(from my e-mail response to a friend)
(George Orwell aka Eric Blair)
Definitely, one’s consciousness is the last line of sanity, defence, and whatever truth and truisms one can observe and conclude.
Orwell’s “Reality is inside the skull” pretty much covers the above. And “Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.” And “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” (Those 3 statements have kept me pretty much on an individual/own person path for years.)
Consciousness et al is subjective finally–what you experience, perceive, understand, know. That is the ultimate truth/frame of one’s life for the sake of coping, adapting, survival, endurance, etc.
In Trump World, his base will never be conscious in a meaningful sense. I.e., like Fox News, it experiences and lives very limited ‘truth”, “facts” that hinder true consciousness of any perspective or depth.
Like the animals in Animal Farm, much of his lower and working class base is ignorant and orthodox. As Orwell put it, “Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think”. It means being led by the nose as asses are by Napoleon-like pig presidents. T does the hoi-polloi’s ‘thinking’ for them.
In T’s case “Ignorance is strength”, hugely and unashamedly.
In one sense, T is right. Orwell, again, “The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world.’ (Not helped by the decline of reading and books).
Orwell’s “Power is inflicting pain and humiliation” is T’s personal modus operandi.
I think T is also a good example of this classic Orwell quote: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face–forever.”
Thus, the Orwellian overview has been largely borne out since Trump got elected. It’s no wonder the book has enjoyed renewed sales and interest.