Sunday, July 01, 2018 6:03:05 PM
Big Brother
Spying is in the DNA of politicians and government bureaucrats. Ever since the first government was formed,some bureaucrat has been reading our mail. And so it goes today at the National Security Agency (NSA), the CIA, the FBI, and the myriad alphabet agencies tasked with getting Americansto the other side of the river.It is in their nature to spy on us. Also, to lie to us. Pretty much constantly.
There have been huge gains for women, blacks, gays, and other minorities, but they, too, have been swept up in the arbitrary diktats of the state, whether being spied upon, forced to support a bloated military budget, denied due process in the criminal justice system, or putting up with sophomoric political correctness on college campuses.
The surveillance state is not what the Framers had in mind. In 1789 Jefferson wrote to a friend, “There are rights which it is useless to surrender to the government, and which yet, governments have always been fond to invade. These are the rights of thinking, and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing... the right of personal freedom.”
The so-called Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) are unconstitutional without repealing the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which pretty much anticipated what the political class would be up to down the road.The infamous Section 702 of FISA grants the feds the right to spy on foreign communications that cross into the United States, and to do so without a warrant or the approval of a judge if a broadly-defined claim of “foreign intelligence” investigation is attached. Those communications often include U.S. citizens who are then swept into an enormous database to be used (illegally) for “backdoor searches” whenever the feds feel the urge. The urge seems to come more frequently these days. It has been estimated that as recently as 2016 the CIA and NSA used that database to conduct some 30,000 searches for information on U.S. citizens. The actual number is possibly an order of magnitude higher. For “security” reasons no one in Congress or the agencies will say. Sen. Rand (R-KY), who has access to the number of searches but is legally not permitted to reveal that number, estimates it to be in the “gazillions,” thereby giving a sense of the magnitude without risking jail since, as he points out, gazillion is not a real number. There is no doubt that the CIA and NSA need tools to undertake legitimate surveillance activities. The intersection of technology, philosophy, and policy is complex, to say the least. Seek out tech-savvy analysts who have a primary focus on liberty.(I like Patrick Eddington at Cato,and Jim Harper at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.) Truth is, when you use your car, make a call on your smart phone, or use your toaster (for all I know) massive amounts of your personal data are collected by the private sector.
Facebook and Google are threats to privacy, but primarily through their willingness to cooperate with government. Still, if North Korea can hack a major movie studio and Russia can hack into the Winter Olympics (not to mention U.S. elections) we’re dealing with a serious problem. One thing we do know is that the solution is unlikely tocome from government. Or, for that matter, Google or Facebook.
The abuses of FISA and the notorious malleability of FISA Courts make a mockery of the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not
be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Fifth Amendment is very much along the same lines with its emphasis on due process before the feds can take anything away from us. Ignoring these critical amendments and the spirit of the Declaration has led directly to the rise of the rule of man over the rule of law in our nation. As a result, the concept of a republic has given way to a kind of untrammeled majoritarianism. Populism, whether on the Left or the Right, appears disdainful of constitutional constraints on the political passions of the moment. This decline in the rule of law
manifests itself in the contempt high-ranking federal authorities demonstrate to Congress when forced to account for their agency’s
actions. That attitude was best exemplified by former (thank god) IRS chief John Koskinen. In his appearances before oversight committees in both the House and the Senate, Koskinen’s face dripped with disdain for those who questioned what in the world the IRS was thinking when it denied tax exempt status for conservative and libertarian organizations that clearly qualified. He denied the IRS deleted any material related the tax-exempt scandal. He was lying. He was covering up for Lois Lerner who had spent most of her government career trying to undermine individuals and groups favoring limited, constitutional government – first at the Federal Election Commission, later at the IRS. Ironically, Lerner’s display of contempt came in her refusal to answer any questions from Congress, citing her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. I always admired Mae West’s answer in the old W.C. Fields movie when the judge admonished her, “Are you trying to show contempt for this court?” and she replied, “I was doin’ my best to hide it.” In today’s political environment, senior bureaucrats have little interest in hiding their contempt for the American public. Say what you will about the clueless narcissist in the White House. He has attracted tens of millions of Americans who believe they’ve been lied to for too long. There are millions on the Left who also seem willing to reassess their slavish support for more and more government. Who knows? Maybe there is hope. Let’s ask Google. Edward H. Crane
It’s not just the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security. When it comes to U.S. intelligence and investigative agencies, their name is “Legion:”
Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations, Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export, Office of Security Enforcement, and Office of Inspector General, National Institute of Standards and Technology Police, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service Office for Law Enforcement, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Pentagon Force Protection Agency, United States Pentagon Police, Department of Defense Police, Defense Logistics Agency Police, and Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency Police, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Police, Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Command, Military Police Corps, Counterintelligence, and Intelligence and Security Command, Department of the Navy Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division, Master-at-arms (United States Navy), Department of the Navy Police, Marine Corps Provost Marshal’s Office, Marine Corps Civilian Police, Office of Naval Intelligence, and Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Security Forces, Air Force Police, and 25th Air force intelligence unit., Department of Education Office of the Inspector General, Department of Energy Office of Inspector General, Office of Health, Safety and Security, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Office of Secure Transportation, Department of Health and Human Services United States Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, National Institutes of Health Police, Federal Protective Service, United States Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Police, United States Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, Office of Border Patrol, and Office of Field Operations, Federal Emergency Management Agency Weather Emergency Operations Center Police, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Removal Operations, United States Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration Office of Law Enforcement and Federal Air Marshal Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General and Protective Service Division, Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Police, Bureau of Land Management Rangers and Special Agents, Bureau of Reclamation Office of Law Enforcement, Hoover Dam Police, National Park Service Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, United States Park Police, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, and Division of Refuge Law Enforcement, Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and United States Marshals Service, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, United States Merchant Marine Academy Department of Public Safety, and NHTSA Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation, Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, United States Mint Police, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs Police, Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives, Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, United States Capitol Police, Library of Congress Office of the Inspector General, Government Publishing Office Police, Marshal of the United States Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court Police, Office of Probation and Pretrial Services, United States Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Protective Services Office of Personnel Management Inspector General, Federal Investigative Services National Background Investigations Bureau, United States Postal Service Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Postal Police, Smithsonian Institution Office of Protection Services, National Zoological Park Police, Amtrak Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations and Amtrak Police, Federal Reserve System Federal Reserve Police and Federal Reserve Board Police, Tennessee Authority Police, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Inspector General, National Science Foundation Office of the Inspector General, National Archives and Records Administration Office of the Inspector General, Railroad Retirement Board Office of Inspector General, Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, United States Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General Corporation for National and Community Service Office of the Inspector General
But if the government wants to know our wickedest thoughts and most dastardly plans, none of this intelligence-gathering and investigation is necessary. We’ve posted those thoughts and plans on social media. And if we’ve followed through on our stupidest ideas and put them into idiotic action, then we’ve got a video on YouTube with a million views. Add our Social Media State to the Santa State and the Mommy State and we’ve already arrived at the Security-and-Surveillance State. We want everyone to know everything about us. (And take care of everything for us while they’re at it.) Even the most secretive terrorists can’t resist the opportunity to gurgle and coo – or bawl and wail – to attract attention. The Security-and-Surveillance State makes us feel like we’re the center of the universe again. It puts us back in the crib, without worry or responsibility. America used to need liberty and Fourth and fifth Amendment privacy. Now America needs diapers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Cutts thinks that many things in the world should be different. Work shouldn’t be a grinding, soul-crushing rat race for the almighty dollar. Consumerism shouldn’t hold a vice-like grip on our lives. And social media, well, we need to throw-off the shackles we so eagerly put on ourselves. Wouldn’t life be better then?
I wrote about George Orwell’s novel 1984 in the September 2017 “Innovation” issue of American Consequences – in an article where I surveyed various “futurist” authors of the past to see how accurate their predictions about the future were. I’m afraid I gave Orwell short shrift. “Yeah, yeah,” I said, “a ‘telescreen’ that watches us while
we watch it is where you’re reading this now.” I forgot what a powerful, terrifying, and tragic novel 1984 is. I forgot because I had read the
book a couple of times and was under the impression that I understood it.
1984 tells the story of a totalitarianism so total that it’s not satisfied with eliminating Winston Smith, a decent, conscientious
individual. It must also eliminate his decency, his conscience, and his individuality first.
