Just like his predecessor Obama, who laid waste to civilian lives across the Middle East Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace.
The post Just Like Obama, Trump’s Warmongering Just Got Him Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
For those who have read “1984” by George Orwell, it is almost prophetic in its depth and accuracy. The reason that the warning has not been heeded is that change takes place with glacial slowness. Sometimes the changes take so long they dull the senses and we become inured to “more bad news,” or we just discount it continually. No matter what our reaction, the march toward global totalitarianism proceeds, with or without our consent or even our attention.
The slow march is deliberate. The reason for this is simple. The generation/group of people between the ages of approximately 40 to 60 are of an age who still have a sense of nationalism and grew up/experienced their formative years without that complete socialist indoctrination inflicted upon the youth of today. For the youth, there is no escape from it on their own, because they have no point of reference with which to identify and compare it to what has been forced upon them now by indoctrinators (termed “educators”). The new “all for the communal hive” mentality has been crafted by those in power and carried out by teachers.
So, a deliberate and systematic “ratcheting” up and down of the speed Wcof changes (the institution of new totalitarian controls) varies. Those in power need to eliminate those between 40 to 60 years old, or “engulf” them by numbers of the new manipulated youth and then just “vote” them out of effectiveness. The “Tyranny of the Majority” perfected to an art form. Obama couldn’t finish the job in 8 years…but the sporadic ratcheting just took a new twist.
It was reported that Bill Gates is joining a group of investors for an initial investment of about $1 billion dollars. They are going to back a company based in Seattle, WA called EarthNow that will endeavor to emplace 500 satellites above the Earth.
When the emplacement is complete, every inch of the globe will be able to be surveilled in real time.
The Daily Mail wrote a good piece on it on 4/19/18 that seemed to run unnoticed. A few other networks picked it up and reported on it, with the most summarized version being a piece entitled “Surveillance of Entire Earth, Big Brother Satellite Army,” by Battle For World.
EarthNow will provide this complete surveillance to “high value enterprise and government customers,” in other words: Mega-Corporations and Government.
There’s more afoot. The article, “Compulsory Biometric ID Announced by European Commission,” by Virginia Hale came out on 4/17/18. Here’s an excerpt:
“The European Commission has announced plans to make biometric ID cards compulsory across the bloc which will allow authorities to bar “terrorists and criminals” from accessing money and other services. Plans to introduce mandatory ID cards across all 28 EU member states — including Britain — have been in development for more than two years in Brussels as part of the Commission’s goal of building an effective “security union”, Die Welt reports.
Set to be equipped with data including the holder’s fingerprint, the cards would be designed to tackle identity fraud and make it harder to falsify documents, according to Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. “We have to tighten the screws until there is no room left for terrorists or criminals and no more means for them to carry out attacks,” he told the German newspaper on Monday. “This means that they must be barred from accessing money, counterfeit documents, weapons and explosives, and at the same time prevented from being able to cross our borders undetected.”
Tightening the screws, eh? But none of those measures will restrict the true criminals…the “partners” of national governments…who access money, counterfeit documents, weapons, and explosive…they do the same things they claim to be “preventing.” All in the “interests of public safety,” and all under the Color of Law, at the expense of the citizen-beeves.
Think this isn’t coming here, to the United States? Think again. The biggie that they want now is the DNA. If you recall, I wrote a piece last Fall that mentioned how the Baltimore Ravens Football Administration tried to give out “free DNA kits” on opening day to fans. It was stopped in the “interests of public health” where the fans would have swabbed their mouths and dropped it in a vial…all to “find out their ancestry,” etc. Not quite. They wanted to see if people would voluntarily give away their DNA.
Myriad Genetics (the “inventors” of the Brica system of breast cancer detection) tried to patent genes they collected, and the courts struck it down. Little by little, the paradigm shifts, however, and recently you’ve been hearing some “murmurs” about DNA information for both ID cards (Driver’s Licenses, for now) and to obtain a firearm…as it is mandatory in some states already to submit biometric information prior to purchasing a pistol or rifle.
On 4/12/18, an article came out entitled “Estonia offers free genetic testing in nationwide experiment,” by Jari Tanner of AP, and here’s an excerpt:
“Estonia has started offering residents free genetic profiling in a nationwide experiment aimed at minimizing risks for typical diseases and encouraging a healthier lifestyle through personalized data reports. Lili Milani, a researcher with the Estonian Genome Center at the University of Tartu, said Thursday the scheme kicked off in March and will initially cover some 100,000 volunteers in the Baltic country of 1.3 million. Participants are required to donate DNA samples from blood and give consent to storing their data to the Estonian Biobank, which has collected health records and biological samples from Estonians since 2000.”
Do you like that one? “Required” and “give consent” for storing their data, as if it’s a service. The Estonians have been giving samples to a biobank that has been actively collecting physical samples for the past 18 years.
This is to obtain a DNA “fingerprint” from everyone. It is a worldwide collection activity taking place right under our noses and before our eyes.
As you can see, they’re pushing their “family-friendly” activities more and more…using the “voluntary” trick at first…but eventually it will become mandatory. It already happens in the U.S. When you have a surgical procedure or operation they take tissue and blood samples and save them in a repository, ostensibly to “compare with later tests,” etc., etc. The samples are frozen and kept by labs who have genetic repositories, such as Myriad Genetics.
So, Bill Gates and his allies are going to emplace a global surveillance system of satellites, biometric IDs are being pushed and finalized for all of Europe, and genetics collection facilities are in “overdrive” worldwide. See the writing on the wall and don’t ignore it. They are moving toward global governance in every nation. Orwell is no longer alive, but his writings were a warning for all of mankind that we would all do well to heed before it’s too late.
“Oceania” was a nation described in George Orwell’s “1984” as being comprised of Britain (called “Airstrip One,”) and the United States. There were two other superpowers, namely Eurasia and Eastasia. Other lands rich in resources were contested over, such as Africa and assumingly South America…lands never kept by any of three Super-states for any significant period. The “flux” in conquests was exactly what the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) of our time would have termed “necessary” to justify large expenditures: War as the focal purpose, rather than the exceptional event.
We see a parallel in today’s world with huge defense budgets and troop deployments keeping the contracts on the move and siphoning off a considerable amount of national revenues to keep the patriotic war machines moving…respective of each nation. The psychology: keep the population agitated and on a continual war-footing, using a “threat” (either real, created, or imagined) to accomplish this.
