Our society is looking awfully Orwellian lately. The main ideas of George Orwell's 1984 are:
1. War is important for consuming the products of human labour; if this work were be used to increase the standard of living, the control of the party over the people would decrease. War is the economic basis of a hierarchical society.
Rock_nj: This is certainly true of our society. Our resources mainly go into supplying and expanding the U.S. war machine. Many many domestic needs go unfunded, which has an effect of lowering the standard of living for average Americans, and keeps them uninterested in what Washington is spending its money on. The Republicrat War Party in Washington has helped to maintain its power over the years via influence peddling in the defense establishment. Despite the end of the cold war, defense spending has not decreased significanty and conviently this 9/11 War on Terror has allowed significant increases in defense spending. If the money was spent domestically, the American people would have a much bigger stake in what happens in Washington. War is used in American society as a rallying point and a means of social control. A peacful America would mean people would be a lot less interested in the Republicrat War Party's foreign agenda.
2. There is an emotional need to believe in the ultimate victory of Big Brother.
Rock_nj: The U.S. has been in a perpetual state of war since the beginning of WW2. WW2->Cold War->Korea->Cold War->Viet Nam->Cold War->Iraq->Yogolsavia->Iraq The American people (proles) have an emotial need to see the U.S. engaged in war hoping for the ultimate victory of American supremacy.
3. In becoming continuous, war has ceased to exist. The continuity of the war guarantees the permanence of the current order. In other words, "War is Peace"
Rock_nj: Well since Congress no longer declares war as it is suppossed to according to the Constitution, it can be said that war has ceased to exist in our country. As I pointed out in the previous item, we've been in a constant state of war for decades. War is certainly being invoked in the War on Terror to "keep the peace". War is Peace in America in 2003.
4. There have always been three main strata of society; the Upper, the Middle and the Lower, and no change has brought human equality one inch nearer.
Rock_nj: The U.S. is a highly stratified society. Certainly an elite (the Bushes, Fords, Rockerfellers, etc.) who owns the corporations, essentially dictates our foreign and domestic policy, they could be called the Inner Party. All the party hacks and beauracrats could be called the Outer Party. The rest of the U.S. populace are just proles, who live by a whole other set of rules, who go off and fight the wars and have their own culture. The Bushes, Fords, Rockerfellers and their ilk aren't arrested for drug use (like if they snort in their own homes), but the proles are certainly put through the ringer if they're caught on the street with drugs. The one thing that is different between American and 1984 society is that one could theoretically move up or down the social strata, although that is difficult without the proper educational and cultural background.
5. Collectivism doesn't lead to socialism. In the event, the wealth now belongs to the new "upper-class", the bureaucrats and administrators. Collectivism has ensured the permanence of economic inequality.
Rock_nj: Another truism in convential American society. The federal government is used in a collectivist/socialist manner to funnel money up towards the upper class. The new Homeland Security beauracracy is a good example of this corporate welfare as has been the defense budget and other federal subsidies and spending over the decades that has served as a constant funnel of money from the middle and lower classes to the wealthy elites.
6. Wealth is not inherited from person to person, but it is kept within the ruling group.
Rock_nj: Not sure how this pertains to American society. Wealth is kept within the ruling group (Fords, Rockerfellers, Bushes, etc.), but is inherited from person to person.
7. The masses (proles) are given freedom of thought, because they don't think! A Party member is not allowed the slightest deviation of thought, and there is an elaborate mental training to ensure this, a training that can be summarised in the concept of doublethink.
Rock_nj: Well, people are still free to think as they wish in American society today. Although at war times there is pressure put on people to conform, like when the Dixie Chicks tried to speak out against the war on Iraq, their albums/songs were boycotted and they were put under pressure to not speak their minds. Also, our education system does have the effect of indoctrinating people with the belief that the American way of life is superior and is the only realistic approach to running a society. So the educated classes (the Outer party) in American society have had their minds conditioned through education and other forms of propaganda like the media. There is no doubt a public relations effort to shape the opinions of the American masses (proles), who esstentially don't think much anyway. We see it on TV everyday in advertising (like the post-9/11 rah rah adverstising) and the way the news is slanted in a pro-U.S. way. When was the last time the major media did a critical analysis of our defense spending priorities or our foriegn policies?
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