You are probably correct. This is far more ‘1984’ than 1788. Television, sports, pornography and drugs sap the masculine energy necessary to even attempt to reclaim traditional America.
But there is a huge disconnect. Just look at Bill Kristol and George Will. They really, truly, believed that there were millions of people who looked to them as gurus and would follow their lead on the GOP presidential candidate.
It’s not TV, sports and porn, it’s life. People have bills and responsibilities and things that need to get done. You expect people to get evicted from their homes because they walked away from their jobs to go be part of the revolution? Really? We no longer live in a version of the world where you can just go alternative in your life, no longer can you build a cabin any old place plop the wife and kids down safely and go fight the good fight. The Industrial Revolution means we have jobs and paperwork that must be respected.
According to various circulation and ratings Kristol and Will have at least hundreds of thousand who pay attention to them.
More like “Brave New World” then “1984”. The only thing missing is ‘specially bred castes’.