You are witnessing the final alignment of those spheres of influence that are almost identical to the novel that Orwell wrote. Look at the situation with the alleged Russian poisoning of an intelligence operative and his daughter in Britain. The United States showed “solidarity” with Great Britain by expelling 60 Russian diplomats and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle, Washington. Russia countered by ordering the expulsion of an equal amount of American embassy personnel.
Yet the interesting fact is that the other nations who followed suit in the “humanitarian crusade” of the alleged Russian poisoning of former FSB agent Skripal and his daughter? The poisoning may have been done by the British, not the Russians. The U.S. State Department has made several statements to the tune that the Russians do not “see eye to eye with us or share our values of freedom and democracy.”
Really, now…in the surveillance state that inexorably draws to its conclusion with the country losing its rights while being monitored in every activity…what “values” do we have anymore?
I’m not characterizing the entire populace of the United States…but our government, that holds most of the “forms” that the country was founded upon without any true leadership, statesmanship, or representation of the American people. I’m characterizing much of the population…flitting from one reality show to the next dose of Hollywood propaganda and paradigm shift labeled as “movies” and only loyal to the country as long as the handouts (labeled “entitlements”) keep flowing.
The formation of the Super-states…each with their spheres of influence in the novel…that formation is taking place now. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Romania have expelled Russian diplomats in-line with the U.S. actions. All those nations are heavily-invested in NATO militarily, with tremendous amounts received of American money, materials, and troops. Poland is purchasing U.S. missile and anti-missile systems. Romania already has a U.S. missile base.
Ukraine expelled Russian diplomats. Ukraine is a vassal state of the United States and the IMF. Most of the European nations such as the Netherlands (The Hague is there, go figure), Germany, France, Britain, Spain…followed suit. The battle right now is to see who will align with the U.S.-British Western hegemony [Oceania] against Russia and her allies (such as Iran, Syria, etc.) [Eurasia] with China being the “top banana” in the Orient [Eastasia]. The English-speaking countries will head the U.S.-British conglomerate…also including Canada and Australia…the former having participated in the expulsion.
It’s even deeper than the geographical and political distinctions paralleling “1984” when you examine it further. Little by little, as the U.S. becomes more repressive, more controlling, with a “nationalistic” bent driving the framework, the citizenry is becoming isolated. After World War I the United States pursued an isolationist policy, and the policy was reflected in the mindset of the citizens. This current isolation is one that is forced.
Oh, we’re building a wall to keep out the illegal aliens? Possibly, but look how late in the game it is. Look at how illegal incursions have taken place without any true resistance for more than a century unchecked and unabated. Why? To satisfy the U.S. corporations’ demands for cheap labor that could be off the books…and the government that turned a blind eye to it because of the taxable revenues made from the corporations. The taxes were paid, and kickbacks were undoubtedly delivered to government officials who managed to look the other way when faced with 100 illegal aliens working in the fields in front of their eyes. Everyone looked away, the corporations made profits, and everyone was happy.
The main reason to build the wall will not be to prevent illegal aliens from coming into the U.S., but to appear to prevent illegal aliens from coming in. That will be the main reason…subtly swathed in the name of the sacred “interests of national security” phrase we’ve all come to know and love. All the construction will be subject, of course, to taxation, kickbacks, and contracts to keep the flow of taxpayer monies moving out of their pockets and savings accounts into the hands of the rich and powerful. There is also another reason…purposed and insidious they wish the wall.
A wall will work in the opposite direction as well: to keep the taxpayer-serfs in.
Slowly but surely, a forced isolation policy is being pursued, and more: the ones traveling will be pursuing a government agenda in their endeavors and it will be limited to those with capital and wealth. We’re seeing it already: the new laws (Don’t you just love that? New laws?) that restrict those with a certain amount owed in taxes, in child support, or whatever…keep them in the country. How about that? The firms and corporations, and their employees…with the “trusted traveler” status…basically a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. Trusted to keep paying the taxes and conform to the existing social, political, and religious order…to be a “nark” on behalf of the government.
To be the “guy with the watch” in the movie “They Live,” selling out to the aliens.
All your communications are monitored: every e-mail, every telephone call. Talk to your friends in Moscow from college, and you’ll come up on a watch list. Talk to anyone outside of the U.S. and it’s a guarantee that you’ll be recorded and monitored. The new “Cloud Act” that slid surreptitiously between the thighs of the Omnibus $1.3 trillion spending bill (really…$1.3 trillion, can you imagine all the kickbacks on that one?). The harmless-sounding Cloud Act…giving foreign nations the ability to carry out U.S. government directives “in cooperation,” or “in partnership” …to surveil and monitor U.S. citizens and bypass the U.S. Constitution.
Marbury vs. Madison is extinct. Go ahead and take them to court, protest, and write to your Congressman or Senator (accomplishing nothing except identifying and marginalizing yourself). Your suit, your protests, and your letters will go nowhere…and eventually they’ll break you…and you’ll go somewhere…in the middle of nowhere…indefinitely (synonymous with forever). The need for a chargeable offense to arrest you is gone, along with the 4th Amendment…now you just need to be a “suspicious person” and be placed “under investigation.”
All of this is crafted to make the populations poorer, keep them monitored, and prevent them from interacting with one another as before. Limit their freedom of movement and therefore limit their freedom. This is happening in the other two “spheres of influence” as well. China has a Draconian police state where cameras and stoolies monitor and report every move of the people. China is the “model” (in the words of Kissinger and other globalist-Communists). The police in this country are becoming as the ones in China, with a capitalist agenda: To protect and serve the taxable, corporate entities, and oppress the common taxpayer.
This is the end-state desired by the creators of the Global Governance. They follow Milton’s words to a tee: “It is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.” They will have three spheres, just as in the novel “1984,” and keep the flames of ethnic difference fanned just enough to make War not an eventuality, but a managed, controllable event. War translates into industrial output, use of supplies and materials, and largesse that ends up “boomeranging” and turning into raises and bonuses for politicians (look at Congress “voting” themselves raises and bonuses in the Omnibus bill while simultaneously increasing the “defense” budget).