When I read 1984 in high school I thought, “This is what the Commies are doing in the Soviet Union.” When I read 1984 in college I thought, “This
is what ‘The Man’ is doing in AmeriKKKa.” But when I read it as a mature (that is to say, old and worried) adult I was shocked. I realized, “This is what we’re doing to ourselves! In 1984, Winston Smith can’t turn off the spying, intrusive telescreen. Our situation
is much worse. Winston had only one telescreen. We have dozens of the things – desktops, laptops, iPads, iPhones, game consoles. And we, of our own free will, refuseto turn them off. We don’t live in Winston Smith’s horrible world – yet. But we seem to be doing everything that Orwell foresaw to create that world. Everything and more. The nation of
“Oceania” where Winston lives is a one-party state like Nazi Germany or the U.S.S.R. We’ve topped that. We’ve got two parties in our one-party state. Both the “progressive” Democrats and the “conservative” Republicans are intent on making 1984 come true. The “Leftright” Party is the party that really rules America. Members of the Leftright Party
practice the “doublethink” that Big Brother demands in 1984. As Orwell explains it, doublethink is “to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of
them.” (Ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the dueling Republican/Democratic House Intelligence Committee memos on the
Mueller Russia probe.) Orwell captures totalitarianism’s interference
in every aspect of existence in the first sentence of his book: “...the clocks were striking thirteen.” Whenever “the authorities” start meddling with ancient and customary traditions, something is wrong. So it was when President Jimmy Carter tried to put America on the metric system. And so it is today with an ancient and customary
tradition we used to have... that the President
of the United States was someone you would welcome into your home.
1984 has a “Two Minutes Hate” where everyone has to stop what they’re doing and despise Emmanuel Goldstein, “Enemy of the People.” We voluntarily stop what we’re doing and spend much more than two minutes
despising Donald Trump on MSNBC. Or, if that doesn’t suit us, we despise Nancy Pelosi for hours on Fox News.
Winston Smith “set his features into the of quiet optimism which it was
advisable to wear when facing the telescreen.” This is nothing compared to the expression of smug and idiotic blow-hard certainty which it
is advisable to wear when facing the cameras on MSNBC and Fox.
Winston works in the Ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite history. He obeys the Party slogan, “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Some Leftright Party members tear down monuments to Civil War soldiers who died bravely having no idea they were wrong, while other Leftright Party members dress in red baseball caps that declare they’ll make America what it always has been.
In 1984 a language has been invented to replace English, “Newspeak.” The purpose of Newspeak is “to limit the range of thought” by removing all previous mental associations and nuances of meaning from the vocabulary.
The people of Oceania will be forced to use this language.
Members of the Leftright Party have been much more creative. They’ve
invented not one but several languages that limit the range of thought. And they have gotten people to speak those languages without using force. Thus no one is crippled or blind or deaf anymore, much less a moron. They are all “differently-abled.” And no one even tries to discover the truth because the “lamestream media” is full of “fake news.” Orwell has a Party member say, “Orthodoxy means not thinking.” Members of our Leftright Party aren’t thinking twice as much. “The heresy of heresies was common sense,” thinks Winston Smith. With double the heresies we have half as much sense.
In 1984, the Party teaches that “Sexual intercourse is to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema.” But now we’ve got both #MeToo and public-school curriculum abstinence
education.
Orwell described life in the year 1984 as “...decaying, dingy cities where underfed people shuffled to and fro in leaky shoes, in patchedup
nineteenth-century houses that smelt always of cabbage...” A fair description of Portland, Oregon, or hip, artisanal Brooklyn.
On the other hand, it’s also not too different from the shanties and trailer parks from which the alt-right pours forth.
“We make the laws of nature,” the Inner Party interrogator and torturer, O’Brien, tells Winston. That sure sounds to me like both sides of the Leftright climate change debate. Likewise we have doubled our Thought Police forces, with one squadron apprehending visiting lecturers who fail to address college students in Newspeak and another squad circulating among Republicans in the House of Representatives arresting any notion that they can be reelected without Trumpthink.
But what is the goal, what is the objective of the Leftright Party? Why do they oppress and overpower us? (Or, rather, why do they
trick us into oppressing and overpowering ourselves?)
Orwell goes straight to the point. O’Brien tells Winston, “Power is not a means, it is an end... The object of power is power.” What the Leftright Party wants is power. And what will the Leftright Party do to us with its power? Again, Orwell is clear. O’Brien asks...“How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?” Winston thought. “By making him suffer,” he said. “Exactly. By making him suffer. Unless he is suffering, how can you know that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation.” The “Leftright” Party is
the party that really rules America. Members of the Leftright Party practice the “doublethink” that Big Brother demands in 1984.
