1984 REVISITED

“The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty, to tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any facts that has become inconvenient, …”

Trump and the Republican Party are turning back the clock, not to the 1950’s as some opponents say, but to George Orwell’s 1984.   We have gone down the rabbit hole of 1984 without even realizing the journey.

I fear that the country will not recover from the Trump fascism.  The expectations of a government of checks and balances has been permanently broken.  

The third of the country that is racist, homophobic, fundamentalist and easily manipulated have found their power and will control elections in the Republican party for decades to come.

  “Ingsoc successfully manipulated the mind to the point that a person thinks the opposite of what is true”

Even with a Democratic majority in the House, regardless of the crimes Trump commits, cries for impeachment are like an old man yelling at clouds.   Impeachment would require a vote of sixty-six senators and that will never happen: it would require 14 Republican Senators to cross over and all Democrats to vote as a block. 

The way Senators are elected – two from every state – it is not likely that Democrats will take over the Senate anytime in the future: California (thirty-seven million population) has two Senators, North Dakota (seven hundred thousand population) has two Senators.

The best-case scenario is that the permanently angry, poorly informed, easily manipulated base of the Republican party, controlled by rich capitalist, will continue to elect Senators that will permanent block any progressive agenda.   

The worse case is that the Republican party of Trump has so normalized malfeasance that the United States will never recover as a nation of laws that has been the underpinning of our society. 

the Ol’Buzzard

  

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

A dystopian future or Trump's dream?

Don't laugh.

the Ol'Buzzard

BIG UNCLE IS WATCHING YOU!

Over the past two decades I have been aware of the growing similarities between our government and Orwell’s book 1984.  Especially since 9/11, with the advent of Homeland Security and the collecting of U.S. citizen’s information from the telecom companies, the fact we are being watched is being scantily hid.

Big Brother is watching you, seemed to be the tool of any government’s ability to manipulate the people.

But I had no idea that corporate Big Uncle had tapped into that ability.

Last week on Morning Joe (MSNBC morning news program) Joe Scarborough said he believed his phone conversations had been monitored by telecoms and personal information had been made available, or sold, to corporate interest. 

 

Joe stated that he has never been a runner, but recently decided to prepare himself to run a marathon.      He discussed this with his fiancé on the phone.   Immediately he started getting advertisements for running shoes and equipment on his phone.   At first he didn’t pay much attention; but in another conversation he told his fiancé he was setting his goal to a nine-minute mile; almost immediately he got advertisements on his phone about products to help men over forty run a nine-minute mile.   He showed one of these advertisements on his phone to the TV camera.   Joe said he had never discussed his decision to begin running with anyone except his fiancé, and that he has never purchased running shoes, equipment, clothing or anything connected with running.

The obvious conclusion is that his private phone conversations are being monitored – if not by a human, then at least by an algorithm designed to listen for certain words or phrases and adjust advertising accordingly.  

The truth seems to be: if you have some information you wish to discuss privately, you should hike naked into the densest most remote forest and then whisper it to the party concerned… but then there are satellites…

 Big Brother and corporate Big Uncle are both watching you!

the Ol’Buzzard 

TRUMP'S FIRST THREE WEEKS AS PRESIDENT ESTABLISHES A NEW NORM

DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?

After 28 people, including 20 children, were massacred in Sandy Hook Elementary School I honestly thought there would be some concerted move to control gun access.   But instead it set a new higher standard of acceptability.

Now shooting with less than a dozen casualties don’t make the papers, or you find them on page six.

We now accept gun violence as the norm.

The danger we are facing is that the outrageous actions of the new Trump administration are coming at us so fast, that soon it will be accepted as the norm, and the bar on what is not acceptable will be raised.

We will be living in a new and scary Nation. 

the Ol’Buzzard

DONALD TRUMP BIG BROTHER

Donald Trump's 1984

I have often referred to George Orwell’s 1984.   Lately I have seen more and more parallels in today’s governance in the United States.  

Now with the election of Trump the parallels scream out.  

