Last year I deliberately purchased a used, 1984 print edition of 1984 because I was afraid that a recent print might include some subtle edits. I wasn't far off! That logic extends to my Kindle library where I never purchase classic or controversial works for fear that they may someday be updated or deleted by Big Brother. How ironic that my name is also Winston... 😁
I love my audiobooks but for masterpieces like 1984 I buy hard copy. I collect vintage Rudyard Kipling books, many of which carry the Indian swastika, distinct from the Nazi Hakenkreuz by the angle of the arms, and the changes made to his works over the last century disturb me. History is erased one edit at a time.
Here's a quote from chapter 18 of 1984 where Orwell describes the kind of people who made the totalitarian world of Big Brother possible:
"What kind of people would control this world had been equally obvious. The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians. These people, whose origins lay in the salaried middle class and the upper grades of the working class, had been shaped and brought together by the barren world of monopoly industry and centralized government. As compared with their opposite numbers in past ages, they were less avaricious, less tempted by luxury, hungrier for pure power, and, above all, more conscious of what they were doing and more intent on crushing opposition.”
Bureaucrats (administrative state)
Scientists (follow the "science” really scientism)
Technicians (Silicon Valley)
Trade-union organizers
Publicity experts (and media)
Sociologists
Teachers
Journalists
Professional Politicians (e.g. career politicians)
When I read this list, one group comes to mind above all: educated, liberal elites, the Democrat Party intelligentsia: Hungrier for pure power. More conscious of what they’re doing and more intent on crushing opposition.
"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever."
1:35:00 I think this is Walter's one mistake here. The book is allowed because it is NO LONGER dangerous, because we are ALREADY in 1984, and the people are all zombies. I speak here as a Canadian.
More than 20 years ago, I told a friend that the local alt-press "LA Weekly", their theater reviewer,
"... would lament the 'lack of brown and queer voices' in a Hebrew School production of 'Fiddler on the Roof'".
That's exactly what's happening with this woke intro to 1984.
I want to read the Foreword by Thomas Pynchon, but I refuse to give the publishers any money. If the Barnes & Noble in Burbank is still there, I'm going to go there and give B&N $5 to read Pynchon's essay then leave.
In the Navy, I was a SIGINT collector and analyst specifically for surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles. I'm a city bus driver now in Seattle and in my many discussions with passengers, they cannot fathom how powerful nuclear weapons have become and how vulnerable the US homeland is to Russian missiles. Nuclear war has become an abstract concept that exists only to further the plot of movies and video games.
While I'm not by any means certain that Graham Greene's character Alden Pyle is based on an actual person, I did discover something today that might suggest he did. It turns out that the first American fatality in French Indochina (aka Vietnam) was a 28 year old Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative named Albert Peter Dewey. He was shot to death in an ambush, some say a case of mistaken identity, by the Communist aligned Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945.
Although Dewey's death occurred a decade before the publication of The Quiet American, there are enough similarities in his person and circumstances to make him a reasonable model for the fictional antagonist of Greene's novel. I'll list some of the similarities here:
- Youthful age and untimely, tragic death
- Elite education including having graduated at Yale
- Worked as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News
- First name, Albert. Similar to Pyle's first name, Alden
- Sent to Saigon to represent American interests and collect intelligence
- Vocal about the abuse Vietnamese were suffering under French authority
- And just as Pyle attracted Fowler's enmity for claiming he had Phuong's best interest in mind, Dewey also had a nemesis in British General Douglas Gracey who declared Dewey persona non grata for Dewey's complaints about the abuse of the Vietnamese
- As with Pyle, Dewey's body was dumped into a river. The only difference being that his body was never recovered.
All this may be a fluke, but if anyone here thinks there might be something to it, feel free to add any insights and discoveries you might have.
Numbers are willy-nilly. How soon will numbers that American taxpayers declare on their tax returns NOT mean anything? I really wonder how long it will take for the tax systems fall apart?
I am already seeing that the numbers that Congress puts out are meaningless. How many dollars taken from the U.S. Treasury go to Ukraine? Apparently, billions. Really? Why not $1? Isn’t one-dollar the same as $1billion these days?
How many dollars taken from the U.S. Treasury go to Isrule? How about we send one-dollar?
Anyway, when will we see the EYE-ARE-ESS’s numbers that they take from taxpayers fall apart? Historically, taxes are taken from citizens in return for protection against invaders and other big expenditures as roads. The U.S. militarry still hugely overspends on things that are meaningless to the American public — they do what they damn well please (some by way of Congress), consulting no American citizen. All the while, bridges are falling apart; homes become derelict; cars become mysteries on how to fix them.
This is my new favorite podcast.
Last year I deliberately purchased a used, 1984 print edition of 1984 because I was afraid that a recent print might include some subtle edits. I wasn't far off! That logic extends to my Kindle library where I never purchase classic or controversial works for fear that they may someday be updated or deleted by Big Brother. How ironic that my name is also Winston... 😁
I love my audiobooks but for masterpieces like 1984 I buy hard copy. I collect vintage Rudyard Kipling books, many of which carry the Indian swastika, distinct from the Nazi Hakenkreuz by the angle of the arms, and the changes made to his works over the last century disturb me. History is erased one edit at a time.