War enables favors, contracts, and immunity for oligarchs. A self-sustaining war machine that keeps the three spheres of influence at each other’s throats…while “managing” the people and tying them up in a never-ending loop of consumption, production, impoverishment, debt, and always directed by patriotic fervor.
In the end, the world will not notice its enslavement, because the generations capable of creative thought and reason will have been replaced by a stultified, obedient mass of humanity only capable of acting in a manner predetermined by the rulers. The world of “1984” is forming today. The Gulags are just around the corner. They’ll have “occupants” as soon as the time is right. Not at gunpoint. The people will enter the camps of their own accord, enslaved with the baits of entitlements and material conveniences. The world of “1984” was written about years ago, but it is upon us, now, and before we know it, we will be in it.
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.
This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.
Over the past 35 years, I’ve been showing how elements of the Brave New World are coming together.
Lately, I’ve been focusing on 5G wireless, the Internet of Things, gene-editing, and DNA-altering vaccines. We now have a very important piece of the puzzle: artificial embryos. A chilling prospect.
MIT Technology Review has the story: “In a breakthrough that redefines how life can be created, embryologists working at the University of Cambridge in the UK have grown realistic-looking mouse embryos using only stem cells. No egg. No sperm. Just cells plucked from another embryo.”
“The researchers placed the cells carefully in a three-dimensional scaffold and watched, fascinated, as they [the cells] started communicating and lining up into the distinctive bullet shape of a mouse embryo several days old.”
“’We know that stem cells are magical in their powerful potential of what they can do. We did not realize they could self-organize so beautifully or perfectly,’ Magdelena Zernicka¬-Goetz, who headed the team, told an interviewer at the time.”
Zernicka-Goetz says her ‘synthetic’ embryos probably couldn’t have grown into mice. Nonetheless, they’re a hint that soon we could have mammals born without an egg [or sperm] at all.”
“…The next step, she says, is to make an artificial embryo out of human stem cells, work that’s being pursued at the University of Michigan and Rockefeller University.”
“Synthetic human embryos would be a boon to scientists, letting them TEASE APART EVENTS early in development. And since such embryos start with easily manipulated stem cells, labs will be able to employ a full range of tools, such as GENE EDITING, to investigate them as they grow.” [Emphasis is mine.]
Do not doubt for a second that scientists will edit genes in these embryos, in order to see what fundamental changes they can make in human beings.
And do not doubt that, in a lab off the beaten track, researchers will try to bring a synthetic human embryo to term, as a living breathing baby.
The Technocrats’ Holy Grail? Engineered births without parents, without sex, without inherited traits—but instead, intentionally programmed traits.
In his 1932 novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley presented many portraits of the plan. For example:
By the time they were decanted the embryos had a horror of cold. They were predestined to emigrate to the tropics, to be miners and acetate silk spinners and steel workers. Later on their minds would be made to endorse the judgment of their bodies. ‘We condition them to thrive on heat,’ concluded Mr. Foster. ‘Our colleagues upstairs will teach [program] them to love it’.”
The underlying theme of the “new society”: create both the environment and the humans who inhabit the environment.
Technocracy is that system of systems. It cannot tolerate natural life or the free individual.
Which is why it must be rejected.
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Residents of several states across the US may soon have to register with the government and pay a fee to have the state grant them the "privilege" to view pornography online.
The post New Bill Will Force Citizens to Pay and Register With Gov’t to View Porn Online appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
This article was originally published by Uncola at TheTollOnline.com
Definition of UTOPIA
1: an imaginary and indefinitely remote place
2: a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions
3: an impractical scheme for social improvement
Definition of DYSTOPIA
1: an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives
2: literature: anti-utopia
Many Americans today would quite possibly consider Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” to be a utopia of sorts with its limitless drugs, guilt-free sex, perpetual entertainment and a genetically engineered society designed for maximum economic efficiency and social harmony. Conversely, most free people today would view Orwell’s “1984” as a dystopian nightmare, and shudder to contemplate the terrifying existence under the iron fist of “Big Brother”; the ubiquitous figurehead of a perfectly totalitarian government.
Although both men were of British descent, Huxley was nine years older than Orwell and published Brave New World in 1932, seventeen years before 1984 was released in 1949. Both books are widely considered classics and are included in the Modern Library’s top ten great novels of the twentieth century.
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley was born to academic parents and he was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, a famous biologist and an enthusiastic proponent of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution who was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”. Huxley’s own father had a well-equipped botanical laboratory where young Aldous began his education. Given the Huxley family’s appreciation for science, it makes perfect sense that Brave New World began in what is called the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” where human beings are artificially grown and genetically predestined into five societal castes consisting of: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.
Initially, the story centers on Bernard Marx, who is a slightly genetically flawed Alpha Plus psychologist with an inferiority complex due to his short stature. By the end of the novel, however, the protagonist becomes a boy named “John the Savage” who is the bastard child of the “Director of the Central London Hatchery”, and a lady named Linda, who naturally birthed John on a remote American Indian Reservation. When Bernard discovers the true identities of John and Linda, he arranges to fly them back to London in order to leverage his position with John’s biological father, the Hatchery Director.
Bernard is in love with a beautiful fetus technician named Lenina Crowne, who, upon meeting John the Savage falls madly in lust. Lenina is a gal who enjoys multiple lovers because, in the Brave New World, “everyone belongs to everyone else”. In other words, sexual promiscuity is encouraged as sort of a societal “pressure relief valve” designed to discourage negative emotions such as jealousy and envy. John the Savage, however, suppresses his sexual attraction to Lenina because he considers her a slut.
Eventually, John’s sexual repression contributes to him violently attacking some children of the Delta caste who were waiting in line for their “Soma”, a mood-altering drug; and the outburst causes both Bernard and John to be brought before the powerful Mustapha Mond, who is one of ten world controllers. A debate ensues between John and Mr. Mond who explains to the Savage that a stable society requires the controlled suppression of science, religion, and art. John, who is an avid admirer of William Shakespeare, argues that human life is not worth living without these things.
In Brave New World, the State achieves a harmonic equilibrium via the economic parity of production and consumption while utilizing Eugenics as a means to counterbalance the life and death of the citizens. Technology is employed as a means of control in lieu of any search for scientific, or spiritual, truth; as these are considered a threat to the established order. People are cloned in hatcheries in accordance to the needs of the State and trained into obedience through “Hypnopedia”, or sleep-teaching. Happiness is valued over dignity and morality, and emotions are regulated through the use of the drug, Soma, amid constant entertainment including superficial games and virtual reality venues called the “feelies”. Although there is no God or religion, per se, in Brave New World, Henry Ford is canonized in the place of a deity as a testament to corporate efficiency, assembly line production and rampant consumerism.
