Introduction:
How Also To Read Nineteen Eighty-four Critically Today?
Orwell Today, Personal Life Experiences
Part I: 1938 - 1960
Part II: 1960 - 1962
Part III: 1962 - 1979
Part IV: 1979-2000
(Finale)
Pandemonium
Electronic Publications, Mérida, Venezuela, 2003
Copyright 2003,
Franz J.T. Lee, All Rights Reserved
Introduction
How Also To Read Nineteen Eighty-four Critically Today?
(22nd
September,
2000, revised 22nd July, 2003)
If I had a hammer
Ballad of the Illuminati
"I have many hammers, and
I
hammer with no compassion.
I
hammer
with no warnings all over this world.
I
hammer
out power,
I
hammer
out horror,
I'll
hammer
the heads of my fellow Big Brothers and Sisters
all
over
this world. "
(Thanks
to Carl Zimmerman for this emancipatory "ballad",
proposed as heading. )
Having studied this "classic", let us now page willy-nilly through Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four and here and there reflect on some of his "utopian" thoughts.
We visit Winston, who like an orthodox Marxist, scribbles the following on a paper:
"If there
was
hope it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming
disregarded masses,
eighty-five per cent of the population of Oceania could the
force to destroy the
Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within.
Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or
even of identifying one another. " (p. 60)
Winston still dreams about educating, about conscientizing the proletariat, the working classes, the poor, the masses:
" ... the
proles,
if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength
would have no need
to
conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse
shaking
off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow
morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it.
And yet - !" (p. 60)
Nonetheless, he is aware of the
opinions
of the ruling classes across the ages, of what
they understood by "slave emancipation" and
"liberation", and what our scholars repeat in their academic text-books:
"The Party claimed, of course, they have liberated the proles from bondage. Before the revolution they had been hideously repressed by the capitalists, they have been starved and flogged, women have been forced to work in the coal mines (women still did work in the coal mines, as a matter of fact), children had been sold into the factories at the age of six." (p. 61)
And what did Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, Montesquieu and all power-hungry rulers really think about the "mob", about the "crowd", about the "man-in-the-street"?
"But, simultaneously, true to the principles of doublethink , the Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors, who must be kept in subjection, like animals, by the application of a few simple rules. In reality very little was known about the proles. It was not necessary to know much. So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose on the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern. They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and, above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult." (p. 61-62)
In comparison, Winston read Mrs. Parson's "children's history text-book" that explained what was happening in Britain, at the time of the "Glorious Revolution", at the eve of capitalism, long before the coming into existence of the "Globe", of "Oceania":
"In the
old
days ..., London was not the beautiful city that we know today. It was
a
dark, dirty, miserable place where hardly anybody had enough to eat and
where
hundreds and thousands of poor people had no boots on their feet and
not
even a roof to sleep under. Children no older than you are had to work
twelve
hours a day for cruel masters, who flogged them with whips if they
worked
too slowly and fed them on nothing but stale bread crusts and
water.
But in among all this terrible poverty there were just a few great big
beautiful
houses that were lived in by rich men who had as many as thirty
servants
to look after them. These rich men were called capitalists. ...
The chief of all the
capitalists was called the King, and ... " (p. 62-63)
Now, we ask: what happens when one tries to act and think independently? How does one feel? How is one being seen by the rest of the world? What happens when one challenges "time", the Past, indicating that it has nothing to do with total emancipatory transcendence, that divine Chronos is simply an ideological instrument, the formal logical guarantee for perpetual mental and bodily slavery. Who dares to challenge "Time", Father Time? Of course, only a lunatic!! Are we perhaps flying too high? Too near to the sun? Will our fragile, waxy wings melt away? Simply because we do not think and write within the straight-jacket of generally accepted, ordained, academic rules and regulations?
Winston "wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable. He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong." (p. 68)
Here, Winston challenged "absolute truths", even his very own ones, and he thought that it would be better for the clandestine "brotherhood", if he should be mistaken. As madman, he would be the first to recognize his own mistakes. Long live the lonely, lonesome lunatics!
Now, rectifying myopic eyes of loyal, affirmative, systemic ideologues, that just associate Orwell's critique exclusively with Stalinists and Nazis, let us look at O'Brien's views concerning Winston's Newspeak articles in the "Times"? Not in the "Pravda" or the "Volkszeitung"! Questioningly, O'Brien, the mouthpiece of "Big Brother" said to Winston: "You take a scholarly interest in Newspeak I believe?" He continued: " ... in your article I noticed you had used two words which have became obsolete. "
What follows now is of great
interest
to those who love to declare anything that displeases them, or
that
does not fit in their world outlook or life style, as "obsolete".
O'Brien continued: "Some
of the new developments are ingenious. The reduction in the number of
verbs - that is the point that will appeal to youu." Later
conversing with Winston and Julia, O'Brien explained what this was all
about, what "doublethink",
mind and thought control, eventually would achieve. Of course, Orwell
camouflaged
these objectives, directing them towards the
"Party". In reality, across the 20th century, this is precisely what
the GESTAPO, KGB,
M15, CIA, etc. were doing, and also what is being practised today, more
than
ever, across the globe, using most sophisticated technology and
methods.