Trump’s pick for Attorney general is a known racist and a fundamentalist Christian that believes you should deprogram gays and that Gay marriage should be unlawful.  He would readily support a Christian Nation concept.

Trump’s selection for the Department of Education has no education background and would like to see public schools replaced with a voucher system.

Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary would like to do away with overtime pay and minimum wage for workers.

Trump’s pick for the Environmental Protection Agency has been a proponent of doing away with the EPA

His pick for Housing and Urban Development is Ben Carson – who sings.

And of course the moron Rick Perry in charge of our nuclear weapons program – what could possibly go wrong

In Orwell’s 1984 the government practices Doublethink.  Things are exactly opposite of what their title proposes:

The Ministry of Peace encourages war.

The Ministry of Truth spins lies to appear truth.

The Ministry of Love controls the thought police and torture.

The Ministry of Plenty restricts food and consumer goods.

Do we see a parallel here?

I think so.

the Ol’Buzzard

1984 REVISITED

I urge anyone with time for books to read or reread George Orwell’s 1984.   The similarities to our government is astounding.   It is obvious to the observer that science fiction writing has predicted advances in real science; and we might say George Orwell has predicted our present.

The story, of course, is the extreme of an individual’s manipulation by a government; but the underlying picture of our government’s manipulation of facts and reality is strikingly familiar.

(Note: the movie sucks)

EXCERPTS FROM 1984 FOR CONSIDERATION:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

“The enemy of the moment represents absolute evil.”

“If all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became true.”

Mission Accomplished

“Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

George W Bush Presidential Library

“Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version.  A great deal of the time you were supposed to make them up out of your head.”

“The aim of the high is to remain where they are.   The aim of the middle is to change places with high.   The aim of the low, when they have an aim – for it is an abiding characteristic of the low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives – is to abolish all distinction and create a society in which all men shall be equal.”

U.S. Congress

“Imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public execution, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and deportation of whole populations not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.”

“In the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.”

“The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty.   To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient…”

Weapons of Mass Destruction

“The Proles (people) are only intermittently conscious of the war.   When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies of fear and hatred, but when left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods that the war is happening.  

What War?

 It is in the ranks of the party, and above all the inner party, that the true war enthusiasm is found.”

Republican Neo-Cons

“We know that no one ever seized power with the intention of relinquishing it.  Power is not a means; it is an end.”

Partisan Politics

NEWS SPEAK: (news released designed to diminish the range of thought.)

DOUBLE THINK: (to successfully manipulate the mind to the point that people think the opposite of what is true.)

The correlations are obvious.  

the Ol’Buzzard

PROOF POSITIVE: GOOGLE IS BIG BROTHER

Yesterday, online, I was browsing some commercial sites and visited J & P Cycles online store looking at leather motorcycle jackets and a replacement battery for my ride.   Later I flipped up a motorcycle jewelry marketer - not to buy, but just looking.

A few minutes ago I was checking my blog list and on one of the blog sites that allow advertising there was  a prominently displayed advertisement from J & P Cycles for leather motorcycle jackets and a J & P Cycles advertisements for motorcycle batteries; also at the end of the blog was an advertisement for motorcycle jewelry. 

Wow!   Talk about tracking - the NIS should be so good!

Big brother is truly watching you. 
the Ol'Buzzard

A BUZZARD EGG OMELET #25

“The enemy (crisis) of the moment always represented absolute evil.”

1984 by George Orwell

The new crisis of the day is the health care roll-out.   Everyone’s bowels are in an uproar: both Democrats and Republicans.  But, just like the government shutdown, a few weeks (or months) from now the roll-out debacle will be old news and not worth a comment even by late night comedians. 

Of the thirty five percent of the nation that bother to vote: fifty percent of the voters are Democrats; twenty-two percent of the voters are moderate Republicans; and twenty-eight percent of the voters are evangelical Christian retards.  The politicians we have elected are a mirror image of the voters and will again create the next government debacle that will keep us awake at night and our blood pressures elevated – if we allow it.  

A little Buddhist perspective: change the things that are in your power to change - accept the things you can not change – and move on.   We would be much happier if we turned off the news and were politically ignorant.  Of course, in this day of technology that is almost impossible.