1984
Like Huxley, George Orwell also envisioned a future where government monitored and controlled every aspect of human life; yet the world is much more terrifying in 1984. Orwell actually volunteered and fought in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 before being injured by a sniper’s bullet in May of 1937; it was there where he witnessed, first-hand, the ghastly barbarism of political fascism. Moreover, he previously observed the rise of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and, later, Adolf Hitler in Germany. In turn, Orwell published Animal Farm in 1945 and four years later, his novel 1984, as literary warnings to mankind.
The setting of 1984 takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Great Britain which, at that time, was part of “Oceania”; one of three world super-states all engaged in never-ending warfare. The protagonist of the novel is Winston Smith, a middle-class member in the Outer Party of INGSOC, a totalitarian regime led by the figurehead known only as “Big Brother”.
Winston works in the Records Department of the “Ministry of Truth” where he revises history on behalf of the Party while under constant surveillance both at work and home. Everywhere he goes; there are posters with a photo of the party’s leader and the words: “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”. In an act of rebellion, Winston acquires a diary and begins to record what Big Brother and the INGSOC party would label as “crimethink” and “thoughtcrime”.
Eventually, Winston meets and falls in love with a beautiful coworker named Julia, and they engage in what they believe to be a secret affair whereby they have illicit sex as a form of political rebellion. In 1984, the Party members living in Oceania are brainwashed to have sex only for procreation and this is how sexual repression is channeled into enthusiasm for the State.
Under the threat of detection by the “Thought Police”, torture and even “vaporization”, which would eliminate every last vestige of proof he ever existed, Winston persists in his rebellion against the Party with certain fatalism. In fact, just before he and Julia are captured by the militant, jackbooted INGSOC Party authoritarians, Winston told Julia “we are the dead”; to which she replied the same words back to him.
Throughout Orwell’s dark narrative, various themes are explored such as “Newspeak” which is a language of mind control; the terrifying tyranny of totalitarianism; historical revisionism; torture, and psychological manipulation. The INGSOC Party’s prisonlike control and complete invasion of individual privacy is such that a citizen’s own facial expression could betray their inner disloyalty to the Party through what Orwell labeled as “crimeface”:
Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.
– Winston Smith, 1984, part 1, chapter 6
Orwell was near prophetic in describing the proliferation of listening devices in both public and private settings as well as “telescreens”, which simultaneously broadcast propaganda while relaying live video feeds back to the Party watchers. In Orwell’s chilling story, free will and individuality are sacrificed to the extreme demands of Collectivism and in deference to complete societal control by an authoritarian government.
Compared and Contrasted
In both, Brave New World and 1984, common themes are addressed including government, orthodoxy, social hierarchy, economics, love, sex, and power. Both books portray propaganda as a necessary tool of government to shape the collective minds of the citizenry within each respective society and towards the specific goals of the state; to wit, stability and continuity.
In Brave New World, The “Bureaux of Propaganda” shared a building with the “College of Emotional Engineering” and all media outlets including radio, television, and newspaper. Much of the brainwashing of the citizens in Huxley’s world included messaging to stay within their genetically predetermined castes or to encourage the daily use of the drug, Soma, in order to anesthetize emotional agitation:
a gramme in time saves nine
A gramme is better than a damn
One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments
When the individual feels, the community reels.
The “Ministry of Truth”, in 1984, also known as “minitrue” in Newspeak, served as the propaganda machine for Big Brother and the INGSOC regime. Although its main purpose was to rewrite history in order to realign it with Party doctrine and make the Party look infallible, the Ministry of Truth also promoted war hysteria in order to unite the citizens of Oceania while broadcasting simple messages designed to discourage any self-determination or autonomous thought.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
war is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength
Whereas the citizens of Brave New World used the drug Soma and cursory material distractions to vanquish any desire for real knowledge or truth; the “memory hole” in 1984 was a chute connected to an incinerator and served as the mechanism by which the Ministry of Truth would abolish historical archives as if they never existed.
In other words, truth was unimportant to the citizens of Brave New World and it was summarily rescinded from the realm of 1984.
Furthermore, in order to additionally fill the empty existence of those living in Brave New World, Huxley envisioned a character by the name of Helmholtz Watson as a creator of hypnopaedic phrases designed to fill the mental and emotional vacuum vacated by knowledge:
Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfuly glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides, they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta.
– BNW, Chapter 2, pg. 27
In 1984, however, Orwell conceived of a character named Syme, who was an enthusiastic Newspeak redactor of language:
It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.
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. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.
– Syme, 1984, part 1, chapter 5
In Brave New World, Helmholtz Watson worked to fill the mind of people with hypnotic messages. In 1984, Syme strived to remove words from the English language in order to eliminate what the Party considered to be “thoughtcrime”.
Although the methodologies varied, mind control was prevalent throughout both the fictional worlds of Huxley and Orwell.
Social hierarchies were also present in both futuristic novels. The citizens of Brave New World consisted of the Alpha caste which held the highest jobs in the world state, and Betas, who were allowed to interact with the Alphas. The Gamma’s were considered to have average intelligence, they were eight inches shorter than Alpha’s in height, and they maintained the office jobs and held administrative positions. The Delta’s were trained from a very young age to despise books and were conditioned to work in manufacturing, while the Epsilon caste members were considered as morons who performed the menial labor within the lowest strata of society.
Although 1984 doesn’t have a caste system, per se, the citizenry were still separated into three groups: the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles, or the proletariat. The Proles constituted 85% of the population and were allowed privacy and anonymity, yet they lived in extreme privation in pursuit of bread and circuses.
As the Party slogan put it: ‘Proles and animals are free.’
– ”1984”: part 1, chapter 7
Although both Inner and Outer Party members of 1984’s Oceania lived under constant surveillance, the members of the Inner party led lives of relative luxury compared to the middle-class lifestyle of those within the Outer Party. Additionally, the members of the Outer Party were denied sex, other than within marriage and for the sole purposes of procreation. They were also denied motorized transportation and were allowed cigarettes and gin as their only vices.
