Project 2025 updates ‘1984’

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Our brave new world is now composed of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia

Somebody in the Trump administration has read and liked the results in George Orwell’s “1984.” I suspect one is Stephen Miller, the Trump “policy advisor” who has a black cloud over his head and is always at the ultra-right shoulder of his Great Leader. Miller is very much like Joe Btfsplk, the guy in the comic strip “Lil Abner” who always had a black cloud over his head, was the world’s worst jinx and brought bad luck to everyone he met.

In Orwell’s futuristic novel, published in 1949, he created three huge countries: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is made up of the United States, the Americas (including the Gulf of America (Mexico), the American Canal (Panama), the Atlantic Islands, the British Isles, Australasia and southern Africa. The political system is called Ingsoc which is basically English socialism and the cult of personality (such as a Trump!) called Big Brother of the powerful Inner Party. Food is carefully rationed for all other political parties. Some names of countries have

been altered. England is now called Airstrip One. Sections of land are called provinces and 87% of the population are called proles (people who cannot have ideas!) and the ruling Inner Party is only 2%. The remainder belong to the Outer Party which have their thoughts suppressed by the Inner Party.

The state of Oceania (in the book) has no laws, only crimes — like the Trump Justice Department today. Nothing is classified as illegal. Social pressure is used to control people instead of laws. The proles remain in a state of permanent anxiety to avoid “thought crime” — sorta like our Congress! There will be no changes in politics because Big Brother is too powerful to let it happen. The main character of the novel is Winston, a member of the intelligentsia in Oceania who rewrites history (like Fox News and the Trump Organization).

In “1984,” Eurasia is a state made up of northern Europe and Asia, from Portugal to the Bering Strait, put together after a war between the Soviet Union and Allies. The ideology is Neo-Bolshevism.

The other state in the novel is Eastasia, which consists of China and the countries south of it: Japan, Mongolia and Tibet. Eastasia was formed after “confused fighting” between many of those nations. Its ideology is called Death-Worship by one group and Obliteration of the Self by another large group.

Orwell’s states have been warring with each other for decades. Each state is self- supporting, so they don’t fight over resources as we do today. With huge populations of proles, the three states recognize that science is responsible for its over-production, so all aspects of science must be carefully controlled.

Imagine Eurasia ruled by Putin, Eastasia by Xi and Oceania by Trump —and no League of Nations or United Nations.

Why all this talk from Big Brother Trump about Greenland, the Gulf of America, Panama and the Panama Canal, and Canada as our 51st state instead of Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia? Perhaps Edward Wong, who has written a book about China and covers U.S. foreign policy “happenings” has the answer in his New York Times article titled “Trump’s Vision: One World, Three Powers.”

Does our narcissistic nutcase have delusions about becoming the Big Brother of the world? Last week he was “thinking” he could lead one of the three “spheres of influence” — China, Russia, and his Divided States of America — because “I own the store. [...] It’s a giant, beautiful store and everybody wants to go shopping there.”

What an opportunity for Trump Organization grifting! His actions about tariffs, his bromance with Vladimir and his “friendship” with Xi suggests he was thinking about three great powers dominating the actions on the globe.

Wong writes: “Last week, Mr. Trump said he wanted to normalize commerce with Russia, appearing to lessen the pressure on Moscow to settle its war with Ukraine. And he is trying to limit the fallout from his own global trade war by urging China’s leader to call him.”

By the way, the Trump administration has not said it would defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion. That has been our promise for decades.

The afterword in 1984 is a fascinating question the world has not answered yet: “Can human nature be changed in such a way that man will forget his longing for freedom, for dignity, for integrity, for love — that is to say, can man forget he is human?”

Some research about the life of chimps almost begs another question: Are our relatives, the chimps, more like humans, or are humans more like chimps? Researchers from the University of Oxford have been observing chimps for years. Chimps have personal hygiene habits like humans. They wipe their bottoms after defecating, nurse each other’s wounds and clean each other up after sex. They chew plants with medical powers to apply to another chimp’s wounds. In applying the chewed portions to wounds, chimps exhibit empathy and altruistic tendencies. They lick, dab, and press leaves carefully on the wounds of others. That’s more than we can say about many humans in politics and finance these days.

Research has been conducted for more than 30 years on the Sonso and Waibira communities of East African chimps in Uganda’s Budongo Forest. The director of esearch, Dr. Elodie Freymann, added this note to the data: “We find cases for animals helping each other with no immediate benefit to themselves. The more we compile evidence to show that that’s something that’s also not as uniquely human as we once thought.”

