What do Orwell, Einstein and Oppenheimer have to say about humanity’s risk level in 2026?
Midnight
Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer founded The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1945. Associated with that publication is what most people know as The Doomsday Clock, a representation of the probability of a nuclear apocalypse. In 2025 the clock was 89 seconds to midnight and 12 months later it’s been advanced four more seconds. This setting indicates the highest level of risk to humanity since the clock’s creation in 1947.
The organization named factors for why the world is in such great peril:
- ecological problems
- climate change
- escalating nuclear conflicts
- advancements in AI-aided pathogens
- the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories.
1984 in 2026
George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four around the same time as Einstein and Oppenheimer offered their warnings. Orwell never saw his book published or have any idea that it would become one of the most influential books in modern history. If you’re familiar with the content you may be surprised to know that Orwell did not write it as a prediction. Nor is it, at its core, a novel about surveillance or thought police. Orwell witnessed the rise of totalitarian systems under Hitler and Stalin and intended the novel to show the extreme consequences of such ideologies taking root in Western society.
What makes 1984 so relevant in 2026 is that the early stages of totalitarian ideological rooting look like something familiar to us.
- the exhaustion of citizens so overwhelmed by contradictory information that they stop trying to know what is true;
- the slow normalization of lies so audacious that the only available response seems to be credulity or paralysis;
- the calculated weaponization of contempt for institutions or treaties (think NATO, the UN).
What’s the answer?
The human tendency is to push away despair through avoidance and escapism.
I like God’s response: revelation.
The last book of the Bible is first and foremost an historical account of God’s way of addressing totalitarianism and encouraging believers. The author writes to seven churches in the province of Asia under totalitarian oppression: “Grace and peace to you.”
His source of optimism and hope?
A revelation of Jesus.
John writes as one sufferer to others. “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus.” (Rev. 1:9)
Call his perspective, “kingdom resilience.”
The path forward is through informed resistance, and patient endurance. You may feel betrayed by trusted Christian leaders or pastors who give a blank cheque to authoritarian leaders. Don’t be surprised or despair.
Be informed. Listen to scholars like Mathew Taylor. I’ll be reviewing his book, Defying Tyrants, soon.
Keep reading REVwords.
Ukrainians have faced the violence of totalitarian governments for generations and the Church in Ukraine is stronger than it has ever been.
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