This says it all about the Bob Owens and Michelle Malkin’s of the right wing blogosphere.
The Scott Beauchamp affair is reminding me of this, from 1984:
A Party member…is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party. The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce a sceptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline…called, in Newspeak, crimestop. Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.
At first it seems amazing that Orwell could have precisely described today’s right-wing blurgh world sixty years ago. But the right-wing blurghs are just an outgrowth of human nature, which never changes. (In particular I’m always been struck by the consistency with which such people are unable to understand analogies.)
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blurgh
Great takedown of the black diapered bedwetters
Tis the most anal-retentive who puts the anal back into analogies.
Orwell: “Notes on Nationalism”
That particular paragraph speaks volumes. It could almost be used, (and I bet it was) for an outline to indoctrinate the Hitler Youth.
Whole Lee Shh It
Omzir McKay @ 6:
Is that a new Hong Kong director?
Creepy. I dogeared that page in the book this past Friday on a flight home. I remember buying 1984 and Animal Farm two years ago. It’s a sad state of affairs when buying books you read in high school makes you feel rebellious.
Why don’t Republicans use bookmarks? They don’t need ‘em; they just bend the page over.
Also,
Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.
- Albert Einstein
“protective stupidity” - there’s a whole lot of it goin on these days. And I’m not only talkin about W..
1984 is a very well written book, therefore I doubt that very many “wing nuts” have read it and if they have I seriously doubt that they understood very much of it. So naturally in Orwell’s own speculation people can be led into a game of follow the leader when you physically and subliminally wave the black flag of fear and death in their face on a daily basis…
I re-read 1984 about 10 years ago…is BushCo livin by the cliffnotes version or what?
I think I’ll read it again on Halloween…nothin to me could ever be scarier than that.
Shoddy thinking produces shoddy language. The fundies/Neocons prefer to be spoon-fed their “facts” whole. That way they’re not responsible if anything goes wrong. Big Daddy will protect you if you kiss His ass sufficiently. They’re too scared to make their own decisions.
Face it, the only way to attempt to make sense out of what Limpbaugh and O’Really et al. spew is to suspend rational thinking (if you had any to start with) and swallow the Kool-Aid in one big gulp. Yummy, more please. They’re faking thinking.
Orwell’s prophetic observations of human nature extrapolated into a media-controlled future are undeniably brilliant. Combine Orwell’s writing with John Dean’s observations on the Authoritarian mindset, and you’ve gone a long way towards describing our present environment. The final piece to the puzzle is the takeover of the mechanisms of government by a corporate controlled fascist cabal, and America comes apart in pieces.
Having established that we’re amidst the construction of an American tyranny, the next questions are “How can knowing this help us predict what the foes of Democracy will do next?” and the all important “What guidance does this knowldege offer regarding restoring Democracy and the Rule of Law?”
Its not that Orwell predicted sixty years ago that these type of people would develop eventually. These people have always been around. Whether it was the KKK members from 1950, the SS in Hitler’s Germany, the English who fought the Zulus in South Africa, or the inquisitors during the Spanish inquisition, there have always been these mindless partisans who lose sense of any ethics.
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Remember, Remember, the 5th of November…
The Overture of 1812 never sounded so good…
.
Republicans didn’t just read 1984,
They continue to insist on living it.
.
All this crimethink is doubleplusungood.
I still remember in 1984 a character named Syme, who, though he was on the party’s side, (he said he particularly liked hangings where the condemned’s feet kicked about) vanished, because he understood the party’s nature a little TOO well; they couldn’t afford to have someone like that around. I wonder who are the present-day Symes.
justabill @ 4:
Wow — he really nailed that one.
Imagine the future as a boot stomping on a human face forever.
I’ve read over this thing, and comprehendeth not the blurghosphere.
Sounds like you’re drowning.
Old Billy @ 15:
I have read that he wasn’t predicting at all - he originally wanted to call the book 1948 but didn’t finish it in time. Might be a myth though.
Joementum @ 20:
Yeah. He also later wrote in that essay “The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”
Orwell saw the future, and that future is now. He just missed it by a score or so.
I don’t think Orwell predicted today’s poisonous conservativism. Rather, the neocons read 1984, their hearts leapt, and they made it their template for taking power and crushing the human spirit. Dark-hearted conservatives swallow it all. They are the suicide bombers of America, preferring total self-destruction to giving one inch to a brown person - the cornerstone of conservatism.
There should be a movement to get every person in America reading 1984. Hey Oprah! Do a good thing and encourage your viewers to read 1984.
Dave @ 21:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq37WSg9ESg
What I find ineteresting in Orwell’s writings were that these books were written about Stalinism.
Yet here we are , in the “Bastion of freedom”, and it looks as though these novels describe the United States current predicament.
The NoeCons, screaming hate at communism all the to the end, are themselves guilty of the same practices that they vilified.
It would seem the only difference between a NeoCon and a Stalinist is one pretends to be a socialist and the other pretends to be a capitalist.
Same tactics, same reasoning, same indoctrination, same Party loyalty issues.
Red is a good description of them.
That passage from 1984 is reminiscent of when a conservative, Janet Parshall, I believe, was on television debating Randi Rhodes. When Ms. Rhodes was speaking, Janet Parshall put her fingers in her ears in an attempt to drown out what Randi Rhodes was saying. This seems to have become a metaphor for the conservative mindset: It’s my way or the highway.
>I re-read 1984 about 10 years ago…is BushCo livin by the cliffnotes version or what? I think I’ll read it again on Halloween…nothin to me could ever be scarier than that.
This Admin?: Combine it with a healthy dose of “Lord of the Flies”
gempei @ 19:
Oddly enough, it could be W. himself.
