I remember reading 1984 in 1984. This was the time period when schools held drills for a nuclear attack, the news coverage was filled with images of Soviet tanks rolling in parades in Moscow under the watch of old men in big furry hats, and a wall existed between east and west Berlin. My teacher stressed to a room of fourteen year olds that the Soviet Union had implemented a lot of the Orwellian methods of control over their citizens. Kids our age in the Soviet Union would never have the opportunities and freedoms we enjoyed. I had nightmares about America losing to the Soviets. The idea of living in an Orwellian society was terrifying, and I hoped that somehow the American government would keep us from falling into the dystopian reality of the Soviet Union. Then the wall came down. The Soviet Union dissolved. And it seemed the threat was over. I was so naive. I just finished reading about the massive reprint of 1984. Since it leaped to the top of the bestseller list again and has sold out, a new print run has been ordered. That so many people are snapping up copies of the book filled me with that old familiar gut-wrenching dread. But then I had epiphany. How profound is it that when we heard the words "alternative facts" we all thought of Orwell's chilling dystopian novel? How powerful that we identified the Orwellian context and threat in those two words? This is the power of the written word. This is the power of books made manifest. And it gives me hope. #thepowerofbooks #thepowerofwords #resist #demandthetruth #dontgiveup #freedomofspeech
