George Bush Channeling George Orwell

[GoodSpeak]

Is George Bush Channeling George Orwell?

To wit:

"As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is 1984, the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism -- not a how-to manual." - Article from Tom Paine.com

Shades of Nixon...?

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Actually, I thought you were talking about words losing their meanings. Like occupation becomes "freedom". Or a coalition of the "willing" consisting mostly of small countries that were bribed or just wanted to be on the US's good side.

I prefer to think that he is channeling Adolf Hitler.

[Pete C]

A very relevant, very scary novel that doesn't get nearly as much attention as 1984, but should be read by all is:

[Monte Smith]

Fuck all this reading shit. I say we burn down the Reichstag.

[GoodSpeak]

I'll bring the matches...

[Monte Smith]

I'll bring the marshmallows. We can make s'mores!

[BFrank]

Speaking of Orwell......this piece from Eric Alterman's blog:

Let’s recap shall we?
We invaded a country that we now know posed no threat to us and enjoyed no connection whatever to those who did. In order to do so, we pulled manpower and resources away from the job of protecting us and thereby made ourselves more vulnerable to the thousands of new enemies we created with our failed, dishonest invasion. OK, what next?

How about we go through the nation we profess to be liberating, arrest a whole bunch of innocent people and then torture them —raping a few here, killing a few there. What next? Well, what do you say we continue to this for a year after the Red Cross alerts us both to the fact of the torture as well as the innocence of ”70% to 90% of prisoners detained in Iraq since the war began last year?”

I don’t know about you, but I’m having trouble understanding why, at minimum, the term “criminal negligence” is not being used here. If Rumsfeld really is responsible, and he says he is, then he should not merely be fired, but tried. I know it’s more than he’s willing to offer an American citizen like Jose Padilla but I’m in a generous mood. This being the Bush presidency, however, he is instead congratulated. “You are doing a superb job. You are a strong secretary of defense, and our nation owes you a debt of gratitude,” says the man who has just reached the lowest popularity point of his presidency. I fear Mr. Orwell is looking more and more pollyanish every day.

[crawjo]

Ugh. How many fucking times do we have to hear about George Orwell? I find his books to be rather dull, his writing rather mechanical. But because he wrote a book called 1984, everybody likes to toss the term "Orwellian" around. Fuck George Orwell. Fuck Adolf Hitler, too, but fuck George Orwell. From now on, anybody who compares any thing or any event to anything that was ever described by George Orwell has to put a nickel in the "Don't Fucking Talk About George Fucking Orwell" jar. When the jar is full, we're going to get a group of people together, buy some porno magazines and some beer, and celebrate the fact that American life today is not really anything at all like what George Orwell described in his overrated, self-important snooze-fest-of-the-month, piece of shit novel that every poor fuck of a high school student had to read in the 10th grade, including me, and I still haven't gotten over it.

Oh my!!!!

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by crawjo

When the jar is full, we're going to get a group of people together, buy some porno magazines and some beer

O brave new world . . .

--W. Shakespeare, followed by A. Huxley

Originally Posted by bluenoter

O brave new world . . .

--W. Shakespeare, followed by A. Huxley

Aw c'mon Rita, the man is just having a little fun.

[Jason Bivins]

Actually, the Orwell of "Politics and the English Language" is far more relevant here, I should think.

"[P]olitical speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible."

"Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

[GoodSpeak]

Crawjo,

OK.

Is George Bush channeling Machiavelli, then.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Crawjo,

OK.

Is George Bush channeling Machievelli, then.

or MachiAvelli. Maybe the smirk?

[tippy]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Crawjo,

OK.

Is George Bush channeling Machievelli, then.

or merely Evil Knievel when he misjudged the Snake? I say we go all Machiavelli on the Machiavellians.

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Crawjo,

OK.

Is George Bush channeling Machievelli, then?





sheesh.

Yeah, references to Machiavelli are still okay. Thanks.

[Salvador Dali Lama]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Is George Bush channeling Machievelli, then?
.

c'mon goody, you're giving the man way too much credit there.

good thinking monte - thats what we pay you for.

Homage to Catalonia, baby.

[john williams]

The Road To Wigan Pier, baby.

[Monte Smith]

Burmese Days, baby.

I actually find everything I have read by Orwell to be worth the time. I named my son after an Orwell character.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Crawjo,

OK.

Is George Bush channeling Machievelli, then?

sheesh.

GS--

You missed the point of #15. Here it is again:
Machiavelli

Got it now?

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I named my son after an Orwell character.

Squealer?

[john williams]

"Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper."

"Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible."

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting."

"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception."

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

"It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning."

America, how Orwellian!

I will happily fill your jar Crawjo. You wouldn't be a fan of Ayn Rand by any chance?

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Burmese Days, baby.

I actually find everything I have read by Orwell to be worth the time. I named my son after an Orwell character.

I never realized that Adolf Hitler Smith was in an Orwell novel.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by bluenoter

GS--

You missed the point of #15. Here it is again:
Machiavelli

Got it now?

[heaviest of sighs]

Perhaps YOU noticed I posted the same post twice?

My workplace filter screened out my previous attempts at correcting the spelling.


Excuse me for having over restrictive computer censors.



Does the word "picayune" ring any bells?





Get a life, perhaps...?

Oh my.....

Lets not get too fiesty Brother Goodz. You know Rita will never turn in her badge.

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by JBW

"Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper."

"Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible."

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting."

"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception."

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

"It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning."

America, how Orwellian!

I will happily fill your jar Crawjo. You wouldn't be a fan of Ayn Rand by any chance?

No, I'm not a fan of Ayn Rand.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Oh my.....

Lets not get too fiesty Brother Goodz. You know Rita will never turn in her badge.

OK, OK...








sheesh.