5 ms·

I wish you do adopt children and read 1984 and Brave New World to them. It will take more than a generation to drive us into the ground, and I like to believe i

I wish you do adopt children and read 1984 and Brave New World to them. It will take more than a generation to drive us into the ground, and I like to believe it's not too late to forcefully swing the pendulum back.

geomark 10y ago
Until the day that reading 1984 gets you arrested. Think that's impossible? That's what happens in Thailand [1] where you also get arrested for the hunger games salute among other things. Think that won't happen in America? I hope you are right. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand/articles/Sandwich-eating-and-1984-8-things-that-can-get-you-arrested-in-Thailand/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand...
einrealist 10y ago
I fear, swinging the pendulum back will not be happen without violence, this time. Too many hate-trains are on collision course with kindness and logic.
eternalban 10y ago
Please don't read 1984 to your children. The message of that book is 'resistance is futile'. Nothing, not even love (per Mr. Blair) is strong enough to resist the power structure. It is propaganda designed to completely crush the spirit without offering even a single remedy.
- pmcginn 10y ago
  That is 100% not the message.
  - eternalban 10y ago
    What is the message then? How does the "hero" end up in 1984? Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me. Tell me it ain't so, pmcginn.
    - aoeu345 10y ago
      That one sentence is not the message, the message is An extreme totalitarian surveillance state will eventually converge to punishing acts like extra marital sex or keeping a diary with personalized torture until victims are broken beyond any thought of hostility towards their authority figures. Which is a damn good thing for children to think about. People really are that bad, so hold your freedoms close.
      - Create 10y ago
        oh dearism http://www.dw.com/en/david-petraeus-the-washington-elite-have-lost-touch-with-a-lot-of-america/a-36415543 http://www.dw.com/en/david-petraeus-the-washington-elite-hav...
      - eternalban 10y ago
        Horses for courses. I'll read Lord of The Rings to my kids and let thoughts of Frodo give them the courage and the hope, and I suppose you can terrorize your kids by reading them about "rat face cages" and betrayals and fear culminating in a sit down in Chestnut Tree cafe drinking Victory Gin.
    - kafkaesq 10y ago
      What is the message then? It's right there in The Party's second-favorite slogan: Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. The task of finding similarities to current events in the world (and the U.S. in particular, this past year) is left as an exercise for the reader.
- mattnewton 10y ago
  The message is fear this. Don't ever let it get this bad because no one is fixing it once it does.
wallace_f 10y ago
>It will take more than a generation to drive us into the ground It did take more than a generation to drive us into the ground. >A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both Nothing you can do about it. Trump and Clinton had the same motivations: they both want to own you, enrich themselves and their friends, and they don't care about anything else. With regard to foreign policy, they support the same nations abroad, will keep sending them money, some of which abuse human rights, and deamonize the same enemies. Obama never gave a shit about civil liberties or human rights. Largest criminal investigation against journalists ever in the entire history of America. Guantanamo still open. Administration uses newspeak to criminalize Snowden. Largest funding sent to militarized human-rights-abusing foreign nation states in history of the country. Increased military presence throughout the world despite the fact Americans are at least over 50 times more likely to be killed by our own domestic police officers than by a terrorist. Jesus christ.

geomark 10y ago

Until the day that reading 1984 gets you arrested. Think that's impossible? That's what happens in Thailand [1] where you also get arrested for the hunger games salute among other things. Think that won't happen in America? I hope you are right. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand/articles/Sandwich-eating-and-1984-8-things-that-can-get-you-arrested-in-Thailand/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand...

einrealist 10y ago

I fear, swinging the pendulum back will not be happen without violence, this time. Too many hate-trains are on collision course with kindness and logic.

eternalban 10y ago

Please don't read 1984 to your children. The message of that book is 'resistance is futile'. Nothing, not even love (per Mr. Blair) is strong enough to resist the power structure. It is propaganda designed to completely crush the spirit without offering even a single remedy.

pmcginn 10y ago
That is 100% not the message.
- eternalban 10y ago
  What is the message then? How does the "hero" end up in 1984? Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me. Tell me it ain't so, pmcginn.
  - aoeu345 10y ago
    That one sentence is not the message, the message is An extreme totalitarian surveillance state will eventually converge to punishing acts like extra marital sex or keeping a diary with personalized torture until victims are broken beyond any thought of hostility towards their authority figures. Which is a damn good thing for children to think about. People really are that bad, so hold your freedoms close.
    - Create 10y ago
      oh dearism http://www.dw.com/en/david-petraeus-the-washington-elite-have-lost-touch-with-a-lot-of-america/a-36415543 http://www.dw.com/en/david-petraeus-the-washington-elite-hav...
    - eternalban 10y ago
      Horses for courses. I'll read Lord of The Rings to my kids and let thoughts of Frodo give them the courage and the hope, and I suppose you can terrorize your kids by reading them about "rat face cages" and betrayals and fear culminating in a sit down in Chestnut Tree cafe drinking Victory Gin.
  - kafkaesq 10y ago
    What is the message then? It's right there in The Party's second-favorite slogan: Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. The task of finding similarities to current events in the world (and the U.S. in particular, this past year) is left as an exercise for the reader.
mattnewton 10y ago
The message is fear this. Don't ever let it get this bad because no one is fixing it once it does.

wallace_f 10y ago

>It will take more than a generation to drive us into the ground It did take more than a generation to drive us into the ground. >A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both Nothing you can do about it. Trump and Clinton had the same motivations: they both want to own you, enrich themselves and their friends, and they don't care about anything else. With regard to foreign policy, they support the same nations abroad, will keep sending them money, some of which abuse human rights, and deamonize the same enemies. Obama never gave a shit about civil liberties or human rights. Largest criminal investigation against journalists ever in the entire history of America. Guantanamo still open. Administration uses newspeak to criminalize Snowden. Largest funding sent to militarized human-rights-abusing foreign nation states in history of the country. Increased military presence throughout the world despite the fact Americans are at least over 50 times more likely to be killed by our own domestic police officers than by a terrorist. Jesus christ.