Anybody who already had applied for a job at any Secret Intelligence
Agency,
surely would know how to cite the following routine questions and
answers
by heart.
"You are
prepared
to give your lives?
Yes.
You are prepared to
commit murder?
Yes.
To commit acts of
sabotage which may cause the death
of hundreds of
innocent
people?
Yes.
You are prepared to
cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to corrupt
the minds of
children,
to distribute habit-forming drugs,
to encourage
prostitution, to disseminate venereal diseases --
to do anything which
is
likely to cause demoralization and
weaken the power of
the
Party?
Yes. ...
You are prepared to
lose your identity and live out the rest of your
life as a waiter or
clock worker?
Yes.
You are prepared to
commit suicide, if and when we order you to do so?
Yes. "
(p.
142)
Concerning the everlasting existence of Labour, of "Big Brother", who can only be changed from within, in total desperation, Winston asks O'Brien the following questions:
"Does Big
Brother
exist?
Of course, he exists.
The
Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party.
Does he exist in the
same way as I exist?
You do not exist. ...
I think I exist. ...
It is of no importance.
He
exists.
Will Big Brother
ever
die?
Of course not. How
could
he die?" (p. 214)
He, it will never die. This is exactly the opinion of all staunch believers in the system that fervently believe in the current New World Order, in Globalization; in "welfare", "good will" and "commonwealth". They believe that "Power", "Labour Power", would never die. But let us allow O'Brien to explain "Power", i.e., Labour alias Capital, to Winston:
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. "
And then O'Brien let
Schrödinger’s
Cat out of the Pandora Box:
"The German Nazis
and
the Russian Communists came very close to us
in their methods,
but
they never had the courage to recognize their own
motives. ...
Power is not a means, it is an end. ... The object of torture is
torture. The object
of
power is power. " (p. 217)
Then O'Brien informed Winston about the future projects of "Big Brother":
"We
control
matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull.
You will learn by
degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we could not do.
Invisibility,
levitation - anything. I could float off this floor liike a soap bubble
if I wished to. I do
not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. ... We make the laws
of nature." (p. 218)
This is not a crazy Hitler or a mad Stalin speaking here. Generally as such, because we were "educated" to do so, we just fly over such statements, not giving them a second thought. However, this only seems to be science fiction, craziness or nonsense. In reality, it is stark, dark reality. Hence, Orwell has warned us about our limited knowledge concerning our "reality", about our "Governments", about our "Party", about the "Illuminati" and about the level of contemporary scientific-technological secret projects. He also indicated why then, in the 1940's, the Party did not wish to make public Tesla and Reich Technology. Also note that Big Brother or the Party are neither "Communist" nor "Nazi"; they are global; "Brotherhood" is not obsolete "Civilization", it is "Globalization": "Oceania is the World"! (p. 218)
Finally, already applying Tesla
Technology,
O'Brien let more cats out of his bag, concerning space travel and
colonization:
"What are the stars?
... They are bits of fire a few kilometres away. We could reach them if
we wanted
to. or we could blot them out. ... The stars can be near or distant,
according as we need
them. ... Have you forgotten doublethink? " (p. 219)
According to Orwell, Winston Smith is the only "I" of all the
"We"
left on Planet Earth, and the drama is about the destruction of this
last
historic ray in the Patria, in the "fatherland". Of course, by the way,
true
to our Invisible, Invulnerable, Invincible Principle, we have no
intention to end up like Winston.
Seen from today in the Fourth Empire of the United States of
America,
as exposed in his book, we will illustrate that some of Orwell's
"prophecies"
were more accurate than those of the Oracle of Delphi, or of any modern
"Horoscope":
"War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", "Ignorance is Strength".
Winston writes:
"To the future or to the past, to a time, when thought is free, when
men are different from one another, and do not live alone - to a time
when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone" (p.26).
Winston is protesting against the declaration of Big Brother, that
thinking, thought, theory and philosophy are capital crimes, especially
in a world of
action, of cement, of concrete, of activism, where theory and
philosophy have
been sent to the ideological asylum.
He confirms that he had been taught, been mind-controlled, that:
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death, thoughtcrime IS death."
In the context of our current discussions, concerning the national and
international conspiration against Venezuela, the lies propagated in
the mass media, in the news of CNN, of Globovisión, of
Venexisión, in brief, in the Illuminazi News, already from
Orwell, we can learn the following:
"The Party said, that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia.
He, Winston Smith, knew, that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia
as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist?"
(p.34).
For sure, the truth disappeared from all the data bases and "new
knowledge" has been fabricated - surely, this will be changed again
tomorrow, depending on the global and "globalized" interests of Big
Brother, who teaches:
"Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present,
controls the past."