Governments of both Brave New World and 1984 also filtered information and propaganda in accordance to the class ranking of their citizens.
In Brave New World, the separate castes, except for the Epsilons who couldn’t read, received their own newspapers delivering specific propaganda for each class of society; whereas the INGSOC party members of 1984 were allowed newspapers and to view broadcasted reports of world news via their telescreens.
Even though there is no actual organized religion described in either book, there were deities endorsed by the government, primarily for economic reasons, and complete with mandated rigorous orthodoxies.
Again, the aforementioned god of Brave New World was called “Ford”, after Henry Ford, in celebration of his efficient assembly-line production of goods that was worshiped by both the overseers and citizenry of the world state.
In 1984, Big Brother served as the almighty “beginning and end”, creator, judge, grand architect and savior for the INGSOC party disciples.
In Huxley’s vision of the future, the higher power of consumerism guided the people; complete with memorized short phrases designed to encourage the replacement of material items in lieu of repairing them; and, those wearing older clothes were shamed into purchasing new apparel:
Ending is better than mending.
The more stitches, the less riches.
BNW, Chapter 3, pg. 49
Orwell, on the other hand, considered war as the means by which a collectivist oligarchy could maintain a hierarchical society by purging the excess production of material goods from the economy; thus, keeping the masses impoverished and ignorant by denying them the surplus “spare time” that is afforded via the convenience of modern technology:
The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.
— Emmanuel Goldstein, ”1984”: part 2, chapter 9
The futuristic societies envisioned by Huxley and Orwell, additionally, both discouraged romantic love, yet diverged on the subject of sex. As mentioned earlier, Brave New World treated sex as a “pressure relief valve” remaining constantly open in order to release any negative emotions like suspicion, distrust, jealousy, rage or envy. “Everyone belonged to everyone else”, so there was no need for secrets. Even children were encouraged to sexually experiment guilt free. Of course, sex was meant to be enjoyed only as a means of pleasure in Brave New World; as procreation was considered an anathema by the people and beneath the dignity of mankind.
In Orwell’s dark dystopia, however, promiscuous sex was encouraged among the proletariat and the Ministry of Truth even had a pornography division called “Pornosec”, which distributed obscene media for consumption by the Proles alone. Conversely, and also as mentioned prior, the members of the INGSOC party were required to abstain from sex; except for married couples attempting to procreate solely on behalf of the government.
In reading both books, it was also fascinating to see how both Huxley and Orwell painted their female protagonists, Lenina Crowne and Julia, respectively, as shallow nymphomaniacs.
Nevertheless, the procreative sterilized purity and casual sexual promiscuity of Brave New World along with 1984’s hierarchical rationing of sex, combined with the twisted morality of the INGSOC Party, represented the power of government invading into the most personal means of expression, and engenderment, between individuals of both worlds.
The concept of “everyone belongs to everyone else” in Brave New World allowed intimate acts to be considered merely as trivial recreation whereas the Party’s power over copulation in 1984, created a sense of fatalism within Winston and Julia as they made love knowing they were “the dead”.
In spite of any differences, both scenarios were the end result of extreme philosophical collectivism manifested into distorted and perverse destinies of speculative, future populations.
The Future is Now
For reasons described heretofore, many might consider Brave New World to be a utopian dream. In the context of individual autonomy, however, as well as the pursuit of truth, the opportunity for personal self-actualization, the dilemma of ethical considerations and the governmental dispensation of immoral law; Huxley’s vision of the future removes the lid of a veritable Pandora’s Box of questions. In reality, the societal structure as delineated in Brave New World would greatly resemble what could be called a “prison of pleasure” and, perhaps, even a “penitentiary of profligate practicality”.
Applying the same philosophical critique of 1984, and in similar fashion, Orwell’s nation-state of Oceana would be considered as a bona fide dystopian “prison of fear”.
As a matter of fact, both societies portray prisons of man’s own making, formed by governments following their own directions toward their respective future destinations. To say it another way: The road to hell is actually paved with bad intentions. As the Inner Party member (and administrator of torture), “Obrien”, admitted to Winston Smith in Room 101 of The Ministry of Love:
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
– Obrien, ”1984”: part 3, chapter 3
Both power structures in Brave New World and 1984 chose to diminish individual rights in order to achieve societal stability. To the governments of both super-states, their citizens were considered as mere “means to an end”; namely, the continuation of power.
Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. 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. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. 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. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that.
– Obrien, ”1984”: part 3, chapter 3
This is a perfect description of mankind striving to be as gods; an attempt to create metaphysical law from carnal desire. Foregone were the virtues of mercy, humility, temperance, autonomy, self-reliance, and restraint.
Mustapha Mond, one of ten world controllers in Brave New World and the evil Obrien of 1984’s nation of Oceana, both knew what they were doing. They were fully conscious in order to exert complete control and ensure the continuation of their respective, fictional nation-states.
But, could this type of power consolidation occur in the real (non-literary) world?
To answer that question one only needs to study history then, go turn on all of the various “telescreens” in their private homes: Televisions, smartphones, tablets, lap-taps and desktop computers. Tyrannical regimes have been centralizing and fortifying ramparts of power from the time man first crushed grapes. And, obviously, as the exiled enemy of the State, Edward Snowden, has revealed, modernity is no antiserum to the cancerous systematization of power.
When considering the prosperous technological paradise of Brave New World, where the societal elite had unrestricted access to intercontinental transportation and private helicopters; where even the lower classes enjoyed pampered lives of perennial comfort, ceaseless entertainment, and eternal recreation; as compared to the dingy, post-apocalyptically war-torn, third-world existence of 1984; it becomes difficult not to view both Huxley and Orwell as prophets.
Indeed, both futures have come to pass and are merely economically separated and dispersed into diverse geographic locations.
Today, it is the westernized cultures of the world, including Asian nations like Japan and South Korea, that more closely resemble Brave New World, whereas vestiges of 1984 can be seen in the eastern bloc communist countries, China, North Korea and the Islamic societies of the middle-east.
Although Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of Capitalism had created a rising economic tide that lifted many boats; much of the world’s population still languishes in squalor and will never rise from the muck.
