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There have been many references to the "Orwellian" nature of recent national events. Although most of us have at least a glimmer of what that term means, it might help to dig deeper to understand its source and why it's so appropriate to describe the country today.

George Orwell was the pen name of British writer Eric Blair, who once said that "every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism." His novella "Animal Farm" had the unforgettable line "some animals are more equal than others." His novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four," published in 1949, was positively chilling: the Thought Police, the Hate Week military parades, the signs that "Big Brother is watching you" all over the landscape, and the daily Two Minutes Hate that every citizen was expected to demonstrate against the designated enemy of the state.

And then there was Newspeak, the purpose of which, as Orwell explained in the appendix to the novel, was "to make all other modes of thought impossible." Newspeak invented new words, eliminated undesirable words and reshaped the meaning of the words that remained. Prime examples were the slogans of the Party plastered on the towering Ministry of Truth: "WAR IS PEACE / FREEDOM IS SLAVERY / IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."

When I read "Nineteen Eighty-Four" in the late '70s, it sent a shiver down my spine, but some of the events from the novel seemed a bit far-fetched. However, in recent years we've heard that climate change is a hoax, that illegal immigrants are eating their neighbors' pets and that schoolchildren are receiving surgery to change their gender. Just within the past few months, we've been told that Ukraine started the war with Russia, that the Jan. 6 rioters didn't assault first responders, and that racism today is a figment of our imagination except when it hurts the majority ethnic group. Up is down, black is white. War is peace.

How can anyone absorb into their system of beliefs information that contradicts what they could see with their own eyes? Research from social psychologists has shown that cognitive dissonance disrupts perception, learning, decisionmaking and even social change. Well, the authorities in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" had a solution to this problem, using a Newspeak word that is the opposite of cognitive dissonance: "doublethink."

In the novel, Orwell talked about "blackwhite," a related Newspeak word: "[T]his word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by … doublethink." In a separate essay, Orwell drove the point home: "If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

Philosopher Harry Frankfurt, in his book "On Bullshit," makes a distinction between those who lie, by deliberately making false claims about what is true, and those who BS, by changing the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt states that a BS-er "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all." Washington Post columnist Eduardo Porter says the current president's "greatest gift is to have realized that in a nation that has lost its grip on truth, BS can stand in as a replacement." Apparently ignorance is truly strength.

As citizens of a democracy, what is our obligation to the truth? For myself, I know I have to start by seeking the truth, which means I have to try to get past all the blinders from my own biases and prejudices. I have to accept that truth is not a campaign sound bite, not a rant I can just rattle off whenever my blood starts boiling. And I have to consider evidence from all quarters.

For example: Are immigrants hard workers who overcame big obstacles to get here and want to make a new life that contributes to a stable society? Or are they freeloaders who would rather take welfare or illegal shortcuts than do honest work? The truth is that there are immigrants in both camps, and everywhere in between. And the same could be said of those who have been here for decades. Acknowledging this truth can get us past pro- or anti- agendas to the core of the problem: How can we build a system so that all citizens, newcomers and old-timers alike, have incentives to do good work and better our society?

Leaving the easy sound bites behind, we could also take a step back and ask: Why are so many people leaving their longtime homes to come to our shores? What role do we have in supporting that pattern? Does that role give us leverage to make changes? Embracing the full truth often means diving deeply into a complex world, seeking to understand before advocating change. To me, it's sweet relief to hear someone acknowledge the full truth of a thorny issue because I know I'm talking with someone who has put agendas aside to look a tough problem square in the face.

I believe good citizens are also obliged to defend the truth. However, maintaining calm and resilience in the face of blatant falsehoods can be difficult. But we could look to Angela Harrelson, George Floyd's aunt, who has had to deal with death threats and hoaxes, including a call from a man pretending to be the officer who killed her nephew. Even after federal and state trials found that officer guilty of civil rights violations and murder, Harrelson has encountered activists who deny the basic facts — the truth — about Floyd's death. All this while processing her own grief. A reporter recently asked her how she felt about the fact that concepts like diversity and inclusion are now in the crosshairs. Her response? We're in a movement, not a moment. Of her nephew, she said, "The gift he left us is the voice, to lift our voice and to fight. We don't have to be silent."

I know I prefer living in harmony with truth, even when it's big and messy. I will continue to seek truth and speak truth at every opportunity, and I think I'm in good company. "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored," wrote Aldous Huxley, the author of "Brave New World." "All I want is the truth," John Lennon sang, "Just give me some truth." Finally, one last quote (that is sometimes attributed to Orwell, but in any case was said by someone wise): "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

Jeff Naylor, of Minneapolis is a software architect.