Today, more than ever, it is obvious that Big Brother controls global
reality in mind, thought, body and soul; he produces "Virtual Reality",
ideology; in the language of "Newspeak", it is called "doublethink".
Concerning thinking and language, Winston is being informed:
"We're getting the language into its final shape - the shape it's going
to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we've finished with it,
people like you will have to learn it all over again. ... We're
destroying words - scores of them, hundreds of them, every dday".
(p.45)
Well, we may just as well begin to construct, learn and think our own
"Language", which will remain an important tool of thought. Newspeak,
sorry, Newsweek, already has traces of the "new" virtually real
language. In the German daily newspaper "Bild", Orwell is already
obsolete:
"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words (in other words, of
thinking), of course, the wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but
there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of, as well". (p.45)
Now, if you take a "verb" out of a sentence, obviously you can only
express "peace", standstill, rest, the status quo. Everything you say
is then possible, is positive, justification, affirmation and defence
of universal global fascism.
Winston has to learn:
"Do you know, that Newspeak is the only language in the world, whose
vocabulary gets smaller every year?". (p.46)
Now, let's study American English or English American, and tell the
world, what we notice with reference to the above. For example, listen
to the amount of words, that the typical American uses daily, what he
says and how he expresses himself: yeah man, you s.o.a.b., f... you,
m.-f., etc.... The
Venezuelan versions are: no joda chamo, chevere, coño, etc. I
guess you all could add more phrases to this vulgar thought-controlled
jargon.
Then the Party member unveils the essence of Mind Control, of Thought
Control, of Ideology, of Newspeak:
"Don't you see, that the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range
of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally
impossible, because there will be no words, in which to express it."
(p.46)
Well, well, our poor "New Socialists", "Neo-Liberals", how the devil
are they going to conscientize the working class, which only speaks
"newspeak", and which soon will be free of all forms of thought-crime,
that is, of Revolutionary Marxist Theory? The fact of the matter is,
that by means
of socialization and ideological processes, of the current
international information warfare, Newspeak is already reproducing
itself in a fertile manner
in the "minds" of the billions of working masses.
Concerning the so-called bourgeois-democratic revolution, in the field
of language, Winston is being told:
"The Revolution (sic!) will be complete, when the language is perfect.
... By the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will
be alive, who could understand such a conversation as we are having
now." (p.47)
Winston immediately wants to mention an exception, that the proletariat
will still understand us, but the Party member suspects his train of
thought
and instantly says:
"The proles are not human beings." (p. 47)
So we see, the rulers have never considered the poor or the workers as
human beings; all that they considered human along "history" were only
themselves. Aristotle considered the poor, the slaves, to be
"speaking-tools"; Big
Brother considers them here to be "newspeak-tools".
Concerning government propaganda in general, and what politicians
remark in the mass media in particular, which reminds me of Burnham's
"Cooperative Socialism", fabulous statistics are being published officially:
"There was more food, more clothes, more houses, more furniture, ...
everybody and everything was whizzing rapidly upwards." (p.52)
How Big Brother, how Globalization, how Post-Industrial Society, have
completed the process of controlling the proles, Winston himself gets a
taste of it:
"We shall crush you down to the point, from which there is no coming
back. ... Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling.
Everything will be dead inside you.
Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of
living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will
be hollow. We
shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
(p.211).
Exactly, these are the body, mind and thought controlled billions of
"Zombies", that should be globalized, should be eradicated from the
face of the Earth by means of the current wars of terror. Then O'Brien,
the Party member, explains
the "world of fear and treachery", of Capitalism of the 21st Century to
Winston:
"A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and
being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but MORE
merciless, as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress
towards more pain. ... In our world, there will be no emotions except
fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. Everything else we shall
destroy." (p.220)
This is an excellent description of today's life on a world scale. How many millions have read Orwell's book, and how
many
of them could read between the lines that what we have spotlighted
above?
Many things Orwell himself could not have seen, could not have
understood, in his very own intellectual production. Meanwhile, they
are there, have always
been there. Strange things happen, but on the spur of the moment they
should
not be disqualified, just like that; recklessly, they should not be
identified
as pure madness and nonsense. Give the mind a small opportunity to
re-flect,
re-think, re-vise all those "crazy" events. Who knows, perhaps they are
true,
could be true, or be too "good" not to be "true". In this
case,
we would have a tweeny-weeny chance to become wise, exempted from any
folly
whatsoever.
And when Winston claims to be a "man", a human being, O'Brien corrects
him:
"If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man. Your kind is extinct
- we are the inheritors. Do you understand,, that you are ALONE? You are
outside history, you are non-existent." (p.222)
In total capitulation, finally Winston asks:
"Tell me, how soon will they shoot me?"
Cynically, O'Brien answers:
"...Don't give up hope, ... in the end, we shall shoot you."
(p.226).
This is the essence of patrian "Hope"; in the end, at the end of Hope,
"we shall shoot you."
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-four, The New American Library of World Literature, New York, 1961.