1984 Is Sneaking Up on Us!

The dedicated Constitutionalist in me loves the passion and the stridency of the social media response to divisive issues.

On the other hand, the historian in me shudders at our society's increasing inability to function beyond the immediacy of the moment. With the advent of instantaneous information, instantaneous opinion, instantaneous reaction, and instantaneous decision, we are placing less value on deliberation, historical perspective, consideration of alternative thought and appreciation of alternative views. We increasingly marginalize voices of moderation and conciliation because they don't agree with us entirely - and agree with the "other side" too much - and increasingly listen only to the ones who most loudly and perfectly align with our own preconceived conclusions.

It will be interesting to see how long a society like this can keep itself together and what, exactly, it turns into. If history is any judge (which it usually is) we should end up just about where George Orwell predicted - just not in the way he expected us to get there. The chaos and dysfunction will lead to instability and violence which will lead to demands for safety and security which will lead to the abridgement of rights - first for specific targeted threats, and then for everyone - which will lead to technical tyranny which will lead to actually tyranny.

I'm starting a pool on how much longer we have until 1984!