He has a bad habit of giving away the game. Remember these revealing moments:
“You got to keep repeating things over and over … to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
“I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.”
Most politicians have enough sense to keep their crass political strategery to themselves. Not Bush — which makes him a liability for the party.
I commented about this on another story a day or two ago. They claim to be “Pro-Life” but deny this wonderful brain God gave us. They shut off any advanced thought process that may lead them to reason or understanding, to continue to lie to themselves. Lie about everything without thinking twice. I thought we called the will of someone to do something without any second thought as to how it would effect anyone else sociopathic? Why aren’t these people who are clearly unable to think things through in jail? They are a danger to themselves and a danger to others. Just because they’re too small to actually go out and fight for what they believe, they’ll just be content to dumb down and misinform themselves for their own gain. Well at least the people out there spewing hate for their own gain will. The bloggers who spew hate because they like the soap box are just small; small in thought, small in attitude, small endowment. Maybe I’m sounding hateful right now, but that thought alone is what sets me apart from them I believe. The thought that allows me to second guess my immediate reactions!
I re-read “1984″ last year, just to see if what I’m seeing now compared to what Orwell saw during World War II and after.
It was the same damned concept he was warning the world about; then and NOW.
I just hope these SOBs don’t get ahold of Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave”. Who knows how low will these maroons will go…
“I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.”
How much capital are we talking about? As it stands now, he’s bankrupt.
I keep asking myself to what end. What do these neocons want? How much power/money/authority is enough? What will they have gained when they hold all the marbles? A dead planet with no breathable air or drinkable water? Who will they rule over if all brown people are “disappeared”? Will they all turn on each other and it all ends with the last person standing there going, “Finally, world peace. Now what was I doing before all those aliens came here trying to take my job?”
This reminds me of the whack-o who kills his wife and 3 kids …then kills himself. If they were unhappy, fine end your own life but why drag innocent people with you. If these end-timers want their world to end, why don’t they just go away and let those of us who are not ready to fold continue with our lives.
I know I mixed all sorts of metaphors there, but I think I get my point across. The basic question is: Why?
Erroll @ 28:
Maybe her ears were itching from all the hair inside.
Rowdy @ 34:
Hint: the key to the puzzle is Israel.
Rowdy @ 34:
I don’t know for sure, who does, that is isn’t directly involved?
What I think these rapture enthusiasts want is for everyone to become xtian or fuck off and die…I mentioned it before in another thread in C&L…won’t they be shocked if their diety DOESN’T scoop them off to heaven after bringing down Ragnarok on their heads….assholes!
Joementum @ 36:
Yeah…and what’s that word? Zionist? I think that fits in somewhere too.
I have really disliked the fundamentalist churchies for a looooong damn time…mainly because they’re asshole hypocrites….now…they’re dangerous asshole hypocrites…they make me want to say bad words that would make little baby jebus cry….
Symes @ 27 pointed out that Orwell was writing about Stalinism, and it is true. What a lot of people don’t take into consideration is how closely linked some of the most vehement neo-cons are to communism. Leo Strauss was a mentor to a few during their graduate work at the University of Chicago. Mr. Strauss was a Zionist. He was also a Trotskyite, but he and his followers became disallusioned with Trotsky, though not his methods. Oddly enough, for a Zionist he tended to advocate methods that blended Trotsky’s world revolution with German fascism. And then, much to our collective chagrin, his followers found their way to the highest levels of power.
Most of them also made their careers as being violently anti-Communist. Donald Rumsfeld made his first big splash in the House by chastising Paul Nitze, an original–and hard boiled–Cold Warrior for being too soft. These men have been lurking in the halls of power for a long time, and where we sit today is their magnum opus. The right doesn’t see the connection with 1984 (because they haven’t read it or misinterpret it) because the neo-con movement replayed the fear mongering of the 50’s all over again, simply substituting murkier, less definable, threats for the USSR…which was never the threat it was made out to be for the sake of more bombers and nukes. The intelligence that those fears were based on was as bad as the shit that led to Iraq…and often just as manipulated.
“War is Peace”…hell, that could well be the motto for the Pentagon. And that, folks, is where the real power in this country is; keep in mind that there never was a “peace dividend” and not a single president has been able to reign the beast in…
For another chilling analogy… there was an op-ed in the New York Times last weekend comparing this today with the French Revolution. Here’s the link…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10.....ei=5087%0A
The “punch line” comes at the end, where we learn the true origin of the word “Terrorist”.
Here is a PRIME example of the nuttiness and cowardly antics. I have recently stumbled upon a conservative Blog and found that he has scrubbed my comments and others as well. In fact, this guys blocked me from posting on his blog! I guess if you have a blog for the purpose of debate, then why bother having a comments section??? Check it out and see if it happens to you :-) http://allthingsconservative.t.....servative/
To the future or to the past, to a time when men are different from one another and do not live alone–to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother…greetings!
In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
Political chaos is connected with the decay of language… one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.
Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. Or as the scholars phrase it: cognative dissonance.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
The nationalist (conservative) not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. The liberal is a power worshipper without power.
Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.
Today is nothing like 1984, the overwhelming majority of conservatives know that the year 1984 was at least 10 years ago or something, so the very idea that Orwell was right is just another one of Hillary’s socialist agenda lies.
Besides, it’s all going to be a moot point when the book burnings starts right after the election and just before the inauguration.
I really don’t mean to sound dismissive…but with all due respect, this is old news and hardly a news flash. I’ve been saying for at least two years now that the right wing generally (and the Bush administration specifically) has become increasingly and disturbingly Orwellian in the past six years — but then again, anyone who’s ever read “1984″ and/or “Animal Farm” AND has been paying attention knows that all too well already.