When I First Read This Orwell Quote I Didn't Understand It. Today I Do, and That Frightens Me

Is truth being destroyed by propaganda?

George Orwell (1903-1950) once wrote that "history stopped" in 1936.

Truth after that point was drowned out by state propaganda. It was a phenomenon that clearly terrified him.

"I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed.

I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened.

I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”

When I first read this quote, which comes from his 1943 essay “Looking back on the Spanish War,” I didn't have any idea what Orwell was talking about.

Today, I understand exactly what he was talking about. And that terrifies me.

Author’s note: I shared this pithy observation on LinkedIn, and it started to go viral. So I decided to share it with readers here on Substack.

For some of my other reflections on Orwell, who was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century, check out these:

Aldous Huxley's Letter to George Orwell

The Dystopias of Orwell and Huxley Had One Big Thing in Common

3 Real-Life Inspirations for George Orwell’s 1984

Why Our World Suddenly Looks Like “1984”