Moreover, even the modernized nations today have sacrificed individual freedom upon the altar of Collectivism as political correctness stifles free speech; families suffocate beneath mountains of debt and United Nations Agenda 21 policies release a deluge of regulations causing extra-governmental autonomous innovation to collapse before the inexorable, gravitational pull of the hive-mind.
Corporations like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Apple have become the eyes and ears of Big Brother who is always watching, and ever listening.
To the sounds of mouse-clicks, once free people have “accepted” the “terms” of their surrender and have forfeited their liberty in the name of convenience. Like buzzing insects, the citizens of modern societies are caught in silicon honey traps mortgaged with plastic and electronically powered via USB cable nooses wrapped tightly around their collective throats.
The Technocratic Powers That Be wield weapons far more powerful than any time prior in history and soon, people will wake up to realize the electronic buzzing sound ringing in their ears was not emanating from their own wings, but rather, it was merely the sound of drones over their heads.
Like in Brave New World, science now rules supreme over ethics as medical professionals sell fetus organs to advance the cause of genetic research. The United States currently leads the world in illegal drug use and consumes near all of the global opioid supply; according to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy:
In most countries, the use of opioid prescriptions is limited to acute hospitalization and trauma, such as burns, surgery, childbirth and end-of-life care, including patients with cancer and terminal illnesses. But in the United States, every adult in America can have “a bottle of pills and then some.
Just as 1984’s Ministry of Truth purveyed pornography to the Proles, statistics show at least 35% of all internet downloads and at least 30% of all data transferred across the internet are porn-related. Also similar to Huxley’s Brave New World, sex runs rampant throughout the modernized nations as cases of sexually transmitted disease have reached a record high in the United States.
In correlation to the ever-expanding gulf between rich and poor, strict adherence to orthodoxy now determines how high one can rise in the societies of the westernized nations, as political correctness defines the faith of the pantheistic disciples of Mother Earth in the form of Gaia worship; and social hierarchy is increasingly determined via the identity politics of the collectivist left. The American body politic has now witnessed the rise of the warrior cop and the militarization of domestic law enforcement, as interminable wars are eternally fought on foreign shores and sovereign nations are bombed under false pretense.
Even 1984’s “Victory Gin” has manifested in the form Russian Vodka within the eastern nations, as Oceania’s type of man-made orthodoxy silently drowns the human spirit in devastating despair, while contorted moralities overtake both the Christian and Islamic societies of the modern age.
Orwell defined “doublethink” as:
the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them
— Emmanuel Goldstein, ”1984”: part 2, chapter 9
Only in wealthy westernized nations do billionaires own multiple mansions, fly private jets and ride in eight-cylinder limousines to climate-change conferences where policies are decreed to lower the carbon footprint of the proletariat. Only in wealthy westernized nations, do ever-increasing numbers of women consider white men to be pigs while simultaneously striving to be their equals. And, only in the wealthy Christian nations of the northern hemisphere will citizens support a women’s right to third-trimester abortions, while rigorously and righteously battling for legislation to save endangered dung beetles.
Throughout Islamic societies, drinking alcohol and gambling is forbidden, but the governments and their citizens gladly tolerate canings, whippings, lashings, honor killings, suicide attacks, and the genital mutilation of young girls.
This does NOT prevent, however, the citizens of the wealthy Christian nations in the West to welcome with open arms, and in the name of “tolerance”, the pervading flood of Islamic immigrants.
The writings of Huxley and Orwell resonate by the echoes of history, over the canyons of time, and to the very cliff upon where mankind now stands. Propaganda daily spews via the machinations of five corporations which control 90% of all mainstream media channels. These companies toe the war-party line and wield their great powers of disinformation to contort facts or even censor the failures of the politicians whom they favor while, simultaneously, attacking their political enemies with lies and innuendo; even to the point of creating a phony election hacking narrative to satisfy their radioactive lust for war with nuclear powered enemies.
Even the characters of both Brave New World and 1984 are resonant of familiar archetypes from days gone by. Brave New World portrayed the character Bernard Marx as being short like Hitler, with a small man’s inferiority complex and complete with the surname of Karl Marx, the eponymous founder of Marxism.
The noble sounding Lenina Crowne’s name contains the surname of Vladimir Lenin, and Orwell’s portrayal of Julia does not seem overly diverse from former President’s Obama’s vision of “The Life of Julia”. Even the mustachioed, evil-eyed Big Brother from 1984’s dystopian nation of Oceana, looks eerily similar to just about every other tin-pot dictator who ever walked the earth.
Art imitating life? Indeed.
Yet the irony fails to impress America’s young social justice warriors of the Millennial generation who have been raised on a steady diet of socialism, political correctness, and participation trophies; a far cry from the rugged individualists of previous American generations. In the 2016 U.S. Democratic Party Primaries, and with the same sense of vague dissatisfaction as exhibited by Huxley’s Bernard Marx, millions upon millions of rainbow worshipping Snowflakes, old and young alike, turned out in force to show their support for another Bernard: Bernard Sanders, a redistributionist of the line of Robin Hood who, in the spirit of Santa Claus, offered free college educations to all of Uncle Sam’s children.
Sadly, Big Brother is here to stay and, with time, he will only grow more bigly; regardless of any transitory elected politicians in the governments of the world’s “sovereign” nations today.
Although Aldous Huxley and George Orwell valiantly spun fictional narratives in order to warn the real world’s future citizens, they were not alone in their efforts.
On January 17, 1961, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of an ever-encroaching “Military Industrial Complex” in his farewell address to the nation:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Exactly 100 days after Ike’s farewell, on April 27, 1961, John F. Kennedy spoke before the American Newspaper Publishers Association in an address that later became known as his “Secret Society” speech. In that address, he stated the following:
For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence: on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed– and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.
Thirty months after that speech, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Many people consider Kennedy to have been the last American president not controlled by a financial global elite hell bent on world domination.
In one of the twentieth century’s minor ironies, Aldous Huxley died on the very same day that John F. Kennedy was killed. It was also the exact day C.S. Lewis, the British author, and Christian apologist, passed from this earth.
Coincidence? Only God knows.
Regardless, by 1984 all had been forgotten; and, in a Brave New World, none of it really matters anyway.
Trump"s nomination for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is an outspoken proponent for putting magnetic strips in physical cash so the government can track its movement and tax it.
The post Trump’s Federal Reserve Pick Wants to Put Metal Chips in Cash to Track Every Dollar and Tax It appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Welcome to the Ministry of Truth a la 1984.
