John Derbyshire is the sole remaining adult writing for
National Review. In a recent issue he noted that Aldous
Huxley’s novel, Brave New World (READ),
first published in 1932, now reads like contemporary news.
Huxley’s fearsome predictions of a 26th century world have
all come true six centuries early – in vitro fertilization,
genetically modified crops, stem-cell research, promiscuous
recreational sex, (sex
games encouraged between children- ED) the demise
of marriage and families, and the epidemic use of prescription
and illegal drugs to escape from anxiety, frustration and
disappointment.
Alas, Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial, (READ)
published in 1925 and George Orwell’s novel, 1984, (READ)
published in 1949, also have been turned into period pieces
by the practices of the Bush Regime.
In Kafka’s novel, Josef K. is arrested for reasons never
given, tried for an unspecified crime, and executed.
The Trial is the model for the Bush Regime’s Military Tribunals,
which permit execution on the basis of hearsay, secret evidence
unknown to the defendant, or confession extracted by torture.
For the past five years, the Bush Regime has held people
in secret prisons without warrants, charges, or access to
an attorney. Most detainees have been tortured and abused.
Bush’s real world victims suffer from more disorientation
and hopelessness than Kafka’s character, Josef K.
In Orwell’s 1984, people are subjected to relentless spying.
A state or alleged state of war is used to maintain total
control over everyone. Lies have replaced truth, and the
media serves as propagandist for the Ministry of Truth.
The meaning of words, such as "freedom" has been perverted.
The attitude of 1984’s all-powerful government is "you are
with us or against us."
In the United States, each member elected to the House and
Senate takes an oath to uphold the US Constitution, as does
the president and vice president. Yet the Bush Regime drafted
and Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, a constitutional
monstrosity that denies the protection of law to everyone
declared, without evidence, by the executive branch to be
a suspected terrorist or enemy combatant.
The Military Commissions Act became law in "the land of
the free" in 2006. The Act strips detainees of protections
provided by the Geneva Conventions. The Act declares that
no person "subject to trial by military commission under
this chapter may invoke the Geneva Conventions as a source
of rights."
The Act also denies detainees the protections of the US
Constitution and Bill of Rights: "No court, justice, or
judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application
for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of" a
detainee. Some language in the Act refers to detainees as
"aliens," but, ominously, other language does not limit
the Act’s applicability to "aliens."
In Orwell’s novel, Winston Smith commits a thought crime,
is arrested by the Thought Police, and imprisoned in the
Ministry of Love. Winston’s dearth of rights under Big Brother
is comparable to the absence of rights of detainees under
the Military Commissions Act.
This dangerous legislation is the product of the same regime
that resurrected the medieval practice of torture of prisoners
and that has consistently lied about the reasons for the
wars it has initiated.
Scholars, such as Philip Cooper of Portland State University,
warn that the Bush Regime is using presidential signing
statements to replace constitutional checks and balances
with elevated executive powers associated with the unitary
executive theory.
The unitary executive theory is a way to turn the US president
into Big Brother. Already Bush is replacing Congress as
the arbiter of law and the judiciary as the arbiter of rights.
The media enable his usurpation, and the people, distracted
by war and "terrorism," have their various forms of soma.
Amazing but true – three novels of the early 20th century
predicted present-day America.
