I know that 1984 is a commentary on Stalin’s purges. And it also prefigures what happened in China later on. But it’s general commentary on human psychology was prescient. I was recently talking to a friend who is a pretty conventional liberal American (Sander’s supporter, but OK with supporting Clinton in the general). We were talking about Donald Trump’s appeal to many people. On the specific issue about banning Muslims I think he has tapped into a broad vein of American opinion which observes rightly that Muslim majority nations are very illiberal. In response to this, my friend looked behind her (we were in my living room, and I don’t have a roommate), and whispered under her breath “Well, Muhammed was a pretty bad guy, so what do you expect?” My point is that it’s as if there are Telescreens monitoring people, even though they aren’t.
Many people have “taboo” thoughts all the time, but are aware that we live in a social environment where we can’t express them (to be fair, this is a pretty universal human norm). There are a laundry list of things that are “not OK” for American liberals to believe, but they believe them often anyway. Similarly, there was a laundry list of positions which were supposed to be held by all conservatives by the conservative elites (e.g., extreme pro-Israel support without any qualification or moderation). Donald Trump has violated these norms, and lived to tell the tale. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future a Bernie Sanders type figure emerges who is able to overturn the power of the Democratic establishment. Social norms are strong and hard to change…until you change them. Things can happen fast.
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