Saturday, May 28, 2005

Without a trace of irony, the powers that be have appropriated the newspeak vernacular of George Orwell's "1984." They give us a program vowing no child will be left behind while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged children; they give us legislation cheerily calling for clear skies and healthy forests that give us neither, while turning over our public lands to the energy industry. In Orwell's "1984" the character Syme, one of the writers of that totalitarian society's dictionary, explains to the protagonist, Winston, "Don't you see? Don't you see that the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050 at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we're having right now. The whole climate of thought," he said, "will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now.

Orthodoxy means not thinking, not needing to think.

Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."


     Bill Moyers, May 15, 2005 speech

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