Orwell Revisited

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The Hill: '1984' sells out on Amazon

Considering how often I see people dropping the name everywhere, that doesn't surprise me. My guess is most people who keep saying "1984" and things like "newspeek" haven't actually read the novel. Personally I'd rather have a certain segment of society running around with copies of 1984 and calling the President Big Brother, than have them running around with copies of Mein Kampf and calling him Hitler.

I read Vonnegut's Player Piano back in school. It was interesting too.

These executive orders are distressing as they are one man's decision and they are effecting the world. He looks like a king signing a decree.

Darmok, can you find one with Obama holding up the document to show his signature. I know all presidents and leaders surround themselves with the accoutrements of the office, but honestly Trump is a showman. It wouldn't bother me, but I fear there is no underlying substance, or worse, that the substance is not desirable.

I forgot this children's picture book:

Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust, by Eve Bunting

It's simple, but effective.

I would rather that everybody become familiar with Mein Kampf so that they can learn the incredibly important reasons why it is extremely important to question everything. Seriously, I will embed a video-clip that reads a translated portion of Mein Kampf, then you should load it in a new tab and READ THE COMMENTS...

Trust me: You wouldn't want to live under Orwell's Big Brother. I've read 1984 a few times, and also saw the movie (which sucked).

Living under Big Brother is more like living in North Korea than lived in the US--but we have make sure we don't get near to North Korea's level of authoritarianism.

All the Nazi/Hitler comparisons applied to US Presidents (including Trump) are ridiculous.

And everyone of course remembers the pro-Obama anti-Hillary ad from 2008, right?



(For the young folks, it's based on the brilliant Apple Computer ad that actually did appear in 1984.)

Here's a real challenge: Find a president or presidential candidate finalist in the last 25 years, who hasn't had a 1984 comparison made to them.

Everybody has been compared to Hitler. Every president, every prime minister, you name it. I wouldn't be surprised to see Mother Teresa being compared to Hitler.

...BTW , just recently reading and re-reading a lot of Orwell,s essays c/o Gutenberg Australia reminded that , in America , Orwell,s having been a fairly dedicated Socialist (capital letters , I think) tends to be played down . Maybe he was less so by thhe time he wrote 1984and Animal Farm I,m not hat knwledgeable about hiis personal life .
In those rwell essays he comes ut against : liberal : liberaldemocracy or capitalism or both , I forget , and I do think American praise publicity foor the two novels tends to - play - that -- dwn .
(Note: My saying this should not be interpreted as saying that I desribe myself as a Socialist - or that I do not - Or that I am saying : Socialism is good : OR : Socialism is bad : . I don,t want to get into that argument .I.
,m talking historical background here .)

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" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
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