Has anyone read or reread Orwell's "1984" lately?

[Island Blue]

I just reread it for my Book Club and all I can say is "wow". I kept thinking to myself that surely the Neo-Cons must be using this book as their play book. There are so many parallels between Orwell's fictional Oceania and Bush World that it's almost frightening.

Take this passage for example: "...it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news in untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for purposed quite other than the declared ones; but such knowledge is easily neutralized by the technique of doublethink." (Doublethink = Reality Control) Can you say Downing Street Memo?

Other examples include totally changing history to suit today's agenda, saying things over and over again until they become "the truth", the goal of total elimination of sex for anything other than procreation, and the need for continuous war, even if that war in unwinable. It was kind of freaking me out to read this.

This book is very depressing, and at the end of the day paints a very bleak picture of what could happen - this is Orwell's warning to the world.

Anyway, if you haven't lately, you might want to revisit this book. I know this doesn't really have anything to do with John Kerry (other than the fact that he did call the Bush Administration Orwellian during one of the debates), but since you have to pass a Liberal litmus test to join our Book Club we always end up relating EVERYTHING to politics and our dislike (mild word) for the current administration. Last night we ended up talking about Kerry, and I think everyone there would gladly vote for him again!

[TayTay]

1. I would also plug another book that is excellent

in deciphering what is going on in the country. War is a Force That Gives us Meaning by Chris Hedges. It's not good beach reading, on account of being one of the single most realistic looks at what happens in the build up to war, during an actual war, and how war fever usually ends.

Warning, do not read this book if you are evenly mildly depressed. If you do read this and are even mildly depressed, hide the knives, grain alcohol and other instruments of harm until about two weeks after you read this book. It's not just bleak, it's fucking nihilistic. On the plus side, it's relatively short and printed in rather large type, so there is that.

Anyway, Mr. Hedges saw the outbreak of wars all over the world and covered them for the NYTimes. He says all wars roughly begin the same way:

1.) A case is built for war that employs intellectuals to fake up reasons for the war. This gives some previously neglected people a reason to be listened to and gives undeserving folks a podium to stand on. (See Bosnia, War)

2.) Dissent is discouraged, as is all individuality. Everyone is encouraged to become uber-cheerleaders for the state and the cause and anyone who doesn't applaud the war is viewed as a dangerous enemy of the people. In most countries dissenters face loss of jobs, homes, liberty and, in many cases, their lives. In many cases, war is proposed as a way for a ruling party to divert attention away from corruption in the ruling regime. (See Argentina, Falklands War.)

3.) The actual war is nothing like what was promised in the buildup. Real war is awful and involves mistakes, stupidity and brutality unimagined by all the smarmy pre-war propaganda. 98% of the combatants in WWII who had six months of continuous combat service were considered psychological casualties. The 2% who were not psych casualties were tested out as aberrant and violent personalities who enjoyed inflicting pain before they were soldiers.

4.) Real war changes a person and often causes psychological damage that can never heal. Many participants in war (soldier and civilian alike) are never able to fit back into normal society. The suicide rates for Iranian soldiers after the war with Iraq were six times higher than the normal population. Homelessness, poverty, unemployment and psych problems were rampant in veterans of that war.

5.) Once the 'war fever' begins to break in a society, the population usually just wants to get past what happens. The people who warned about the war are never usually embraced, indeed they are usually ostracized as reminders of a sort of temporary insanity. (People don't want to be reminded of their mistakes, generally speaking.)

6.) The opposite of war is not peace, but love. Real love that brings out the individual and crowds out the group think message of war. Bishop Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa was not perfect, but it was a way for the populace to begin to come together and truly face what had happened to them, to face the war crimes and inhumanity on both sides and begin to truly heal so that the wounds of this generation would not be visited on the next generations.

This is a great book, but you have to be in the mood. Best dissertation I ever read on war, how nations fall into wars and how nations eventually wake up from war fever.

[Island Blue]

2. That sounds really interesting.

I'll definitely have to check that one out. Points # 1- 3 are actually very "1984" Orwellian. #4 would probably go a long way to helping me better understand my uncle who fought in Viet Nam and came back a very changed person psychologically.

Will this book make me more depressed than I was on November 3, 2004? Thanks for tip!

[ginnyinWI]

3. I read it last December

It fit into my mood at the time!

Actually, in the book they did want a state of continual war that was never won or lost, because it kept the proles in line by keeping them afraid, and it used up enough resources to keep every one but the elite in a state of semi-poverty, allowing for further control. Both of these concepts are very familiar.

In "The Power of Nightmares"(BBC) they talk about the neocons wanting to keep America morally upright and united by giving them an enemy to fight against, a cause to believe in. (So they exaggerated the Soviet threat and caused a massive arms build up to defend the enemy they had largely created.) That's point one.
And we've seen the reckless way they are handling the economy so that we are in deep deficit now, giving the excuse for cutting social programs, hence keeping the "proles" impoverished. If they get too affluent they might do something crazy like go to college and get educated and stop believing propaganda. Point two.

[Island Blue]

4. Exactly

The war continues on forever, even though the "enemy" might change without notice. When the enemy does change, people are then supposed to forget about who we were fighting before, and hate those we are fighting now. (Does anyone ever talk about Afghanistan anymore? Very seldom - we were supposed to forget about that war and concentrate of Iraq.)

I think you are also right about the Neo-Cons need to create an enemy and along with this comes FEAR which also helps to control the masses. It's not just patriotic fervor that gets 'em going, it's the fear that someone (Saddam, bin Laden, big bad Liberals) is out to get them. Therefore you better stay in line so you will be "protected".