George Orwell Speaks the Truth

…you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
—Jesus (John 8:32)

Someone recently sent me a quote attributed to George Orwell,[1] “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”[2] This got me thinking.

If you were like me you had to read one of two books (or both) in high school, George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) or 1984 (1949). In these books Orwell showed both insight into wartime totalitarian regimes (Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia) and also great prescience, forward thinking, as he warned of many dangers to personal freedom that such regimes, and their way of thinking, were liable to cause in the future. Evidently, Orwell didn't believe society had seen the end of such tyranny.

Animal Farm is about the animals of a farm that revolt against their farmer and establish a commune. In the end this communist experiment goes awry as power is centralized with the pigs. The slogan that had begun, “All animals are equal,” degenerated into the most famous line in the book, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

1984 is a story of a distant time (in the past now!) in which a utopian society had been produced through centralized control under the guise of offering “freedom.” Newspeak, Doublethink, Big Brother and the Thought Police are all key words that give a window into the control that existed within this "utopian" totalitarian society. As the main characters begin to think for themselves they yearn for true freedom.

Classic liberalism championed the freedom of the individual as created in the image of God (Gen 1:27, and thus was a predominantly influenced by Christianity). This was the basis of modern Western society—a secular freedom as close to real freedom that one can arrive at apart from Christ—but which is now under attack by a creeping new influence: neo-liberalism (or neo-Marxism), that privileges the group against the individual and seeks to exert coercive influence against any that would oppose its worldview.

Let’s think about the wisdom of Orwell and apply it to today (i.e. where can we see seeds of his critique in society at large? [btw- this is no attempt at a conspiracy theory!]).

What similarities do we find in our present culture?

• All equal; some more equal than others: in our age of identity politics, isn’t it unnerving how some groups have preference over others (vs. the classic position of individuals being equally free).
• Newspeak (a new language): Notice how, to fit a particular ideology, our language is being overhauled to weed out things that don’t fit or may be offensive to some (e.g. gender).
• Doublethink (To teach people not to question two logically inconsistent views): postmodernism, people don’t think rationally all the time! It is nothing to hold mutually contradictory views.
• Big Brother (a guardian so benevolent and yet so malevolent): big government, seen by many to be a “saviour like figure” is certainly heading this way, perhaps even being accelerated by the pandemic (financial assistance, growing powers, etc).
• Thought Police: Freedom to offend is certainly under threat, but political correctness and the fear it instils has long been a threat to society.

The unsettling thing about our present predicament is that whereas with regimes of the past there was often a sudden and overt revolution that shifted a society in this direction; we seem to be witnessing it so gradually (and from traditionally trusted sources) that it is gaining popular support as we forget the lessons of the past and ultimately what civic freedom looks like. Orwell helps us to think outside of the box and remember a valuable lesson from history. 

As post-Christian society becomes further unmoored from its foundation in Christ, Christians will be called to speak the truth in love, and will often bear the brunt of hatred as a result.

But individual freedom and the pursuit of truth aside (as important as those are), is not what Jesus is getting at in Jn 8:32. He is saying we are actually all spiritually enslaved to sin but that He came to offer the greatest liberty, freedom from it and the ability to follow Christ and live the good life we were created to live. Jesus is the truth, not only the ultimate reality but true and good. We are false and sinful. He came not only to live out a true life, but to die for our falseness so we might live truly. He calls us to believe in His truthfulness, so we might be restored and walk in the truth ourselves.
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Thanks George, but thank you most of all Jesus.


[1] I couldn’t find the original source but this certainly sounds like Orwell, and even if it isn’t is still a helpful quote.

[2] Orwell was a nominal Anglican (at best). Yet, it is striking how this quote bears a Gospel semblance. Jesus spoke a similar truth concerning what He was hated and why His followers would be likewise hated in Jn 15:18.