It's this simple. Big Brother is a bureaucracy armed with an autopen.
Orwell must have been a time traveler. Your commentary is terrifying, because I now realize, we are here
Here's a quote from chapter 18 of 1984 where Orwell describes the kind of people who made the totalitarian world of Big Brother possible:
"What kind of people would control this world had been equally obvious. The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians. These people, whose origins lay in the salaried middle class and the upper grades of the working class, had been shaped and brought together by the barren world of monopoly industry and centralized government. As compared with their opposite numbers in past ages, they were less avaricious, less tempted by luxury, hungrier for pure power, and, above all, more conscious of what they were doing and more intent on crushing opposition.”
Bureaucrats (administrative state)
Scientists (follow the "science” really scientism)
Technicians (Silicon Valley)
Trade-union organizers
Publicity experts (and media)
Sociologists
Teachers
Journalists
Professional Politicians (e.g. career politicians)
When I read this list, one group comes to mind above all: educated, liberal elites, the Democrat Party intelligentsia: Hungrier for pure power. More conscious of what they’re doing and more intent on crushing opposition.
One of the most disturbing revelations in 1984:
"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever."
[chapter 20]
Hasn’t the U.S. deep state been operating without a cognizant President for four years already. Maybe it is that capable and brash.
1:35:00 I think this is Walter's one mistake here. The book is allowed because it is NO LONGER dangerous, because we are ALREADY in 1984, and the people are all zombies. I speak here as a Canadian.
More than 20 years ago, I told a friend that the local alt-press "LA Weekly", their theater reviewer,
"... would lament the 'lack of brown and queer voices' in a Hebrew School production of 'Fiddler on the Roof'".
That's exactly what's happening with this woke intro to 1984.
I want to read the Foreword by Thomas Pynchon, but I refuse to give the publishers any money. If the Barnes & Noble in Burbank is still there, I'm going to go there and give B&N $5 to read Pynchon's essay then leave.
Y’all have completely lost the thread. Ukraine somehow just did a Pearl Harbor on Russia?? What?
Per earlier in this video, I have been debating what 1984 paper edition to buy. It will NOT be the official 75th Anniversary edition‼️
In the Navy, I was a SIGINT collector and analyst specifically for surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles. I'm a city bus driver now in Seattle and in my many discussions with passengers, they cannot fathom how powerful nuclear weapons have become and how vulnerable the US homeland is to Russian missiles. Nuclear war has become an abstract concept that exists only to further the plot of movies and video games.
The “Orwell Society” reminds me of the Seuss Estate people. Both were about freedom, and both are being rewritten.
I love that introduction in the 75th anniversary edition of "1984." What Orwellian Newspeak. As Alanis Morissette would say, "Isn't it Ironic?"
Wasn't drones over U.S. states an odd occurrence just months ago?
Reflections on the previous novel ...
While I'm not by any means certain that Graham Greene's character Alden Pyle is based on an actual person, I did discover something today that might suggest he did. It turns out that the first American fatality in French Indochina (aka Vietnam) was a 28 year old Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative named Albert Peter Dewey. He was shot to death in an ambush, some say a case of mistaken identity, by the Communist aligned Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945.
Although Dewey's death occurred a decade before the publication of The Quiet American, there are enough similarities in his person and circumstances to make him a reasonable model for the fictional antagonist of Greene's novel. I'll list some of the similarities here:
- Youthful age and untimely, tragic death
- Elite education including having graduated at Yale
- Worked as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News
- First name, Albert. Similar to Pyle's first name, Alden
- Sent to Saigon to represent American interests and collect intelligence
- Vocal about the abuse Vietnamese were suffering under French authority
- And just as Pyle attracted Fowler's enmity for claiming he had Phuong's best interest in mind, Dewey also had a nemesis in British General Douglas Gracey who declared Dewey persona non grata for Dewey's complaints about the abuse of the Vietnamese
- As with Pyle, Dewey's body was dumped into a river. The only difference being that his body was never recovered.
All this may be a fluke, but if anyone here thinks there might be something to it, feel free to add any insights and discoveries you might have.
Numbers are willy-nilly. How soon will numbers that American taxpayers declare on their tax returns NOT mean anything? I really wonder how long it will take for the tax systems fall apart?
I am already seeing that the numbers that Congress puts out are meaningless. How many dollars taken from the U.S. Treasury go to Ukraine? Apparently, billions. Really? Why not $1? Isn’t one-dollar the same as $1billion these days?
How many dollars taken from the U.S. Treasury go to Isrule? How about we send one-dollar?
Anyway, when will we see the EYE-ARE-ESS’s numbers that they take from taxpayers fall apart? Historically, taxes are taken from citizens in return for protection against invaders and other big expenditures as roads. The U.S. militarry still hugely overspends on things that are meaningless to the American public — they do what they damn well please (some by way of Congress), consulting no American citizen. All the while, bridges are falling apart; homes become derelict; cars become mysteries on how to fix them.