Hatha Sunahara
6th May 2011, 11:22 AM
Since 911 I have read and re-read Emmanuel Goldstein's book in 1984 at least a half dozen times. This is The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Each time I have read it, I noticed that another piece of it had manifested itself in real life. I am sure that when Orwell wrote 1984 in 1947, Most of its content was something so remote to the average American's life that he could not imagine living in a world so insane. Yet the world has slowly become as insane, and even more so than Orwell described.
For example, Orwell (through Goldstein) described the Thought Police and 'crimestop'. Something that even today is difficult for most of us to imagine. Yet, recently, I found a story about how our Attorney General, Eric Holder, talks about 'pre-crime'. He wants to have the power to arrest and detain people for their 'predisposition' to committing a crime. He wants to make having a 'bad attitude' a crime. Moreover, he doesn't want to define a bad attitude.
I never failed to appreciate that what kept the government rational and sane for two centuries was the US Constitution--merely because it limited the power of the government. What Orwell described in 1984 was the systematic insanity that was assaulting the Constitution. Today these dystopian ideas are no longer considered insane by a majority of the population who have lost their critical thinking abilities through addiction to mainstream media news and conditioning by the public schools. The minority who still consider these Orwellian outrages to be insane feel powerless to stop them.
We are in desperate need of some 'post-Orwellian' anti-dystopian literature complete with feel good 'memes' to give people hope that this bout we are having with authoritarian insanity is temporary. Lacking that, we are simply staring into a fetid darkness of the soul where the powerful are forever unconstrained in what they can do to us.
For those of us who want to sharpen our appreciation of the sanity that we once had under the Constitution and the 'rule of law' I would recommend rereading Goldstein's book. This would be especially powerful at this juncture so soon after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Ignorance is Strength. Freedom is Slavery. War is Peace. Here's a link to it.
http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/go-goldstein.html
Hatha
For example, Orwell (through Goldstein) described the Thought Police and 'crimestop'. Something that even today is difficult for most of us to imagine. Yet, recently, I found a story about how our Attorney General, Eric Holder, talks about 'pre-crime'. He wants to have the power to arrest and detain people for their 'predisposition' to committing a crime. He wants to make having a 'bad attitude' a crime. Moreover, he doesn't want to define a bad attitude.
I never failed to appreciate that what kept the government rational and sane for two centuries was the US Constitution--merely because it limited the power of the government. What Orwell described in 1984 was the systematic insanity that was assaulting the Constitution. Today these dystopian ideas are no longer considered insane by a majority of the population who have lost their critical thinking abilities through addiction to mainstream media news and conditioning by the public schools. The minority who still consider these Orwellian outrages to be insane feel powerless to stop them.
We are in desperate need of some 'post-Orwellian' anti-dystopian literature complete with feel good 'memes' to give people hope that this bout we are having with authoritarian insanity is temporary. Lacking that, we are simply staring into a fetid darkness of the soul where the powerful are forever unconstrained in what they can do to us.
For those of us who want to sharpen our appreciation of the sanity that we once had under the Constitution and the 'rule of law' I would recommend rereading Goldstein's book. This would be especially powerful at this juncture so soon after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Ignorance is Strength. Freedom is Slavery. War is Peace. Here's a link to it.
http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/go-goldstein.html
Hatha