The Lies We Tell Ourselves

[GuvWurld]

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2004/12/lies-we-tell-ourselves.html

Have you noticed an increase in references to Orwell and 1984? Last month the National Council of Teachers of English's Doublespeak Award was given to George W. Bush, for the second consecutive year. The Hoosier Times reported that this year's honor was conferred at the 94th annual convention of the teachers' association in Indianapolis:

The group calls the Doublespeak Award an ironic tribute "to American public figures who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-contradictory."
...
The Doublespeak Award has been given by the teachers' group annually since 1974. The word itself is a combination of the concepts of "newspeak" and "doublethink" that were made famous in George Orwell's novel, "1984."

Orwell said: “Doublethink...is a vast system of mental cheating”. We're so used to being lied to that we now lie to ourselves all the time. We routinely accept "lesser evil" scenarios as if they were actual choices. They are not. Instead, we must recognize and acknowledge false alternatives.

We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard of ruthless honesty. This is done primarily by identifying where we say we see something a certain way, but then act as if we see it a different way. For example, the person screaming about election fraud but wanting a recount. There is dishonesty in this position, despite the person's best intention to fight the system. The honest position here recognizes that fraud made the first "count" a sham, thus leaving nothing to actually re-"count". The power of framing, of the media's ability to manipulate public acceptance of what constitutes reality, makes this much more than a semantic issue.

The conditions do not currently exist for the US to conduct elections that are beyond question. Conditions in America today correlate with the definition of fascism, not democracy. We must start telling ourselves the truth, and then acting on the truth as we know it. We must also focus on changing what we do, not what we think enough phone calls might finally prompt a Senator to do.

Read the No Confidence Resolution to see what it might take to create conditions that make elections legitimate beyond question.

[chomskysright]

1. they should analyze the shrub's language....

Orwell. as passed on by Secular Humanistic yahoo site person:

With all the references to George Orwell, especially Michael Moore's in Fahrenheit 9/11, I decided it was time to start reading 1984. Here are some lines from the book that stand out and could be used to describe current events, everything in is mine:

Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.

It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations < or wars; corporate welfare; job outsoucing; no health care; loss of freedoms; etc.>.

Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low.

...war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, the slaughter of children, the reduction of whole populations to slavery, and reprisals against prisoners which extend even to boiling and burying alive, are looked upon as normal, and, when they are committed by one's own side and not by the enemy, meritorious.

[chomskysright]

2. vote Bush/ Cheney for 1984

its a bumper sticker around these parts.....NC

[genieroze]

3. Oh, I like it. eom

[Vidar]

4. Splendid analysis.

[GuvWurld]

5. Must Read Examples of Ruthless Honesty

Two recent pieces by Carolyn Baker, both written since the "election":

How "Progressives" Gave The Election To Bush

Upon leaving her position as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the first Bush Administration, Catherine Austin Fitts stated and continues to state unequivocally, that "the United States government is being run as a criminal enterprise." This criminal enterprise transcends party lines or loyalties, and no candidate can even be nominated for President unless he is well within the good graces of the godfathers. How effective are U.S. Presidential elections in the twenty-first century? About as effective as municipal elections in Chicago during the reign of Al Capone. To progressives I say: Think "mafia", and stop thinking that you have a shred of hope for change by pushing buttons on a hacked voting machine. Again, criminals do not permit elections.

The criminal enterprise of both political parties MUST continue to make war for oil in every part of the world where the last drops remain, and it MUST make war on its own citizens by increasingly suppressing domestic civil liberties.

American Born, addicted to Happiness

My wish for every American in 2005 is that we recover from our addiction to happiness—our refusal to hear, ponder, and struggle with “bad news”, and with informed, illumined minds and hearts, allow the darkness to be our teacher.

That very “un-American” path may be our only hope for creating a new world.

It is not about blaming ourselves, but it is about accepting the severity of the situation, and calibrating our collective response to address the root causes ("the system") rather than the superficial, arbitrary divisions of partisanship.

[GuvWurld]

6. Kick (eom)

[GuvWurld]

7. Kick (eom)