...P.J. O’Rourke
Big Brother is Watching
Spying is in the DNA of politicians and government bureaucrats. Ever since the first government was formed,some bureaucrat has been reading our mail. And so it goes today at the National Security Agency (NSA), the CIA, the FBI, and the myriad alphabet agencies tasked with getting Americansto the other side of the river.It is in their nature to spy on us. Also, to lie to us. Pretty much constantly.
There have been huge gains for women, blacks, gays, and other minorities, but they, too, have been swept up in the arbitrary diktats of the state, whether being spied upon, forced to support a bloated military budget, denied due process in the criminal justice system, or putting up with sophomoric political correctness on college campuses.
The surveillance state is not what the Framers had in mind. In 1789 Jefferson wrote to a friend, “There are rights which it is useless to surrender to the government, and which yet, governments have always been fond to invade. These are the rights of thinking, and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing... the right of personal freedom.”
The so-called Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) are unconstitutional without repealing the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which pretty much anticipated what the political class would be up to down the road.The infamous Section 702 of FISA grants the feds the right to spy on foreign communications that cross into the United States, and to do so without a warrant or the approval of a judge if a broadly-defined claim of “foreign intelligence” investigation is attached. Those communications often include U.S. citizens who are then swept into an enormous database to be used (illegally) for “backdoor searches” whenever the feds feel the urge. The urge seems to come more frequently these days. It has been estimated that as recently as 2016 the CIA and NSA used that database to conduct some 30,000 searches for information on U.S. citizens. The actual number is possibly an order of magnitude higher. For “security” reasons no one in Congress or the agencies will say. Sen. Rand (R-KY), who has access to the number of searches but is legally not permitted to reveal that number, estimates it to be in the “gazillions,” thereby giving a sense of the magnitude without risking jail since, as he points out, gazillion is not a real number. There is no doubt that the CIA and NSA need tools to undertake legitimate surveillance activities. The intersection of technology, philosophy, and policy is complex, to say the least. Seek out tech-savvy analysts who have a primary focus on liberty.(I like Patrick Eddington at Cato,and Jim Harper at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.) Truth is, when you use your car, make a call on your smart phone, or use your toaster (for all I know) massive amounts of your personal data are collected by the private sector.
Facebook and Google are threats to privacy, but primarily through their willingness to cooperate with government. Still, if North Korea can hack a major movie studio and Russia can hack into the Winter Olympics (not to mention U.S. elections) we’re dealing with a serious problem. One thing we do know is that the solution is unlikely tocome from government. Or, for that matter, Google or Facebook.
The abuses of FISA and the notorious malleability of FISA Courts make a mockery of the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not
be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Fifth Amendment is very much along the same lines with its emphasis on due process before the feds can take anything away from us. Ignoring these critical amendments and the spirit of the Declaration has led directly to the rise of the rule of man over the rule of law in our nation. As a result, the concept of a republic has given way to a kind of untrammeled majoritarianism. Populism, whether on the Left or the Right, appears disdainful of constitutional constraints on the political passions of the moment. This decline in the rule of law
manifests itself in the contempt high-ranking federal authorities demonstrate to Congress when forced to account for their agency’s
actions. That attitude was best exemplified by former (thank god) IRS chief John Koskinen. In his appearances before oversight committees in both the House and the Senate, Koskinen’s face dripped with disdain for those who questioned what in the world the IRS was thinking when it denied tax exempt status for conservative and libertarian organizations that clearly qualified. He denied the IRS deleted any material related the tax-exempt scandal. He was lying. He was covering up for Lois Lerner who had spent most of her government career trying to undermine individuals and groups favoring limited, constitutional government – first at the Federal Election Commission, later at the IRS. Ironically, Lerner’s display of contempt came in her refusal to answer any questions from Congress, citing her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. I always admired Mae West’s answer in the old W.C. Fields movie when the judge admonished her, “Are you trying to show contempt for this court?” and she replied, “I was doin’ my best to hide it.” In today’s political environment, senior bureaucrats have little interest in hiding their contempt for the American public. Say what you will about the clueless narcissist in the White House. He has attracted tens of millions of Americans who believe they’ve been lied to for too long. There are millions on the Left who also seem willing to reassess their slavish support for more and more government. Who knows? Maybe there is hope. Let’s ask Google. Edward H. Crane
It’s not just the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security. When it comes to U.S. intelligence and investigative agencies, their name is “Legion:”
Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations, Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export, Office of Security Enforcement, and Office of Inspector General, National Institute of Standards and Technology Police, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service Office for Law Enforcement, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Pentagon Force Protection Agency, United States Pentagon Police, Department of Defense Police, Defense Logistics Agency Police, and Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency Police, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Police, Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Command, Military Police Corps, Counterintelligence, and Intelligence and Security Command, Department of the Navy Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division, Master-at-arms (United States Navy), Department of the Navy Police, Marine Corps Provost Marshal’s Office, Marine Corps Civilian Police, Office of Naval Intelligence, and Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Security Forces, Air Force Police, and 25th Air force intelligence unit., Department of Education Office of the Inspector General, Department of Energy Office of Inspector General, Office of Health, Safety and Security, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Office of Secure Transportation, Department of Health and Human Services United States Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, National Institutes of Health Police, Federal Protective Service, United States Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Police, United States Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, Office of Border Patrol, and Office of Field Operations, Federal Emergency Management Agency Weather Emergency Operations Center Police, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Removal Operations, United States Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration Office of Law Enforcement and Federal Air Marshal Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General and Protective Service Division, Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Police, Bureau of Land Management Rangers and Special Agents, Bureau of Reclamation Office of Law Enforcement, Hoover Dam Police, National Park Service Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, United States Park Police, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, and Division of Refuge Law Enforcement, Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and United States Marshals Service, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, United States Merchant Marine Academy Department of Public Safety, and NHTSA Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation, Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, United States Mint Police, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs Police, Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives, Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, United States Capitol Police, Library of Congress Office of the Inspector General, Government Publishing Office Police, Marshal of the United States Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court Police, Office of Probation and Pretrial Services, United States Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Protective Services Office of Personnel Management Inspector General, Federal Investigative Services National Background Investigations Bureau, United States Postal Service Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Postal Police, Smithsonian Institution Office of Protection Services, National Zoological Park Police, Amtrak Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations and Amtrak Police, Federal Reserve System Federal Reserve Police and Federal Reserve Board Police, Tennessee Authority Police, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Inspector General, National Science Foundation Office of the Inspector General, National Archives and Records Administration Office of the Inspector General, Railroad Retirement Board Office of Inspector General, Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, United States Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General Corporation for National and Community Service Office of the Inspector General
But if the government wants to know our wickedest thoughts and most dastardly plans, none of this intelligence-gathering and investigation is necessary. We’ve posted those thoughts and plans on social media. And if we’ve followed through on our stupidest ideas and put them into idiotic action, then we’ve got a video on YouTube with a million views. Add our Social Media State to the Santa State and the Mommy State and we’ve already arrived at the Security-and-Surveillance State. We want everyone to know everything about us. (And take care of everything for us while they’re at it.) Even the most secretive terrorists can’t resist the opportunity to gurgle and coo – or bawl and wail – to attract attention. The Security-and-Surveillance State makes us feel like we’re the center of the universe again. It puts us back in the crib, without worry or responsibility. America used to need liberty and Fourth and fifth Amendment privacy. Now America needs diapers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Cutts thinks that many things in the world should be different. Work shouldn’t be a grinding, soul-crushing rat race for the almighty dollar. Consumerism shouldn’t hold a vice-like grip on our lives. And social media, well, we need to throw-off the shackles we so eagerly put on ourselves. Wouldn’t life be better then?
I wrote about George Orwell’s novel 1984 in the September 2017 “Innovation” issue of American Consequences – in an article where I surveyed various “futurist” authors of the past to see how accurate their predictions about the future were. I’m afraid I gave Orwell short shrift. “Yeah, yeah,” I said, “a ‘telescreen’ that watches us while
we watch it is where you’re reading this now.” I forgot what a powerful, terrifying, and tragic novel 1984 is. I forgot because I had read the
book a couple of times and was under the impression that I understood it.
1984 tells the story of a totalitarianism so total that it’s not satisfied with eliminating Winston Smith, a decent, conscientious
individual. It must also eliminate his decency, his conscience, and his individuality first.
