In George Orwell’s futuristic nightmare, 1984, citizens
are watched by a secret police for “thought crimes” committed against the
totalitarian state. These thought crimes are simply attitudes and ideas the
authorities regard as politically incorrect.
Orwell wrote 1984 during the height of the Cold War and
its vision reflected an all-too-real fact of life. The Soviet police state had
spread its tentacles over hundreds of millions of captive peoples. Tens of
millions of them whose ideas failed to conform to the prescriptions of the
totalitarian state were sent to labor camps and firing squads for committing
thought crimes. Their offense was to be “anti-Soviet” – to speak out against
socialism, or its rulers, or to fail to parrot the views and opinions approved
by the regime.
During the Cold War, America led a coalition of
democracies to oppose Communism because America’s founders had made the
principle of liberty the cornerstone of their Republic. The very first article
of the American Bill of Rights was not to have one’s speech restricted by the
power of the state.
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