Doublespeak is alive and well today, arguably stronger than ever, and I'm going to highlight just a few of the myriad ways in which ours has become an Orwellian society.
WAR IS PEACE
There are more than enough examples of this in our American foreign policy to fill an encyclopedia sized book, but I'll just highlight a few of the most glaring examples. Often you'll hear politicians, mainly Republicans, define their foreign policy beliefs as "Peace Through Strength". What this really means is that we'll achieve peace as soon as the rest of the world falls in line with the American way and if not we'll drop bombs on you until you install a puppet government that will. Peace Through Strength.
Uber war hawk Lindsay Graham was recently fear-mongering in his home state of South Carolina in efforts to drum up support for war in Syria, issuing warnings that if we don't go drop some bombs on Iran immediately if not sooner then they'll send a nuclear bomb in the belly of a ship to Charleston within the next year. So you see, to ensure world peace, we must go fight them on their own turf before they bring the war to us. Nevermind that Iran has military expenditures less than Algeria's and a mere one-tenth of what the USA spends or that there is zero proof that Iran is even contemplating a nuclear bomb despite what the talking heads on the MIC funded news shows would have you believe. Lindsay Graham believes that to achieve world peace, we must go bomb Iran back to Baghdad. WAR IS PEACE.
Speaking of war in Syria, that was another Orwellian attempt to draw the U.S. into yet another unnecessary, unclear, and unwinnable foreign entanglement based on the dubious premise that Assad used chemical weapons on his own people. Even if this were true, which it remains unclear who actually released the gas, what would this predicted "limited" and "narrow" strike possibly have achieved? Just to teach Assad a lesson? That's like a parent disciplining her child for hitting their sibling by giving them a spanking. Violence is wrong! <spank, spank>. Or, to put it crudely, bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
The more our out of control government senses its hegemony being threatened by various factions, the more bellicose its words and actions become. Take, for example, the recent debt ceiling crisis. You had Tea Party Republicans, Constitutionalist conservatives, and libertarians all on one side versus the rest of the Establishment/RINOs of the Republican party and the Democrats on the other in a debate as to whether we should fully fund Obamacare and raise the debt ceiling. The disagreement resulted in the government's being "shutdown" for two weeks which was, for the most part, blamed on the Republican "Tea Tards" or "tea baggers". The left-wing media framed it as "holding America hostage" and "domestic terrorism".
Just recently, outspoken Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen from Tennessee called the Tea Party "domestic enemies" and said that these are the people he swore an oath to defend the country against. How Orwellian. Fellow bloggers at Liberty Blitzkrieg do a good job of breaking this statement down. In regards to Cohen's professed oath to defend the country against enemies foreign and domestic:
First of all this is incorrect. The oath of office for members of Congress is:They are absolutely correct in their analysis. What Rep. Cohen and many of his cohorts on the left will have you believe, in true Orwellian fashion, is that those who dare uphold the Constitution (truly and not selectively) and invoke it as their justification for opposing clear government overreach are the real enemies of freedom here. Freedom means letting the government do whatever it wants in defiance of any heretofore prescribed laws or amendments. Freedom means allowing the government to place the shackles of debt on every man, woman, and child in this country. Freedom means allowing the government to conduct mass, warrantless spying on the entire country at any time and for any reason. To oppose that is nothing more than "domestic terrorism". FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God.]Did you catch that? The oath quite intentionally states to defend the “Constitution” not the “country.” This phasing was no accident. The difference is what separates a nation governed by the rule of law (the Constitution), as opposed to the rule of men (a nation state run by dictators). It is what separates a free and civilized nation from a barbaric fascist one. Rep. Cohen paraphrased the oath of office incorrectly for a reason. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he believes in the rule of men, not the rule of law. He thinks his “brand” should rule and those who share different beliefs are “domestic enemies.” That’s one small step away from calling them “terrorists,” and we all know the gigantic gulag grid that has been put in place to deal with “terrorists.” This man is very dangerous.
In a similar fashion, one of the State worshippers over at Salon warned his readers not to join in on an upcoming anti-NSA rally being held in D.C. this weekend. Not because they aren't against government spying, but because they can't possibly share the stage and form a coalition with the "radical" "extreme" "anti-government" libertarians. We can't have any of this "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" nonsense. I could say a lot more about this but I'll get to the part that literally made me LOL. Deep down in the article, after he got through explaining all of the dangerous beliefs of libertarians using their own words from their own websites, we get to this gem:
"Or libertarianism itself will rise, and our loss of liberty will be greater still. That’s because libertarianism is a form of authoritarianism disguised in a narrow slice of civil liberties."Bwahahahahaha! The misinformation out there about libertarianism never ceases to amaze me. Libertarianism's guiding principle is the Non-Aggression Principle. This, simply stated, means that nobody has the right to initiate force against another being or entity or to delegate this initiation of force to another person or group (like the government). This does not preclude one from acting violently in self defense, however. But that's it. That's all libertarianism entails.
