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The Orwell Test

I'm going to show you how to test if you're either:
  • an autonomous individual, or
  • an obedient instrument of authority
We all believe we make our choices with free will. And that thought is just telling us how things are. 

Yet in making 'free' choices are we actually signalling obedience to the political tribe we have chosen to rule us and are unconscious of it? 

This test is not showing you which tribe is more worthy. It will show if you've chosen autonomy over tribal obedience in itself. That is all.  

So the Orwell Test is a self-reflection tool to help you recognise how propaganda is directing your social compliance.

It's focus is something called 'tribal epistemology' where the tribal narrative and obedience to it is everything. 

If you can pass the test you have broken the spell and are no longer an obedient instrument of tribal authority - the principle factor in control of the people at scale. Its important to remember that passing it for the first time does not mean forever. Its a continuous daily process you use as check point for obedience. Some call it prayer or meditation. I do not call it these things.

Obedience Theory which is the founding activity for the test is powerful because it works. If you as an individual signal obedience to the tribe well, you will be rewarded, more than in any other way you can be rewarded. If you're not seen as obedient to the tribe the rest of the tribe will send you into exile - a virtual death sentence.

The "Orwell Test" in Action

Take any policy that smells authoritarian and ask its defenders:

If the other side did this exact thing, would you call it Orwellian?
  • 90% will say yes.
  • 90% will then defend their side doing it.
That's not hypocrisy - it's tribal epistemology. The same brain that aces the 1984 quiz fails the 1984 stress test. There are many such tests which work the same way for different contexts.

This test has shown you how to test if you've given up part or all of your prior freedom so that you can be seen by the rest of the tribe as a loyal member. It shows if you are 'signalling obedience' but are not consciously aware of it

If you fail the test you will not be conscious of it. In fact, if you fail the test, you will deny its happening, with all your intellect. And your ego will convince you of your autonomy for the rest of the day, merrily unaware. 

If you pass the test you will simply accept the fact that you are doing it - you will have brought your shadow out into the open - and recognise it as a significant matter of personal development. But you have to keep taking the test day by day. Its not like riding a bike. Awareness is quickly lost. 

How to "know if you passed or failed" it

You pass the test (meaning you show intellectual consistency / honesty) if your answer pattern looks like this:
  1. You are presented with a concrete policy / action / piece of rhetoric that has authoritarian vibes (e.g., mass surveillance, compelled speech, censorship by state-aligned actors, historical revision via official channels, punishing "wrongthink," etc.).
  2. You honestly answer yes to: "If the other side / the party I dislike did this exact same thing, would I call it Orwellian?"
  3. You then also say yes (or at least strongly lean toward yes) to: "Then shouldn't I call it Orwellian when my side does it too?" → In other words, your judgment of the action stays roughly the same regardless of who's doing it.
You fail the test (meaning you're exhibiting tribal / partisan bias / obedience signalling) if the pattern is:
  1. You say yes — you would absolutely scream "Orwellian!" / "1984!" if the hated out-group did it.
  2. You then immediately pivot to defending / minimising / re-framing / whatabouting when it's your in-group doing the identical thing. → This is the 90%/90% outcome the quote highlights: obedience signalling revealed in real time.

The test is a brutal one

The test is deliberately uncomfortable because almost everyone fails it on at least some issues because passing it automatically excludes you from 'attractive ''welfare'' packages' or mob protectionism. You will be on the Pathless Land. It's a reminder that tribal loyalty - that is to say 'obedience', often overrides ones abstract and unconsciously preached about principles. 

The people who consistently pass the test across many topics tend to be the ones who get called "principled" (or sometimes "contrarian", heretics or mavericks) rather than strictly left/right. The left/right schism of two discrete tribes which I discuss as the Perfect Society being a destructive pathology in its own right.

As those who pass the test do not fall into either tribe in the duality, they will be trusted least of all by both sides. Because both sides politically are acutely aware that obedience is fundamental. Both tribes will unite in perfect harmony like long lost comrades closing ranks against those who pass. This pathology is often call the Popular Front and is seen repeating across history during global conflict. 

We can see the unintended consequences of entire nations consistently failing the test in the most unjust social institution man has ever invited: Taxation. Which kills more people indirectly than all other causes combined.

So: apply the test ruthlessly to your own reactions first before practicing in the field. On yourself is the only way to tell whether you passed, no one can take it for you You are the fire!

Am I the hand, or the brain?

I've just showed you how to test if you're either:
  • an autonomous individual, or
  • an obedient instrument of authority
Go Well. 




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