Kenya is steadily moving towards a later day dystopia, where we love Big Brother

He loved Big Brother. These four words in George Orwell’s book Nineteen-Eighty-Four have been described as among the most heartbreaking words in world literature. They represent total loss of hope and epitomise surrender of good to evil and purity to wickedness. This is especially when the surrender is by those who have so far represented the best in us. It does not matter that they are individuals or institutions; the death of virtue is the ultimate triumph of evil.

Orwell created a dystopia in Nineteen-Eighty-Four. This to say he created a fictional country in which nothing good could happen. The dictatorial and corrupt authorities of the day thrived on lies and frightful propaganda. The philosophy of the government of the day was captured in the three slogans: “War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength.”

Every citizen outside the deep state was a vegetable. You were not supposed to have memory. The truth in the morning was a lie in the evening, the lie the truth. When you looked in the newspapers, you found that what you believed to have been reported last week was not so. For, the papers were rewritten all the time to reflect the new truth.

The police could “read your thoughts” by just looking at your face. One glance, and they concluded that you were the Enemy of the State. They arrested you for “facecrime.” They tortured you and “vaporized” you. If you kept a diary, you were arrested. If you fell in love, you were killed. The only passion allowed in society was the passion of fear. You lived in fear of Big Brother. Yet you were trained to turn this fear into love.

Winston Smith rebelled against this system. He would keep a diary. And he would fall in love. He hated Big Brother. He also disagreed with the three slogans of the State. He would not allow himself to become a vegetable, believing in the lies of the State. He would not surrender to the government’s doublespeak.

Newspeak was the politically correct language. And so Orwell’s dystopia, officially known as Oceania, had such politically correct words as “blackwhite.” This meant that everything the government said was correct. Black was white and white black, all at the same time. There was no need to doubt it. Does it sound familiar? It is said that Big Brother – whoever he may be – is never wrong. Big brother is always right. And if you are in doubt, refer to the first two statements.

“Crimestop” was the mental faculty of instinctively stopping yourself from developing “dangerous thoughts.” This is to say, stopping yourself from independent thinking. If you should think, you committed a crime. All crime, it was said, began with a thought. If you controlled your thoughts, you prevented crime. The word “crimethought” was Newspeak for a thought that did not agree with official reality. And official reality told you, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” And there were horrendous things in Orwell’s book.

This, then, made a person like Winston Smith the symbol of hope. Yet, in the end, Smith was arrested for crimethought. He went through the torture chambers and eventually emerged “a purified man.” At the end of the story we come across him in a tavern, soaking himself in gin, looking at the portrait of the leader of the nation on the wall. Orwell tells us of Smith at this moment, “He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”

And Kenya moves steadily towards a later day dystopia, where we love Big Brother. There is no need to question anything. For, there are only three truths. First, Big Brother is always right. Second, Big Brother is never wrong. And third, if you are in doubt, refer to one and two. Just how so low could a nation’s power to think sink?

I have recently seen an elected Member of Parliament vomiting this hogwash in a church in Nairobi. He was talking about an earthly political leader, whom he dressed up in the kind of praise that should be reserved for God the Almighty. The church leaders looked on – now smiling, now laughing and even clapping. And, I think, Jesus wept. For, they too love Big Brother. Their Big Brother is, however, the money that the political class takes to them.

The fall of the Church is the tumble of everything. If the leadership of the faiths based Community has represented the very finest in our midst, has it also been wrestling against its soul? Is it eventually winning victory over itself? The god of money is here. He is irresistibly enticing. In the context, nothing else matters. Good has surrendered to evil. We all love Big Brother.

Maybe, just maybe, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit of the Anglican Church and others who believe in God might rescue us, yet. This remains to be seen, however. Big Brother is probably the man in the Big House, holding our hand on foreign money-borrowing trips. Or he is the brand new multi billionaire who vomits on our shoes in Church on Sundays. Or, he is an all-knowing infallible father of the people. Whatever, we love Big Brother. And so help us, God.

- The writer is a strategic public communications adviser.  www.barrackmuluka.co.ke