When asked to describe libertarianism in one word, prominent libertarian Ron Paul simply stated "non-intervention". There's even a joke amongst libertarian circles that cheekily jests, "Libertarians: Diligently plotting to take over the world and leave you alone". Libertarians don't believe in forcing their personal beliefs on anyone nor that anyone else should be able to through force of law. They believe that you should be free to do with your own person and property whatever you wish so long as you do not violate someone else's person or property. Libertarians believe in economic freedom through peaceful market cooperation and voluntary associations. No force or authority is needed but to protect those edicts as that is the only fair application of the law. But according to our Salon writer, libertarianism is nothing but a cloak for authoritarianism and we should be regarded as dangerous. The irony is rich coming from a left-liberal whose side believes that all good ideas should be implemented with government force and anyone who doesn't agree with them is either a racist or a domestic terrorist. Yes, according to today's keepers of opinion, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
In Orwell's application of this phrase, it serves to mean that the people need not bother with their own learning and that they should just accept without question whatever the Party told them. This was achieved through State-sanctioned recreational activities, including encouraged promiscuity. The rationale in the book is the same rationale that is currently used, namely that if we can keep the masses entertained, they won't think to question or even notice the injustice and tyranny that surrounds them. Who cares if President Obama has drone murdered 10 x more children in the Middle East than were killed at Sandy Hook, we need to find out the sex of Kim Kardashian's baby! Who cares that President Obama signed into law the use of indefinite detention of American citizens on American soil in direct violation of the 5th and 6th Amendments of the Constitution, would you believe that Kansas City is the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL? Who cares that the NSA is indiscriminately collecting every single piece of digital communications of every single American, Miley is twerking again!
Nay, President Obama himself has issued various warnings against listening to those anti-government wackobirds. In a commencement speech to the graduates and family of Ohio State University, Obama warned:
"Still, you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices."Similarly, in Obama's post-debt ceiling debacle victory speech, Obama admonished, “All of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio, and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do." Yes, citizen, don't listen to those pesky bloggers or radio hosts. Click away from the page, my friend. Just listen to your government. "Trust us", seems to be the message here. Just go back to watching American Idol, citizen, and leave the tough decisions to us. All you need do is let us substitute our judgement for yours.
Indeed, the level of cognitive dissonance required to believe the gross lies and manipulations that come from the halls of our government on a daily basis is humongous. I've mentioned before that I'm fairly young but I've seen through the hypocrisy and distortion already; Obama's presidency made sure of that. But try convincing a liberal that Obama is George W. Bush on steroids and you'll hear nothing but excuses and justifications. If George W. Bush were drone murdering children, had a presidential kill list, was presiding over the dragnet spying of the NSA surveillance machine, signed into law indefinite detention, or appointed a Monsanto exec to oversee the FDA, liberals would be screaming bloody murder. But under a Democratic presidency, they seem to not notice or not care. He's on their side so they can breathe a sigh of relief and go back to reading People magazine. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
DEBT IS WEALTH
This one is my own creation and after another round of debt ceiling/government shutdown theater just behind us, it is only fitting that it be included. If you believe most of the government and media hype, we just averted near disaster by finally agreeing to raise our debt ceiling. You see, we can't pay our bills. We've not balanced a budget in Obama's whole presidency and his predecessor decided to go to war with 2 countries at the same time AND pass a completely unfunded Medicare Part D bill. Oh, and somewhere in between there our economy tanked, the housing bubble collapsed, and we spent over a trillion dollars bailing out the entities responsible for all of it. So we're $17 trillion dollars in debt right now.
But this is not a big deal, people. You see, we have what's called the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve has what's called a printing press. This magical printing press can be used whenever the US government gets into trouble and can't pay its bills. You just hit the green button and it prints out whatever amount of money you need to cover your bills (ok, so it doesn't work exactly like that but humor me here, ok?). And if that little green button is broken, we can just call our friends Japan and China and they'll loan us the money we need till we get sorted out. "Yo, China! What's up dog?? Yeah, we're trying to go to war in Syria over here so Imma need about 500 million Benjamins up in here, ya know what I'm sayin'? Yeah, I know we haven't paid you back your last $3 trillion dollars yet but Imma get you, I swear!"
If you listen to the voices in our government and not, say, the voices warning you that tyranny is lurking around the corner, they'll tell you that when you're down and out in the middle of a recession, the only way to get out of the recession is to keep spending money. Just like with your own personal finances, if you come up on hard times and all your credit cards are maxed out, just keep spending. Preferably, open up another credit card account and you can use that to pay off your old credit card accounts. And if that doesn't quite cover it, just borrow obscene amounts from your mom and dad with the firm promise that you will pay them back in the undetermined future with money that is worth less than when you borrowed it. Also, as George W. Bush reminded us all in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, if you don't keep spending money at the Olive Garden and Ikea, the terrorists win.
In economic speak, what this all means is that during tough times like we've been having the cure all is government spending. The Keynesians out there believe that government spending is the engine of the economy and not private enterprise. Therefore, if we find ourselves in the doldrums we just need to roll out a litany of "make work" stimulus programs and increase our deficits. This deficit spending will all work out because even though we rack up huge amounts of debt in doing so, once our economy is stimulated we will magically grow our economy enough to eliminate the debt. So the more we spend, the wealthier we all become. DEBT IS WEALTH.
Oh, and if you believe this is an absurd premise and think that you address debt by eliminating the sources of it and not by spending or borrowing more money, then you're a domestic enemy and quite possibly a terrorist who deserves to be indefinitely detained because this is America, land of the free.
There you have it. WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, and DEBT IS WEALTH. The sad reality is that this is just the tip of the Orwellian iceberg. We live in times of universal deceit as various powers and paradigms fight for dominance in an ever fracturing world. As such, all the entities fighting for power will continue to employ pages out the 1984 playbook to spin their message to the masses. Orwell is assuredly rolling in his grave right now.
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