Welcome to 1984

"Found this on a message board, thought I'd pass it on for commentary." While I've been staying away from posting too much news of the "Rant" variety (partially because we're getting overwhelmed with submissions) this is a particularly poignant essay, especially because it speaks to concerns I've been feeling heavily for the past little while. Click below to read it, and remember the words of some guy named Ben Franklin:


It's too bad Bush never took Junior High History.

Bush's Orwellian Address
Happy New Year: It's 1984

by Jacob Levich

Seventeen years later than expected, 1984 has arrived. In his
address to Congress Thursday, George Bush effectively
declared permanent war -- war without temporal or geographic
limits; war without clear goals; war against a vaguely defined
and constantly shifting enemy. Today it's Al-Qaida; tomorrow it
may be Afghanistan; next year, it could be Iraq or Cuba or
Chechnya.

No one who was forced to read 1984 in high school could fail to
hear a faint bell tinkling. In George Orwell's dreary classic, the
totalitarian state of Oceania is perpetually at war with either
Eurasia or Eastasia. Although the enemy changes periodically,
the war is permanent; its true purpose is to control dissent and
sustain dictatorship by nurturing popular fear and hatred.

The permanent war undergirds every aspect of Big Brother's
authoritarian program, excusing censorship, propaganda, secret
police, and privation. In other words, it's terribly convenient.

And conveniently terrible. Bush's alarming speech pointed to a
shadowy enemy that lurks in more 60 countries, including the
US. He announced a policy of using maximum force against any
individuals or nations he designates as our enemies, without
color of international law, due process, or democratic debate.

He explicitly warned that much of the war will be conducted in
secret. He rejected negotiation as a tool of diplomacy. He
announced starkly that any country that doesn't knuckle under to
US demands will be regarded as an enemy. He heralded the
creation of a powerful new cabinet-level police agency called the
"Office of Homeland Security." Orwell couldn't have named it
better.

By turns folksy ("Ya know what?") and chillingly bellicose ("Either
you are with us, or you are with the terrorists"), Bush stepped
comfortably into the role of Big Brother, who needs to be loved as
well as feared. Meanwhile, his administration acted swiftly to
realize the governing principles of Oceania:

WAR IS PEACE. A reckless war that will likely bring about a
deadly cycle of retaliation is being sold to us as the means to
guarantee our safety. Meanwhile, we've been instructed to
accept the permanent war as a fact of daily life. As the inevitable
slaughter of innocents unfolds overseas, we are to "live our lives
and hug our children."

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. "Freedom itself is under attack," Bush
said, and he's right. Americans are about to lose many of their
most cherished liberties in a frenzy of paranoid legislation. The
government proposes to tap our phones, read our email and
seize our credit card records without court order. It seeks
authority to detain and deport immigrants without cause or trial. It
proposes to use foreign agents to spy on American citizens. To
save freedom, the warmongers intend to destroy it.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. America's "new war" against
terrorism will be fought with unprecedented secrecy, including
heavy press restrictions not seen for years, the Pentagon has
advised. Meanwhile, the sorry history of American imperialism --
collaboration with terrorists, bloody proxy wars against civilians,
forcible replacement of democratic governments with corrupt
dictatorships -- is strictly off-limits to mainstream media. Lest it
weaken our resolve, we are not to be allowed to understand the
reasons underlying the horrifying crimes of September 11.

The defining speech of Bush's presidency points toward an
Orwellian future of endless war, expedient lies, and ubiquitous
social control. But unlike 1984's doomed protagonist, we've still
got plenty of space to maneuver and plenty of ways to resist.

It's time to speak and to act. It falls on us now to take to the
streets, bearing a clear message for the warmongers: We don't
love Big Brother.

Jacob Levich (jlevich@e…) is an writer, editor, and
activist living in Queens, New York