January 14, 2012

The party platform

Depending upon which pile of bodies one is standing, this dramatized reproduction of Eric Arthur Blair's final warning could be applied to a wide list of actors.

It could be the 99% or the 1%; the Tea Party or the Kenyan socialist; Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann; the christians or the muslims; Al Gore or George Bush; the Packers or the Saints...

In one way or another all of our boogiemen have been sold to us by Orwell's Big Brother. The sales techniques are simple, age old, and well practiced - hatred, fear and power lust. 

If the video circulating the intertoob represents a true event, I'm finding it very difficult to understand our collective reaction. Since the dawn of recorded history Big Brother has sold us on the necessity of war by convincing us that our enemies are evil. Our opponents are dehumanized in the minds of our warriors by subtle indoctrination. Otherwise how could sane, rational humans kill, mutilate, and yes... even urinate upon other humans? 

It does not seem so far fetched to imagine much the same happening in any  of the wars of the past. Consider the videos of how the bodies of the Japanese were treated following the landing at Iwo Jima. Also consider the treatment of Americans and Filipinos POW's following the battle of Bataan. Going back a little further in our history, consider the Trail of Tears?

In each of these examples the enemy was sold by Big Brother as being sub-human and evil... unworthy of human compassion... worthy only of disrespect and destruction.... of being pissed on. 



Right now the Republican party is seeking domination by demonizing the Democrats... in particular our President. They are preaching the mantra of fear of foreign religions... hatred of immigrants... distrust of "socialists... all the while selling the myth of Jesus. This has worked before and it may well work again.

On the other end we have liberal Democrats preaching a mantra of hatred for the oligarchs and plutocrats... demonizing industry without seemingly caring about compromise. They want it all and they want it now.

As we watch the evening news... listen to Bill Maher, Glenn Beck, Pat Robertson, David Packman, or Pam Geller... when you witness the callous evil of American troops not only urinating on the corpses of our enemy, but actually memorializing the act in video... picture Orwell's boot.


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