AWAY FROM POLITICS:

I just picked up a new book A Freudian Slip Is When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother, by Gary Blake.   

If you enjoy PUNS – often noted as the lowest form of humor – I suggest you can o-pun this book to any page and find a phrase you wish you had coined first.    Of course if you are Rand Paul it won’t matter: you will use it anyway and claim it as yours. 

the Ol’Buzzard

EYE SCANS AND 1984

A recent post in Squatlo Rant got me thinking

http://squatlo-rant.blogspot.com/2013/06/so-theyre-using-eye-scanning-technology.html

The act of thinking doesn’t set single me apart as any kind of intellect; after all, even Louie Gohmert occasionally has some disjointed piece of shit run through his grey matter.

But, in the Squatlo Rant post we find that a number of schools have been using eye scanning technology on the students.   Squatlo makes the point that this is just a more sophisticated form of bar coding people – a way to create a data base to identify and track people all the way from school age to the end of their life.

For people my age and over fifty this raises our hackles and seems a definite step toward Big Brother control.    My contention, however, is that this will not be a problem for younger generations.

When I was young telephones were hard wired into houses.   There were no computers and no internet. Records, if there were any, were kept locally, on paper and in file cabinets.   Many people did not have Social Security numbers and many, born at home, had no birth certificates.   News coverage was not 24-7 but came on at six-o-clock, for an hour, on the radio; or in a newspaper.

Gradually, over a period of time, our information became coveted by businesses and the government.  We learned to register for the draft; we applied for credit cards; we became comfortable furnishing our Social Security numbers for identification.  The reason we adjusted to these intrusions were because they came in small increments and over a period of time.

Then in the nineties we moved from a paper world into digital.   We saw the advent of computers storing our information when we applied for college, purchased insurance or applied for jobs. In the late nineties the World Wide Web exploded and our information could then be shared.   People forty and older, for a while, resisted the new technology; but the young people moved seamlessly into the new age.   This was immediately followed by the total acceptance of cell phones – and again the young generation led the way.

Today our information is ‘out there’ on Twitter, Face Book and blogs.     We do not hesitate accessing our bank accounts on the web, or sending our credit card information on line to L.L. Beans. Credit companies like Equifax maintain a running update of our financial dealings and furnish our credit score to anyone requesting it. Most people even have their income tax information filed on-line.   For us older people this has come fast, but for the young this is as normal as microwave Hot Pockets.

We are now required to get a Social Security number for an infant; but I can see, that as the technology improve, one day, perhaps soon, we will eye scan every new born.   The records of people’s lives can then be compiled, not by a Social Security number, but by the much more secure eye scan.  The way information is shared, we may someday pay for our purchases at Wal-Mart with an eye scan; and purchase on-line with an eye scan from our cell phones.   Once upon a time there was talk of implanting chips in people for total identification purposes; but eye scans are less invasive and make more sense.   I believe the younger generation could move seamlessly into accepting this as another technological convenience.


We seem to have a fear of moving into the Big Brother world of 1984; but I might contend we are already there.


If you have not read 1984 by George Orwell (Eric Blair) you should.


See if you can find a correlation to today:



The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil.


If all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became true. Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.


Imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and the deportation of whole populations not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.


In the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.


Double think: (reversed reality – ie: Though shall not kill; but the glorification of war.)


The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any facts that has become inconvenient…


The proles (people) are only intermittently conscious of the war. When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies of fear and hatred, but left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods, that the war is happening. It is in the ranks of the Party, and above all of the Inner Party, that the true war enthusiasm is found.


The Patriot Act, wire tapping, the prison at Guantanamo Bay and drone assassinations, among other legacies of the George W Bush administration, have carried up past the point of personal privacy and personal freedom; and we can see from the speed of apprehending the Boston Marathon bombers that our whereabouts can be tracked efficiently. To us, who remember a time before, this is alarming; but a generation from now, as we slide into the comfortable seat offered by Big Brother, it may well be the norm.



the Ol’Buzzard

DANGER, DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

The biggest threat to America is not al-Qaeda or Moslem fundamentalist or home grown terrorist: The biggest threat to American Freedom is the blatantly partisan United States Supreme Court.   The latest ruling of The Court allows police officers to conduct strip searches at their whim.   Along with all the other totalitarian rulings they have confirmed over the last decade that have eroded personal freedom and privacy, this last one moves our country further toward a police state. 

