HAS LIFE IN THE WEST BECOME MORE ORWELLIAN OR KAFKAESQUE?

When your state tells you what you must not say, the viewpoints you must, or must not hold and punishes you for thinking or stating otherwise, then your state is actively seeking to enslave you.

Everything I have written in these many commentaries are the result of my own thought processes. They represent solely views which I genuinely hold. However, if they were to be read by any figure of authority in the West they would be labelled as propaganda, Russian propaganda. I would be deemed to have committed a thought crime and quite possibly be jailed. I wonder if you feel this compares well to the description of our region of the planet as ‘The Free World’ during the period of the Cold War. Does it not more accurately compare to life in a totalitarian state, somewhere distinctly Orwellian, or perhaps even Kafkaesque?

From Wikipedia:

Orwellian is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by propaganda, surveillance, disinformation, denial of truth (doublethink), and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson"—a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practised by modern repressive governments.

The term "Kafkaesque" is used to describe concepts and situations reminiscent of Kafka's work, particularly Der Process (The Trial) and Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis). Examples include instances in which bureaucracies overpower people, often in a surreal, nightmarish milieu that evokes feelings of senselessness, disorientation, and helplessness. Characters in a Kafkaesque setting often lack a clear course of action to escape a labyrinthine situation. Kafkaesque elements often appear in existential works, but the term has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, the word thoughtcrime describes a person's politically unorthodox thoughts, beliefs, and doubts that politically contradict the tenets of Ingsoc (English Socialism), the dominant ideology of Oceania. In the official language of Newspeak, the word crimethink describes the intellectual actions of a person who entertains and holds politically unacceptable thoughts; thus the government of The Party controls the speech, the actions, and the thoughts of the citizens of Oceania.

In contemporary English usage, the word thoughtcrime describes the personal beliefs that are contrary to the accepted norms of society.

We are told today that any thought expressed openly that does not conform to the government stipulated view on either Russia or Ukraine is propaganda, and further that everything emanating from Russian officialdom is flatly propaganda with nothing more to say about it than that. And further, that to express views which conform in any way, shape or form to Russian “propaganda” among those living within the western world are punishable. No freedom of speech is to be allowed in these circumstances. Certain thoughts and expression of certain views are deemed to constitute a crime. In addition, this prohibition can extended to certain activities such as emphasising the letter Z in some way. (A man in Germany a few years ago received a heavy fine for placing the letter Z {showing support for Russia} in the rear view mirror of his car.)

In Hungary and Slovakia today the heads of state are opposed to the fuelling of the conflict in Ukraine through the supply of weapons to the Ukrainian regime and advocate that a negotiation process be implemented to seek peace. For these views they are generally shunned and continually verbally and politically attacked for holding this position. The only acceptable view, according to the European Union bureaucracy is one which advocates for an open ended supply of weapons of war to the regime. Both subtle and unsubtle methods are underway to negate the influence of both premier ministers seeking by whatever means become available to remove them from power.

Where we must wonder are the virtually sacrosanct tenets of ‘democracy’, ‘free speech’ and ‘western liberal values’ that we have been told are the reasons why our societies are superior to certain others and that in addition, justify and sanctify our regime change attacks upon nations our leaders call ‘authoritarian’, ‘totalitarian’ or ‘dictatorships’? Has something significant been revealed behind the edifice of supposed normality within western nations as now governed by our political elites, something that calls into question all the protestations by them that they honour our ‘rights’ above all else? I believe so.

Our right to free speech has been enshrined in law here in the West, or so we thought. We have been told many times down the decades that we live in a ‘free society’ where we could think and speak freely and have freedom to associate as we pleased without fear of repression or punishment from above. Why have these rights, so integral (we have been told) to our way of life in the West, suddenly disappeared? Why instead do we have an imposition of narratives from western politicians and news media that are deemed unquestionable? No war against Russia has been officially announced, yet this is the reason for the draconian policies we now suffer under prohibiting our right to think and speak freely.

In the western world and in the collective west that extends to the far flung allies of the western powers, the political bureaucracies have agreed in most part to imposing a ‘war mode’ mentality on their citizens. Nothing bad must be said about anything the Ukrainian regime or its military does or has done. Nothing good must be said about anything the Russian authorities does or has done. Ukraine is all good, Russia all bad. End of discussion and woe betide anyone who says otherwise. Who is repressive now? Who is in the right? Such thoughts are dangerous because those who hold power currently in the West have told us what to think, how to think and what our conclusions MUST be. 

So my question, what kind of society are we living in now here in the West, Orwellian… or Kafkaesque? Or perhaps and most likely, a combination of the two.