KHALID & FRANZ CORRESPONDENCE
(continued)
Date: 09/11/97
khalid.ali@utoronto.ca
Subject: Orwell: 1984
My dear Khalid,
In your last letter you gave an excellent illustration of the advanced stage of the capitalist Orwellian future, as expressed in American Globalization; some call it World Fascism; others, like Marx, called it Barbarism. I would really suggest, that you watch the film "1984", or read the book, if you haven't done so [George Orwell, 1984, The New American Library, New York, 1969].
According to the story told, Winston Smith is the only "I" left, and the story is about the destruction of this last historic ray in the "fatherland"; of course, by the way, true to our Invisible, Invincible Principle, We have no intention to end up like Winston!
As exposed in his book, today we will demonstrate to you some of
Orwell's "prophecies", more accurate than those of the Oracle of Delphi,
or of any "Horoscope":
"War is Peace", "Freedom
is Slavery", "Ignorance is Strength".
In the story, 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).
He writes this in protest against the declaration of Big Brother, that thinking, thought, theory and philosophy are capital crimes.
Winston had been taught:
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death, thoughtcrime
IS death."
In the context of our discussions, concerning CNN-News, already from Orwell, we 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, it disappeared from all data bases, and "new knowledge" is being fabricated - this will be changed again tomorrow, depending on the interests of Big Brother, who teaches:
"Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past."
It is obvious, that Big Brother controls reality, produces "Virtual Reality", ideology; in the language "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 day" (p.45).
Well, Khalid, we may just as well begin to construct, learn and think our own "We-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 "Bild", Orwell is already obsolete:
"Its 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, status quo. Everything you say is then positive, justification, affirmation and defence of the system.
Winston has to learn:
"Do you know, that Newspeak is the only language in the world, whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?" (p.46).
My dear Khalid, study American English and tell me, what you 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, cono, etc. I guess you remember some of them.
Then the Party member unveils the essence 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", how the devil are they going to conscientize the working class, which only "newspeak", and which is 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, Newspeak is already reproducing itself in a fertile manner in the "minds" of the billions of working masses. You yourself have given excellent examples of how the North American workers ramble Newspeak through their mouths.
Concerning the so called bourgeois-democratic revolution, in the field of language, Winston is 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 (Khalid and Franz) 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 you see, Khalid, the rulers have never considered the poor or the workers as human beings; all they considered human along "history" were only themselves. Aristotle considered them 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 officially published:
"There was more food, more clothes, more houses, more furniture, ... everybody and everything was whizzing rapidly upwards." (p.52).
Still being a true "New Socialist", Winston writes:
"If there is hope, it lies in the proles" (S.60).
How Big Brother, how Globalization, how Post-Industrial Society, has 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 about these Zombies, you informed me in your previous letters, Khalid. Then O'Brien, the Party member, explains 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.
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).
By the way, O'Brien is partially right: We are outside "history",
outside the "Patria", and he partially errs, because existence is not exclusively
limited to the "Patria" (what O'Brien calls "history"), but extends far
beyond it, into real history. Thus, WE are NOT
non-existent; the non-relation, non-existence is the very type of
"human existence" in the Patria itself. Anything or anyone ONLY PATRIAN,
and who cannot imagine anything else, who only sees change within the system,
within the Patria, has condemned themselves to Non-Existence
per se. Nevertheless it's important to note, that even Big Brother
places US, the "Winstons", extensively, externally, outside the fatherland;
the only problem is, that the "best of us", cannot imagine something as
rational as this, that WE cannot yet understand, that we can only exist
elsewhere, not here. Here we are, we are essences, beings, human
beings, but we do not exist, we are not "human
existences".
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."
Then, Orwell explains the crucial moment in Winstons life:
"Everything was all right.
The struggle was finished. He (Winston) had won the victory over himself.
He loved Big Brother.
THE END. "
Instantly, the bullet whizzes through the air and penetrates Winston's BRAIN.
My dear Khalid, all this is not just "utopian dreaming" or "science fiction" writing, sad to say, we are not on our way to the "promised land", to World Fascism or to Neo-Barbarism, we are already in the epicentre of the American Dream of Globalization.
We are living on the Eve of the Orwellian Present! Of Big Brother's Present Millennium! Nobody needs to dream anymore about any "Orwellian Future"! At present we are already living in
"a world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon ... Never again will we be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. ".
In many things, Marx might have been proven wrong, but in one thing, he certainly hit the nail on the head: he himself had predicted today's Barbarism.
Love,
Franz.
Date: Sat, 10 November 1997 13:11:11 -0400
From: khalid.ali@utoronto.ca
X-Sender: khalid.ali@log3
To: John Tennyson Lee Franz <lee@ula.ve>
Subject: Re: Again: Orwell 1984.
Your analysis of Orwell's 1984 is quite timely and as usual done
with typical Franz Lee like authority. I promise you I will read the book
again over the next two days since we have a long holiday weekend. It means
the university will not be open until Tuesday, therefore I will not be
around until then.
Last night I was surprised to see in fragments the Miss Universe
competition. I thought that you may be looking too, so I said in
solidarity with my buddy and all my Venezuelan friends maybe I'll
take a peep now and then. I was just interested in knowing who will win.
I think that the Venezuelan girl was robbed but they should not complain
because ironically Venezuelans always believe that the Americans are superior.
So its a good dose of their own medicine. The American girl won.
I guess it will be the noticia all week over there. Guess what? It was only the American network that carried it on T.V, the Canadians did not. In none of the newscast or papers was it in any way reported, so far from what I have seen not even in the New York Times or other papers too. Well!... what I am saying, Miss Universe is relegated to the back burner of things over here, it's not a big deal. Beauty is only in the eyes of the beholder.
The Venezuelans will be mourning all week as if their Simon Bolivar
had just died. Poor folks, I send my sympathies to all of them , tell them,
its from me.
Anyway my friend this is just a hurried note to say hello to folks
over there; don't work too hard, take care, you all,
Goodbye and Mucho Love,
Until Tuesday.
Khalid