When I read 1984 in high school I thought, “This is what the Commies are doing in the Soviet Union.” When I read 1984 in college I thought, “This
is what ‘The Man’ is doing in AmeriKKKa.” But when I read it as a mature (that is to say, old and worried) adult I was shocked. I realized, “This is what we’re doing to ourselves! In 1984, Winston Smith can’t turn off the spying, intrusive telescreen. Our situation
is much worse. Winston had only one telescreen. We have dozens of the things – desktops, laptops, iPads, iPhones, game consoles. And we, of our own free will, refuseto turn them off. We don’t live in Winston Smith’s horrible world – yet. But we seem to be doing everything that Orwell foresaw to create that world. Everything and more. The nation of
“Oceania” where Winston lives is a one-party state like Nazi Germany or the U.S.S.R. We’ve topped that. We’ve got two parties in our one-party state. Both the “progressive” Democrats and the “conservative” Republicans are intent on making 1984 come true. The “Leftright” Party is the party that really rules America. Members of the Leftright Party
practice the “doublethink” that Big Brother demands in 1984. As Orwell explains it, doublethink is “to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of
them.” (Ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the dueling Republican/Democratic House Intelligence Committee memos on the
Mueller Russia probe.) Orwell captures totalitarianism’s interference
in every aspect of existence in the first sentence of his book: “...the clocks were striking thirteen.” Whenever “the authorities” start meddling with ancient and customary traditions, something is wrong. So it was when President Jimmy Carter tried to put America on the metric system. And so it is today with an ancient and customary
tradition we used to have... that the President
of the United States was someone you would welcome into your home.
1984 has a “Two Minutes Hate” where everyone has to stop what they’re doing and despise Emmanuel Goldstein, “Enemy of the People.” We voluntarily stop what we’re doing and spend much more than two minutes
despising Donald Trump on MSNBC. Or, if that doesn’t suit us, we despise Nancy Pelosi for hours on Fox News.
Winston Smith “set his features into the of quiet optimism which it was
advisable to wear when facing the telescreen.” This is nothing compared to the expression of smug and idiotic blow-hard certainty which it
is advisable to wear when facing the cameras on MSNBC and Fox.
Winston works in the Ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite history. He obeys the Party slogan, “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Some Leftright Party members tear down monuments to Civil War soldiers who died bravely having no idea they were wrong, while other Leftright Party members dress in red baseball caps that declare they’ll make America what it always has been.
In 1984 a language has been invented to replace English, “Newspeak.” The purpose of Newspeak is “to limit the range of thought” by removing all previous mental associations and nuances of meaning from the vocabulary.
The people of Oceania will be forced to use this language.
Members of the Leftright Party have been much more creative. They’ve
invented not one but several languages that limit the range of thought. And they have gotten people to speak those languages without using force. Thus no one is crippled or blind or deaf anymore, much less a moron. They are all “differently-abled.” And no one even tries to discover the truth because the “lamestream media” is full of “fake news.” Orwell has a Party member say, “Orthodoxy means not thinking.” Members of our Leftright Party aren’t thinking twice as much. “The heresy of heresies was common sense,” thinks Winston Smith. With double the heresies we have half as much sense.
In 1984, the Party teaches that “Sexual intercourse is to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema.” But now we’ve got both #MeToo and public-school curriculum abstinence
education.
Orwell described life in the year 1984 as “...decaying, dingy cities where underfed people shuffled to and fro in leaky shoes, in patchedup
nineteenth-century houses that smelt always of cabbage...” A fair description of Portland, Oregon, or hip, artisanal Brooklyn.
On the other hand, it’s also not too different from the shanties and trailer parks from which the alt-right pours forth.
“We make the laws of nature,” the Inner Party interrogator and torturer, O’Brien, tells Winston. That sure sounds to me like both sides of the Leftright climate change debate. Likewise we have doubled our Thought Police forces, with one squadron apprehending visiting lecturers who fail to address college students in Newspeak and another squad circulating among Republicans in the House of Representatives arresting any notion that they can be reelected without Trumpthink.
But what is the goal, what is the objective of the Leftright Party? Why do they oppress and overpower us? (Or, rather, why do they
trick us into oppressing and overpowering ourselves?)
Orwell goes straight to the point. O’Brien tells Winston, “Power is not a means, it is an end... The object of power is power.” What the Leftright Party wants is power. And what will the Leftright Party do to us with its power? Again, Orwell is clear. O’Brien asks...“How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?” Winston thought. “By making him suffer,” he said. “Exactly. By making him suffer. Unless he is suffering, how can you know that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation.” The “Leftright” Party is
the party that really rules America. Members of the Leftright Party practice the “doublethink” that Big Brother demands in 1984.
...P.J. O’Rourke
Big Brother is Watching
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