The Republican Party, with their elite 1% base, their lunatic Tea Party fringe and fundamentalist Christian theocrats, have systematically tried to dismantle social programs and limit individual freedom of choice and privacy – while at the same time proposing religious restrictions that move our government toward a theocracy.   While picking and choosing the tenets of the Constitution they agree with they have blatantly ignored major articles and provisions that do not conform to their world view of big business and God centered governance.   They constantly threaten amendments to the Constitution that would drastically change our Republic for now and the future.   

This is fine; the Republican Congressmen and Senators are duly elected by the people, and like the President have a right to their Political beliefs, and as such have a right to legislate their agenda.

However, here is the rub:  The Judicial branch is designed by the Constitution to be an impartial and non partisan watchdog that can bring extreme legislations from either party back to the central meaning and intent of the Constitution.   The Supreme Court should be the neutral body of government that guards the freedom and basic human rights of the individual.  

Terrorist have the ability to only destroy limited targets within our population; but, the United States Supreme court has the ability to destroy a nation of free men and women and move our country toward a version of George Orwell’s 1884 – and this is the future that I fear. 

And if some government agency is reading this, as according to the Supreme Court they have the authority to do:
I'm watching you
Watching me
Watching you
the Ol'Buzzard

THE PERILS OF APATHY

Occupy protest

Politicians live in a parallel universe of 1984 where their priorities are to legislate their own agendas.   Nothing ever gets done for the average man unless the masses rise up in visible protest to a point that the politician fear for their jobs.   

There would have been no move to integration without the protest of the sixties; and the Vietnamese war would not have ended when it did without the anti-war protest.

Not all protest are constructive: the Tea Party protest of the past decade has driven the Republican Party to the extreme right.   This is a perfect example that even small minorities can sway politicians if they are visible and loud enough.   

The Occupy protest is now getting the attention of the politicians.   The government, through the police departments of state and city regimes, is moving forcefully against the Occupy protesters, as was done against early demonstrators.  The difference is that now police have new powers to spy on citizens without oversight. 

If you haven’t read George Orwell’s 1984 – you should; and if you have read it in the past, you should read it again.

Without the story line – the following are excerpts from 1984:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The enemy of the moment always represents absolute evil.

If all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became true.   Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version.  A great deal of the time you were suppose to make them up out of your head.  

What was most important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leadership worship.

The aim of the high is to remain where they are.   The aim of the middle is to change places with the high.   The aim of the low, when they have an aim – for it is an abiding characteristic of the low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives – is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal.

It was still true that men were not equal in their native talents and that functions had to be specialized in ways that favored some individuals against others. 

Imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and the deportation of whole populations – not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive. 

In the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.

DOUBLE THINK: (reality control) Though shall not kill, but glorification of war heroes

NEW SPEAK: Designed to diminish the range of thought.  If it is not in your vocabulary- you can’t express it – if you can’t express it you can’t think it – if you can’t think it you can’t accomplish it.  

MINISTRIES

Ministry of Peace: concerns itself with war.

Ministry of Truth:  concerns itself with lies.

Ministry of Love:  concerns itself with torture.

Ministry of Plenty: concerns itself with starvation.

INGSOC: The Government ( There are striking similarities to the policies of the Republican Party.)  INGSOC, like religion, successfully manipulated the mind to the point that a person believed opposite of what was true.

The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty.   To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any facts that has become inconvenient…

The proles ( citizens) are only intermittently conscious of the war.   When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies of fear and hatred, but when left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods that the war is happening.  It is in the ranks of The Party and above all of the Inner Party, that the true war enthusiasm is found.

We know that no one ever seized power with the intention of relinquishing it.  Power is not a means; it is an end. 

We are all proles

the Ol'Buzzard