of rioters, lawbreakers and enablers. Or worse, sycophants following willy-nilly the whims of a megalomaniac president.
With President-elect Joe Biden’s confirmation intact, America dodged a bullet — coming out a bit shaken, a little beaten up, yet still limping to the finish line. Why? Because the Constitution held up.
We have a free press and the power of the ballot to thank, because without the tenacity of writers, journalists, editors, critics and pundits — all fighting against Russian internet trolls, Cambridge Analytica, conspiracy theories, Confederate flag-waving separatists, alt-right thugs and an out-of-control Facebook — neo-nazis and a right-wing agenda would replace the American flag with a Trump flag, as they did last week.
The battle is not over. There is plenty of mending to do in addition to revitalizing the economy, defeating this miserable pandemic, and restoring law and order to the U.S. Capitol.
But the coup d’état led by a small traitorous group was defeated.
The American Constitution won.