Since the first time I read it in December of 1983, George Orwell's novel, 1984 has been one of my favorite books. I know Animal Farm is considered by many to be better literature, but 1984's uncompromising portrait of humanity declaring a bankruptcy of the soul is the one that made me think. As the current media and political climate makes Orwell's conception, especially newspeak and doublethink, seem increasingly visionary, the book has been very much on my mind.
A particularly dubious example of newspeak and doublethink is Republican politicians' current way of referring to the individuals whose tax rates the party is trying to protect. Rather than refer to them as "wealthy" or "well off" which would emphasize the economic disparity to the other 99% of the public, House Speaker John Boehner and his ilk insist on calling them "job creators". Never mind that there's precious little emphasis that they're using their financial resources to create jobs, or are even inclined to do so, it's all about appearances. It's the flip-side of the bad reputation things like the 2008 financial bailout and 2009 stimulus plan have gotten, even though the former is generating deficit-lowering profits for the government and the latter offered tax cuts to a large part of US taxpayers. It's all about appearances.
President Obama for his part has been relatively honest, admitting in a news conference that he's one of the fortunate people whose taxes he feels should go up to help deal with broader fiscal issues. Perhaps he's being too honest. Perhaps we need him to tell us that 2+2=5 over and over until we believe it. As the song goes, that's all right because I love the way you lie.
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