If I were to pick a novel to live in, I’d probably choose one set on an island. “Hawaii” by James Michener, perhaps. I most definitely would not pick a dystopian setting with an authoritarian centralized government with mass surveillance and the manipulation of truth and history like George Orwell’s novel “1984.”
And yet here we are.
For those who may not have been required to read it in high school, “1984” is set in the superstate of Oceania, a country caught up in never-ending war. The government controls the media, education and even thoughts, with the “thought police” looking for an excuse to arrest and eliminate anyone with an independent thought.
The novel’s central character is Winston Smith, who works for the “Ministry of Truth.” His job is rewriting history books to match the current party line. At a “Hate Week” demonstration at the beginning of the book, people are gathered to decry their enemy, Eurasia, and celebrate their alliance with Eastasia. At the last minute, the speaker changes the name of the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia and asserts it has always been that way.
“We’ve always been at war with Eastasia!” The people hurriedly crumple their banners of protest, not wanting to be on the wrong side of history, and wander away convinced they were wrong.
Orwell details how “the Party” controls the media, undermines the courts, takes over security forces, rewrites the past and sows confusion over what is true.
“‘Two and two are four.’ ‘Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.’”
Once people are confused about what is true, it becomes increasingly difficult to know what is actually true.
What is truth?
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis is a chilling modern version of this “1984″ description of a heavy-handed government. A recent article by the Deseret News Editorial Board calls for an independent investigation into Pretti’s death, saying, “An investigation is needed because videos taken of Pretti’s killing clearly contradict the official story to a point that is beyond the pale — officials have accused him of domestic terrorism and brandishing a weapon with the intent of harming officers.”
Rewriting the past
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right,” Orwell writes.
“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
In Orwell’s novel, the Ministry of Truth changes the past to match the party line. Right now, we see multiple actions that seem to be trying to rewrite history — or erase it altogether.
In an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” issued on March 27, 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the National Park Service to remove any content deemed to “disparage Americans past or living.”
Last March, the website for Arlington National Cemetery took down links to histories highlighting Black, Hispanic and women veterans, as well as other prominent women, including Utah’s own Seraph Young. You can still find her grave if you search for her name, but she is no longer listed under “Notable Graves.”
At the end of January 2026, park service workers took down an exhibit called “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” which memorialized nine people enslaved by George Washington at the President’s House Site, where the first president once lived.
At Muir Woods National Monument in California, the administration dismantled a plaque about trees and carbon dioxide.
At Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, the National Park Service has been ordered to stop showing films about the women and immigrants who once toiled in the city’s textile mills.
In Utah, Zion National Park is also on the list.
Government surveillance
“Big Brother is Watching You.”
From Orwell, we also get “Big Brother,” the omnipresent government who knows everything about everyone.
A recent Washington Post article reports that one American citizen wrote an email asking the Department of Homeland Security to “not play Russian roulette” with an Afghan refugee’s life. Five hours and one minute later, he got a notice from Google that his email account had been subpoenaed.
According to the Post, in September, Homeland Security used an administrative subpoena to try to identify Instagram users who posted about ICE raids in Los Angeles. Last month, they used another to demand detailed personal information about some 7,000 workers in a Minnesota health system whose staff had protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s intrusion into one of its hospitals.
Now, the administration wants to nationalize elections and have one giant database of detailed voter information, rather than the 3,244 counties that currently control voter lists.
In Utah and elsewhere across the country, Flock cameras are being used to help law enforcement track vehicles. The ACLU calls it a “dangerous nationwide mass-surveillance infrastructure” that has already been used to go beyond reading license plates. In June, Flock also announced the launch of a “Flock Business Network,” a “collaborative hub designed to help private sector organizations work together to solve and prevent crime.” In other words, says the ACLU, they’re creating an infrastructure for “corporate blacklisting and surveillance.”
Pick another point from “1984,” and you’re likely to find a modern application. Undermine the courts? Check. Control the media you can and castigate the media you can’t? Check. Deploy troops against your own people? Check. Of course, 2026 does not replicate the novel in all aspects, but there are clear echoes.
When Orwell wrote his dystopian novel, he meant it as a warning — not a guidebook.