I am assuming that all of you know that my headline today is a quote from George Orwell's 1984. If not, then crawl out from under your rock and go read it you gigantic moron! Sorry, but I think 1984 is a book that we should all be familiar with. Orwell wrote the story in 1949, yet much of the story seems to parallel what is happening in our world since the turn of the millennium. Lately, our government and the mass media seem to want to redefine everything to the extent that words are now meaningless, or more accurately mean different things. And, oddly enough, many people seem to go along with it. For instance, going back decades, politicians want you to believe that we are not never at war... instead, we participate in "police actions". Unless, of course, it is the "War on Terror" or the "War on drugs"! These are wars against faceless enemies so they are ok. Otherwise, we have been at peace since the end of World War II! You might ask: "What about Korea? Or Vietnam? I know we had the Gulf War, and Irag, Afghanistan and even Grenada! Weren't these wars?" Not according to the legal definition of the word. The last time we legally declared war was when Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks. So while the texts books call them the Korean War or the Gulf War or Vietnam War, the government thinks of them as "extended engagements" or "police actions". Remember, war (somewhere else) is peace! Just like in 1984!
What other incongruities can we find? How about, if you are out of work for longer than a set specified number of weeks you are not unemployed, but just not part of the work force...whether you are looking for work or not! That way the government can report a lower unemployment rate and make it look like their policies are not as bad as they really are. Another good one is that in our pledge of allegiance we say "And to the republic for which it stands" yet most of our politicians call us a democracy. At the same time they pass one socialist policy after another! Wait, it gets better! What about preemptive war? We have all heard the talking heads chat about this concept with a straight face. The paradox is that you can never start a war in order to prevent it! War is peace...except when it is to the politician's advantage to say we are at war! Then these police actions become wars and it is glorified! Our soldiers become "heroes" who are fighting for our safety. In fact, all of them are now heroes, whether they were actually fighting or just peeling potatoes. They are all fighting for our peace and safety. Okay, so maybe Orwell had a point with War is Peace, but what about Freedom is slavery. That can't be true can it? Well, that depends on what you call freedom. Is freedom having to stand behind a barbed wire fence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention if you wanted to protest? Is freedom having to pay nearly 50% of your income as taxes each year? Is freedom having top pay taxes on your home year after year whether you have any income coming in or not? Did you know that the U.S. has the second highest incarceration rate in the world at 707 prisoners per 100,000 in population? Yep, we are right behind the Seychelles where there are 868 prisoners per 100,000. Here is a link to a table where you can look up the country that you think would be worse! Incarceration Rates . Finally, we reach Ignorance is strength. Just take a look around you ladies and gentlemen. Most people seem to spend their leisure time either watching TV or drinking themselves silly! Ask most of them what they think about current events and you hear about what they think will happen on their favorite TV show. Or they will say they are for or against gay rights or the confederate flag. Many of the people I chatted with didn't even know that there was a crisis in Greece! Ignorance is definitely strength for our politicians. Keep watching TV people...Keep making your pictures look like rainbows and take down all of your confederate flags! Drink yourself into a stupor, and keep pretending that you are free. Just like the politicians want you to.
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