Orwellian or Kafkaesque?

July 23, 2023 By Mark C. Ross 

Or both?  There's no doubt that these are atypical times.  And it is human nature to find some kind of template in which to fit them. Longstanding suspicions of the evil nature of many powerful members of our government(s) are now being confirmed.  Their collaborators in the media have already squandered much of their credibility.  Meanwhile, we are being constantly told how polarized we've become.  What that really means is that some of us are still believing the lies that we're being told.  The rest of us are yearning for all of this to come to an end.

Eric Blair changed his name to George Orwell so he wouldn't embarrass his family when he published his factual account of his life as a vagrant — a lifestyle he assumed in order to write Down and Out in Paris and London.  The term "Orwellian" is used to describe vivid literary descriptions of a dystopic future. A native of Prague Bohemia, which is now in Czechia, Franz Kafka's work was somewhat more fantastic than Orwell's but nonetheless also did a good job of revealing the dark institutional side of human nature.  Most famously, The Trial portrayed a hapless Josef K — who could never even learn what it was that he was being accused of.  Kafka's day job was with an insurance company, with which his law degree helped.  He died fairly young at 40 from tuberculosis, which wasn't all that unusual back in those days........To Read More.........