According to the Huffington Post, “In fascist societies, patriotism is the product of a rigorous attempt not only to sugarcoat a nation's history, but to promote only the favorable aspects of the past in hopes that controversial or tragic episodes will be forgotten, or disguised as enemy propaganda” (Goodman). In authoritarian or totalitarian societies, such as the Soviet Union, this practice illustrated in 1984 has perhaps occurred less severely. This revelation really shows how close that depicted society was to communist and fascist nations in the Cold War era, and if communism or fascism had taken over the world, that society could have become a reality. Even though democracy won the Cold War after the fall of the Soviet Union, 1984 still provides a valid warning about the authoritarian and totalitarian nature of democratic politics.