BUSH'S ORWELLIAN ADDRESS: HAPPY NEW YEAR -- IT'S 1984

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.

Talk about reaching...

I have read 1984 several times and it is about naked power pure and simple. Purposeless and based absolutely on the tenets of communism and "progressive" ideals.
The very people who now are "warning" us. What trash.

I don't recall Big Brother's society being pushed over the brink by terrorists, Mass Murder and international fear.

The ignorant may be susceptible, but the losers who write and circulate this tripe can keep hoping, I suppose.

Since their goal is naked power and control and the wish for their drug-induced pipe dream about human nature.

all I can say is, every time we let our guard down in that way we get hit

One little thing the last administration forgot (or ignored) - we're never at peace we're only between wars. Our country has been envied and under attack since its conception. It will always continue to be. We must never let ourselves be lulled into a false sense of security again.

You'd find better parallels to Orwell's society of the future in most parts of the world outside the USA: the Soviet Union, Roumania, Iran, etc. etc. At the beginning of the Cold War, Orwell predicted the overall shape that advanced and sem-advanced societies would begin to take, and eventually perfect over the next several decades. I think it fits our society MUCH better pre- 9-11 than post 9-11. Think about it. At least our focus now is on a REAL enemy within, and if "far-Left" or "far-Right" groups prove to be behind the Anthrax effort, they too deserve to be placed among the "terrorists". You do make a good point about "redundant" agencies and "what have they been doing for the last 20 years", but that's only because you're seeing those past 20 years in a new light brought on by the national response to 9-11. I've always considered Orwell to be an essential 20th century genius, but in this case, his vision of the future has already passed, is already dead.

"now suppose that absolutely no action is taken to round up terrorist cells....."
You certainly suppose a lot ratcat---but consider that a much more likely scenario will be that we will take NO more direct military action than that already on going in Afghanistan, which was an absolute requirement, and that our attention will in fact be drawn ineluctably to the enemy within. The only danger we have to fear now is what the terrorist cells are planning to do to us. In coming weeks and months, you'll be hearing evidence of a growing clarity among our citizenry to find, detain and deport these bastards, and never let any more of them back in. Keep your eyes and ears open.

"One little thing the last administration forgot (or ignored) - we're never at peace we're only between wars. Our country has been envied and under attack since its conception. It will always continue to be. We must never let ourselves be lulled into a false sense of security again."

You have that right! Slick Willy bears some responsibility for our current situation. While he should have been watching the borders, he was getting serviced by Monica.

Think about it. At least our focus now is on a REAL enemy within...

The "enemy" within seems to be someone who:
May use more than one phone (roving wiretaps w/o judge signature)
Uses digital encryption technology to mask their internet communications (heard on ABC radio today that gov't wants backdoor keys to encryption software)
Has finances outside of high-tax nations (got to crack down on money laundering and financing of terrorism)

WTFO?

It sounds to me like Big Brother wants to know who I talk to, what I say, what I buy, and where I store my loot. Why can't we just focus on folks who fit the profile of a terrorist, and use some good, old fashioned police work and keep these beasts out of our country.

I remember when I was in college ('85-'89) and the Ag Dept found two cyanide laced grapes from Chile. They stopped all Chilaen grape imports. Now, if we can find two grapes, why can't we find 19 people who weigh about 150# a piece that want to harm us in very public ways?

The answer is because we lack the political will to do so. It is much easier to ask the citizens to give up freedom than risk being called "racist."

My advice: if the gov't wants to ban or regulate it, then stock up. Use phone cards, public phones, and digital cel phones. Stock up on PGP 7.0.3 by Network Associates. Later versions may be compromised. It is the .50BMG of digital encryption and is virtually uncrackable. Use cash as often as practical, don't give out your SSN unless it's to the bank, IRS, or your employer. As for offshore accounts...there is a whole other world out there, with better banks than those found in the USA.

I can't disagree with anything you say in #74, but consider this: there is a residual antagonism borne of a new awareness among ever larger numbers of the American population that our own government is to some degree ALSO responsible for what happened on 9/11. Were our civil liberties to be infringed by what you see as the spectre of "Big Brother" there would be a hue and cry from us that this government couldn't even imagine. And also consider this: as much as our general law enforcement structure has failed us (FBI,CIA, etc.) , as misdirected and abusive as they've been, AT LEAST THEY'RE THERE, and organized, and ready to be set in a new and more essential direction. Think how much harder it would be for the sleeper-agent enemies within to be tracked and caught if we didn't have these agencies: they were temporarily re-configured and weakened and given new marching orders all during the Clinton years, and have a tremendous amount of catching up to do (which is why everything still seems to be moving so slowly through the bureaucratic muck) but they are being given a highly specific focus now, something REAL to work on.

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