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George Orwell wrote two books over 60 years ago in which he predicted the future of society with remarkable prescience: "Animal Farm" and "1984". Many of his observations can easily be applied to the political situation in America today. Consider the following quotes from "Animal Farm," which was written in 1945:

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." NOTE: This has become increasingly difficult in America today because of the failure of our media to meet its responsibility of "speaking truth to power" rather than submitting to it.

"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." NOTE the growing trend in today's America to label people as un-American when they disagree over policy.

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity." NOTE: We need only to listen to the representations of our politicians today to recognize the truth of this observation.

"Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." (Including the current generation of Americans).

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." When the animals take over the farm, they think it is the start of a better life. Their dream is of a world where all animals are equal and all property is shared. But soon the pigs take control and one of them, Napoleon, becomes the leader of all the animals. One by one the principles of the revolution are abandoned, until the animals have even less freedom than before. NOTE how this applies to the trend in America today.

"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."

"Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." NOTE how this applies to the political class in America today, who increasingly talk more with the appearance of authority yet say nothing of any significance or meaning.

"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."

"Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power." NOTE the naked pursuit of power by politicians at all levels in America today.

"War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent."

Following are some of the many cogent observations that George Orwell made in his second book, "1984":

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