In
George Orwell’s world. The Ministry of Truth was the government’s propaganda
agency, the unit whose job was to rewrite history according to the government’s
wishes. We need a Ministry of Truth in Washington. Or maybe we already have
one. Consider the following:
You
don’t have to be an archivist to find quotations from Washington in which Prime
Minister Maliki in Iraq was hailed as just the kind of leader his country
needed, a trustworthy ally of the United States who could be counted on to
deliver, whatever the provocations. The
Ministry of Truth is today rewriting history to delete all those quotations.
In
similar vein, the United States promoted itself as the world’s leading advocate
for democracy, the principle that the people of a nation should be entitled to
vote for their leaders. The vote, we said, was the ultimate guarantor of the
peoples’ liberties. In
Egypt, Ukraine, Syria, and now Iraq, the Ministry of Truth is rewriting history
along the following lines: The leaders who are elected can be thrown out when the
people show, by mass protests or by polls, that they want someone else.
President
Obama lashes out at rich Wall Streeters by telling them they “can keep their
homes in the Hamptons.” The President could have said “in the Hamptons or Martha’s
Vineyard,” but the Ministry of Truth wouldn’t hear of it.
A
terrific Front Line report on PBS recently revealed some of the falsehoods our
government tells us in the name of security. It was called “The United States
of Secrets.” I thought it was one of the best pieces of investigative
journalism I’ve ever seen, and it was fair, affording the NSA chiefs ample opportunities to express their positions. But the take-away was that George Orwell's fantasy was increasingly realistic.