Perhaps the Oxford researchers should observe Donald Trump and Elon Musk for months or years to see if they ever display empathy toward other humans or animals.

Orwell discusses the role religion plays in the government of a country

Some critics write that Orwell wrote “1984” to depict what happens to a country if God is taken completely out of the picture. Oceania is, as one critic wrote: “a dark, helpless, hopeless place.” Another writes, if there is no God, “The government can do whatever it wants, it can rewrite history, it can kill at will, the proles (the dumb masses) could rise up and revolt, but they won’t and no one could ever lead them because Big Brother, with their surveillance would get to them first. There is torture, there is brainwashing. Objective reality and objective truth does not exist. If you are caught, they will break you. What more could there be to live for to resist their will? Compliance is the only path.”

This is the conclusion the Republican Party, the Grand Old Party, has come to in the first 100 days of the second Trump administration blitzkrieg. There is a very strong relationship between the structure of the Big Brother administration and the Trump administration.

The Ministry of Truth in “1984” concentrates on rewritten history (sometimes called fake news), entertainment, education, telling lies, and distributing propaganda. President Trump, the White House staff, Fox News, ultra rightwing podcasts and radio fulfill this role in 2025.

The Ministry of Love in “1984” maintains law and order and tortures and brainwashes dissidents and protesters to force proles to believe Big Brother and the “new” history written by Winston. The Trump Justice Department concentrates on retribution, punishment, and controlling all public education with Moms for Liberty, banning books, Critical Race Theory, transgender legislation, and the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Exclusion programs in government, business, and education. Adolph Hitler’s creation of the Hitler Youth for children six to 18 served him well from 1926 to 1945.

The Ministry of Peace in “1984” is responsible for keeping Oceania on a constant wartime footing in order to defeat Eurasia and Eastasia. This ministry’s goal is to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to eliminate all independent thought. Trump wants to spend a trillion dollars in 2026 accomplishing the same control over China and Russia.

The Ministry of Plenty in “1984” is responsible for all economic affairs to keep the rich richer and keep the poor poorer by keeping the proles starving and in need. The Trump administration has the same goal by eliminating controls over business, banks, and investment firms, constant tax cuts for the rich, and cutting food, medical, and education benefits for the poor and what is left of the middle class.

Mary writes Donald is cocky, rude, jealous, arrogant with no friends

At the end of the Scopes trial in 1925, when a high school teacher was fined $100 for teaching evolution in a Bible Belt biology class, a small-town editor wrote the following: “We are in a time of great social change, as many old coalitions and approaches are being dissembled and reconstituted in surprising ways. Both in the U.S. and globally, it is not clear what the future holds for Christian faith and practice. And although we see some indications, we do not yet know what the new ideological bundles will be.” (Pope Francis cut this down to “Who am I to judge?”)

Now, a hundred years later, we still have battles between science and religion about evolution. Donald Trump’s niece Mary claims he is very dangerous because he has never “evolved.” He “isn’t close to anyone.” A licensed psychologist who has written three books about the Trump family and “The Chosen One,” Mary feels she has a duty to warn the world her uncle has never “evolved” to adulthood.

As a teenager, he never had friends, and the adjectives she uses to describe him are encompassing: “He was a cocky, rude teenager and now has added arrogance and cruelty.” During his developmental period as a child, Donald’s mother was ill and unable to handle him, so his father, a sociopath, had great influence on him.

“He is the only person I’ve ever met who has never evolved, which is dangerous,” Mary adds. “Never choose as your leader somebody who is incapable of evolving.”

A Minnesota coach has good advice about transgender athletes in sports

“Oh, boy, here we go. Girls competing in a sport want to sue the state because they feel it is unfair to play against a person who is transgender. Part of coaching is teaching your athletes how to prepare and compete. The opponent may be bigger, faster, older, better trained, more experienced...and maybe even have better uniforms. I guess I was never concerned about the fairness of it all because I never assumed that was part of why we offered sport. The philosophy we had was that athletics in school were offered to teach young people teamwork, the rules and nuances of specific sports, and how to train their body and mind for physical activity, whatever that might be in the future. Fairness on the playing field is a pretty elusive thing to capture; good luck.” Alan Briesemeister, Delano.

I think this statement should be read at every school board meeting in the state. I coached baseball for the Fargo Park Board and the Fargo American Legion B team for eight years (after I played high school and college football and baseball for eight years), plus four years of semi-pro baseball. I agree with every word.