Oh man.... it's been like 15 years since I read that, and had forgoten about that aspect of it so failed to make the connection. Your right I suppose the thought police will be next...
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Published on Saturday, September 22, 2001
Bush's Orwellian Address
Happy New Year: It's 1984
by Jacob Levich
Seventeen years later than expected, 1984 has arrived. In his address to Congress Thursday, George Bush effectively declared permanent war -- war without temporal or geographic limits; war without clear goals; war against a vaguely defined and constantly shifting enemy. Today it's Al-Qaida; tomorrow it may be Afghanistan; next year, it could be Iraq or Cuba or Chechnya.
No one who was forced to read 1984 in high school could fail to hear a faint bell tinkling. In George Orwell's dreary classic, the totalitarian state of Oceania is perpetually at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia. Although the enemy changes periodically, the war is permanent; its true purpose is to control dissent and sustain dictatorship by nurturing popular fear and hatred.
The permanent war undergirds every aspect of Big Brother's authoritarian program, excusing censorship, propaganda, secret police, and privation. In other words, it's terribly convenient.
And conveniently terrible. Bush's alarming speech pointed to a shadowy enemy that lurks in more 60 countries, including the US. He announced a policy of using maximum force against any individuals or nations he designates as our enemies, without color of international law, due process, or democratic debate.
He explicitly warned that much of the war will be conducted in secret. He rejected negotiation as a tool of diplomacy. He announced starkly that any country that doesn't knuckle under to US demands will be regarded as an enemy. He heralded the creation of a powerful new cabinet-level police agency called the "Office of Homeland Security." Orwell couldn't have named it better.
By turns folksy ("Ya know what?") and chillingly bellicose ("Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists"), Bush stepped comfortably into the role of Big Brother, who needs to be loved as well as feared. Meanwhile, his administration acted swiftly to realize the governing principles of Oceania:
WAR IS PEACE. A reckless war that will likely bring about a deadly cycle of retaliation is being sold to us as the means to guarantee our safety. Meanwhile, we've been instructed to accept the permanent war as a fact of daily life. As the inevitable slaughter of innocents unfolds overseas, we are to "live our lives and hug our children."
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. "Freedom itself is under attack," Bush said, and he's right. Americans are about to lose many of their most cherished liberties in a frenzy of paranoid legislation. The government proposes to tap our phones, read our email and seize our credit card records without court order. It seeks authority to detain and deport immigrants without cause or trial. It proposes to use foreign agents to spy on American citizens. To save freedom, the warmongers intend to destroy it.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. America's "new war" against terrorism will be fought with unprecedented secrecy, including heavy press restrictions not seen for years, the Pentagon has advised. Meanwhile, the sorry history of American imperialism -- collaboration with terrorists, bloody proxy wars against civilians, forcible replacement of democratic governments with corrupt dictatorships -- is strictly off-limits to mainstream media. Lest it weaken our resolve, we are not to be allowed to understand the reasons underlying the horrifying crimes of September 11.
The defining speech of Bush's presidency points toward an Orwellian future of endless war, expedient lies, and ubiquitous social control. But unlike 1984's doomed protagonist, we've still got plenty of space to maneuver and plenty of ways to resist.
It's time to speak and to act. It falls on us now to take to the streets, bearing a clear message for the warmongers: We don't love Big Brother.
Jacob Levich ([email protected]) is an writer, editor, and activist living in Queens, New York.
(Edited by vox at 10:50 am on Sep. 23, 2001)
Economists have provided capitalists with a comforting concept called the "free market." It does not describe any part of reality, at any place or time. It's a mantra conveniently invoked when it is proposed that government do something the faithful don't like, and just as conveniently ignored whenever they want government to do something for them.
Oh man.... it's been like 15 years since I read that, and had forgoten about that aspect of it so failed to make the connection. Your right I suppose the thought police will be next...
In Solidarity,
RC
i just read it last month... thats a great article.. i'm gonna spread it around... down with big brother!
\"I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don’t believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn’t want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn’t know how
Excellent article,, I've been waiting ages for someone to post something about 1984 or Big Brother,,
cheers!
Eddie:An dog on an skateboard
that accidentally hangs itself
and then catches fire!
Outstandingly perceptive and accurate.
Thanks vox!
Btw, where did you first see this article?
It cannot but be supportive, socialist, communist or whatever you want to call it. Does nature, and the human species with it, have much time left to survive in the absence of such change? Very little time. Who will be the builders of that new world? The
And so it begins, folks....
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0924-02.htm
Now Ashcroft wants the gov't to have more power, and for you to have less. I remember reading an essay by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in which he said that Papa Bush was a fascist, and he meant it. He argued that fascists believe that the State should have more rights than the individual, verily, that the State is more important than the individual. Read the link and see what you think.
Chanco,
I first say it at http://www.commondreams.org
I think I've mentioned that site before. There's some very good reading there, and it's updated daily. I go at least once a day. You could spend weeks sifting through the archives. It's a progressive rather than socialist site, but the points of view often overlap. I recommend it highly.
vox
Economists have provided capitalists with a comforting concept called the "free market." It does not describe any part of reality, at any place or time. It's a mantra conveniently invoked when it is proposed that government do something the faithful don't like, and just as conveniently ignored whenever they want government to do something for them.
vox have they actually mentioned that they will be able to tap phones, emails freeze assets etc.? a friend of mine who is a free mason warned me about how this is he perfect opportunity to implement these things that wil crack down on privacy. and now people are supportive because they feel its a threat, i think this whole thing was a conspiracy and now that these issues are being raised i see it more and more, big brother is finally here. peace
Hey,, Big brother is not new to the scene,,
where do you think the ideas for the book came from?, The first example that springs to my mind is Romania when the government employed priests and spies to root out anti government sentiment, people where encouraged to rat on anyone suspected of opposing government (and romanian prisons were and still are not fun), . They weren't the only country at that time doing it either. To a much lesser extent the west has also done similar. The similarity now days is much more obvious due the the fact that technology has made real what was once only imagined.
Eddie:An dog on an skateboard
that accidentally hangs itself
and then catches fire!
DaNatural,
Bush has already ordered that some assets be frozen, so that's not a question of can but how much.
Echelon is an amazing project that, so it's said, can scan all electronic communication around the world. Sixty Minutes, hardly a radical program, did a story about it, and there is a lot of information online, but, as always, beware the source of the info.
The FBI's "Carnivore" is designed to grab email. They say that, though it all would have to be scanned, only the things that they have a warrant for would be retained. However, they also refuse to give specifics about how it works.
Phones can be tapped, but now the gov't wants a "person" tap. See, only one phoneline can be tapped. If the FBI wants another tapped, they have to go back to court. They say that in this day and age, they need a "person" tap, so no matter what phone (or, perhpaps, phoneline) that person is using, they can tap it.
It's not a question, really, of if they can do it. We know that it can be done. It's a question of whether they will be permitted to do it.
vox
Economists have provided capitalists with a comforting concept called the "free market." It does not describe any part of reality, at any place or time. It's a mantra conveniently invoked when it is proposed that government do something the faithful don't like, and just as conveniently ignored whenever they want government to do something for them.