(Las Vegas Review Journal) – August 15, 2017 –
Justice is blind, objective and impartial — unless U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro sits on the bench. With her thumb heavy on the scale of justice, the defendants being retried for their participation in the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville have little chance of acquittal.
In their first trial, jurors deadlocked on all counts involving these men. Their defense focused on First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, as well as Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. Before the current trial commenced, Judge Navarro barred the defendants from using these constitutional rights in their defense. Evidently, this defense was compelling.
The prosecutor in this retrial knows the defense strategy and can prosecute accordingly. Usually the prosecution prevails in retrials. Does Judge Navarro doubt the ability of U.S. Attorney Steve Myhre to overcome this defense?
The term “kangaroo court” comes to mind. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the defendant a “process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.” Judge Navarro’s rulings violate this protection. As defendant Eric Parker testifies on his own behalf, he cannot reference his constitutional rights or strong “witnesses in his favor.” Previously, she prohibited Mr. Parker from referencing anything negative to law enforcement and had his testimony stricken from the record when he used the word “sniper” to describe the scene.
Additionally, four witnesses to the standoff offered testimony via Skype, and the judge decreed that the jurors will not hear it. The jurors hear only what Big Brother permits.
Mr. Parker cannot defend himself. He was present at the standoff, armed and consequently guilty of interfering with the government’s roundup of cattle on public land. His motives and intents and rights do not matter. No one was injured. In fact, no shots were fired.
This trial is a sham. There is no impartial justice. Welcome to the Ministry of Truth a la 1984.
.
By Linda Goudsmit July 5, 2017
George Orwell introduced the language of doublespeak in his dystopian novel “1984” published in 1949. Doublespeak is the language of opposites. Up is down and down is up.
The word doublespeak derives from two Orwellian words “doublethink” and “newspeak.” Doublethink is when a person accepts two mutually contradictory thoughts as correct without being aware or troubled by the glaring contradiction between them. Doublethink statements like “war is peace” “freedom is slavery” “ignorance is strength” are made without discomfort. Newspeak is a method of controlling thought through language – it is the language of fake news. Doublespeak combines doublethink and newspeak in language that deliberately obscures, distorts, disguises, or reverses the meaning of words to manipulate public opinion in a mass social engineering effort.
Orwellian doublespeak is the language of the hard Left leading a coup against Western democracies and their national sovereignty. Barack Obama spoke doublespeak when he promised hope and change. Obama deliberately obscured and disguised his hope for changing American democracy into socialism. Most Americans understood hope and change to mean a better life and the realization of the American dream – a hope to improve our democracy not to destroy it.
The left-wing liberal agenda seeks to destroy the socio-political infrastructure of American democracy and transform it into a dependent socialist state with cradle to grave control by the government. Their strategy of destruction is to target the traditional American institutions of family, religion, and education that promote independence, adulthood, individualism, and ego strength – the qualities that made America great and support American democracy and sovereignty.
The 21st century Leftist progressives speak doublespeak – their “progressive” narrative is entirely regressive.
The regressive infantile impulses and temper tantrums exhibited by left-wing liberals today cannot seriously be called “progressive” except by double-speaking Leftists who believe that going backwards is going forward. REGRESSIVE is the accurate word for the infantile behavior and impulses that inform the “progressive” Left. Safe spaces, Play-Doh and counseling for disappointment, segregated black-only lounges are all regressive demands of an increasingly regressed population.
To understand why the progressives speak doublespeak, their goals, who benefits, and the purpose of relabeling up as down and down as up it is necessary to translate doublespeak into colloquial English.
In an effort to translate the language of doublespeak a glossary with explanations is helpful. The glossary will decode the disingenuous Doublespeak of the radical left-wing liberals broadcast incessantly by the colluding mainstream media, taught in the infiltrated educational curricula, and dramatized by the Hollywood gliteratti and television programming in the entertainment industry. There is no informed consent in a society of lies and propaganda. If American democracy is to be preserved it is essential that an informed citizenry understand how they are being indoctrinated toward socialism by a deliberate program of propaganda and doublespeak.
Diversity is a word that refers to variety. It has an inclusive connotation and in a social context means the inclusion of multiple races and ethnicities – black, white, Asian, Hispanic etc. For Leftists, what the word does not include is any variation in thought. Leftist diversity only extends as far as appearances – it does not tolerate any variety of opinions. Leftism is tyrannical in its demands for conformity to its politically correct left-wing narrative of moral relativism and historical revisionism it does not include any conservative opinions or ideas.
Education is the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction especially at a school or university. In a democracy public education is “inclusive, both in its treatment of students and in that enfranchisement for the government of public education is as broad as for government generally. It is often organized and operated to be a deliberate model of the civil community in which it functions.” – Wikipedia
Education in America has been commandeered by left-wing liberals and is now a vehicle for indoctrinating American youth from K-12 and throughout college. Conservative voices are no longer welcome in education. What was once a traditional American education of core subjects and pride in American democratic ideals has been transformed into an echo chamber of Leftist propaganda promoting globalism, socialism, American self-loathing, political correctness, moral relativism, and historical revisionism.
Freedom of speech is the foundation for democracy. Without freedom of speech there is no other freedom which is why tyrants always eliminate freedom of speech first. Leftists in America are determined to eliminate freedom of speech by enforcing their own code of political correctness which labels any opposing speech as hate speech. Speakers with conservative points of view are disinvited or intimidated through organized boycotts and violent protests. It is unAmerican to disallow the expression of opposing views but Leftists are tyrannical in their demand for conformity to their approved rhetoric.
Globalism is defined as the operation or planning of economic and foreign policy on a global basis. Globalism commonly refers to international trade among nations. Leftists seek to internationalize the world and are not using the word globalism to mean global trade. When Leftists say globalism they mean one-world government – their intention is to eliminate national boundaries, national sovereignty, and impose one-world government. The irony is that Leftists do not realize they are participating in their own destruction because the globalist elite who will rule the new world order consider the Leftists to be useful idiots.
In 1992 UN scientists on The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated: “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.” Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on June 24, 2014 that:
“Extremely likely” is not a scientific term but rather a judgment, as in a court of law. The IPCC defines “extremely likely” as a ‘95-100% probability.’ But upon further examination it is clear that these numbers are not the result of any mathematical calculation or statistical analysis. They have been ‘invented’ as a construct within the IPCC report to express ‘expert judgment,’ as determined by the IPCC contributors.”
Climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on industrialized countries to transfer their wealth to non-industrialized countries. The United Nations is committed to globalization and one-world government and is supported worldwide by Leftists with the same objective.
Resistance is the refusal to accept or comply with something. In a democracy there are laws and elections designed for citizens to legally and peacefully express their discontent at the voting booth. When Leftists speak of resistance they are fomenting the overthrow of the government.
In Doublespeak tolerance is synonymous with intolerance – the opposite of tolerance. It is exclusively awarded to those who LOOK differently and withheld from those who THINK differently. Leftists tolerate differences in race, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status but are extremely intolerant of differences of opinion.
Read more at Canada Free Press: http://canadafreepress.com/article/orwells-doublespeak-the-language-of-the-left
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(ANTIMEDIA) As team Trump gears up to welcome the Chinese president at the end of the week — and as it’s forced to deal with a profound piece of anti-government vandalism burned into a Donald Trump property — nearly 200 theaters around the world simultaneously screened the film version of Orwell’s 1984 on Tuesday.
“This is really designed to get people to be talking and discussing and active in the political conversation that is happening in America right now – and throughout the world, it turns out,” Dylan Skolnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island, told Al Jazeera.
Looking for a creative way to express opposition to the Trump administration, he, along with Adam Birnbaum of the Avon Theatre Film Centre in Connecticut, came up with the idea after the election.
Dubbed “National Screening Day,” over 190 theaters are participating. Most are in the U.S., but movie houses in Canada, the U.K., Sweden, and Croatia are also taking part.
Skolnick says he could think of no better film than the cinematic version of the classic dystopian masterpiece for the project. Bringing to mind Trump’s “fake news” obsession and his penchant for blustery diplomatic commentary, Skolnick told Al Jazeera:
“In particular, this undermining of the concept of facts and the demonization of foreign enemies really resonate in 1984.”
Echoing a warning found throughout much of alternative media, Skolnick suggests that when it comes to potential dystopian scenarios, the time to sit up and take notice of what’s happening around us is now.
“No one is suggesting that we’re living in Orwell’s world,” he said. “But the road to that world is people just becoming disengaged and allowing their government to do whatever it wants.”
READ NEXT: 10 George Orwell Quotes that Predicted Life in 2017 America
Hurst, TX — For decades, in dystopian fictions, readers and watchers alike are very familiar with the idea of state-run drones spying on the entrapped population. Luckily, however, the scenes of drones chasing down or spying on those who dare dissent against authority have been restricted to fantasy — until now.
When Texas resident Bobbie Sanchez walked out in her backyard last week, the last thing she thought she’d see was a drone — hovering — watching her kids.
“Mommy there’s a drone over our roof,” said her children.
According to Sanchez, the drone hovered there long enough for her to take multiple photos and to call the police for help.
However, when Sanchez called the Hurst police department to inform them a drone was spying on her children, the Hurst police department said it was them.
“They’re watching my children play in the backyard,” said Sanchez. “I called the Hurst Police Department and was pretty surprised to hear that it was them.”
According to NBC DFW, Hurst police and fire started using drones earlier this year. They said the day they were over Sanchez’s yard was a training exercise.
The department claimed that the day they were over Sanchez’s yard, they were conducting ‘a training exercise.’
Training, in the land of the free, now involves police officers stripping citizens of their privacy and creepily watching their kids.
Dystopian, indeed.
After being caught spying on children, the department now promises that they will tighten down on when and where the drones will be deployed.
“We will not be doing any type of training exercises over houses and things like that,” said Hurst Police Assistant Chief Steve Niekamp.
READ MORE: Maryland Man Snaps, Uses Dump Truck to Demolish Two Police Cars
According to Niekamp, the department’s drones will now only launch of crime scenes, accident scenes, to find a suspect, an active shooter, or a missing person. The fire department may also use them to strategize on fighting fires.
“We’re working for our citizens, if they have concerns then we definitely need to address it,” said Niekamp in an obvious understatement.
When Sanchez’ neighbors got news of the drone they were outraged, naturally.
“It might be legal but it’s still creepy to think that police can be saying that they’re training or looking for a criminal and still be looking at you in your backyard,” said neighbor Casey Byrnes.
Others told NBC DFW that they feel betrayed and that their trust in police is damaged.
In a truly liberty-loving tone, Sanchez stated, “I am not a person who will give up privacy for safety.”
The use of drones in policing is a slippery slope. While fears of active shooters and missing children will be used to justify them, if history is any indicator, these drones will ultimately be used to further deteriorate what little semblance of privacy left in America.
Also, guns.
As the Free Thought Project reported last week, Connecticut may be the first state in the country to allow police officers to put deadly weapons on drones. Some states have discussed equipping drones with tasers but this is the first proposal to arm them with deadly weapons. What could possibly go wrong?
The good news is, in a recent ruling, a Kentucky man has prevailed in a lawsuit he faced over shooting down a drone that entered his property.
READ MORE: DEA Flakes on Promise to Reschedule Cannabis, Instead Calls Pot Growers "The New Meth Labs"
William Meredith became known as the “drone slayer” in 2015, after he used a shotgun to dismantle a drone operated by David Boggs, that he says was flying over his property in front of himself and his daughter. Meredith initially faced felony charges of endangerment and criminal mischief for shooting down the drone. The criminal charges were dismissed by Judge Rebecca Ward in Bullitt County District Court, citing recollections from witnesses who said that the drone was flying under the tree line. Ward also said that Meredith was within his rights to shoot down the drone.
According to Meredith, that drone, like the police drone in Hurst — was also watching his children.
However, we shouldn’t rely on this case to hold up against the blue privilege associated with shooting down ‘official police property’ — even if it is watching your kids in your own backyard.
Edina, MN — An Orwellian precedent is underway just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which could be the downfall of internet freedom as we know it. Police in Edina, MN, have been granted a warrant requiring Google to determine everyone in an entire city who has used its search engine to look up a specific term and identify them to authorities.
The case doesn’t involve some massive terror plot to destroy an entire city or a high-level child trafficking ring. It is for a wire-fraud crime — worth less than $30,000. However, if Google caves to the warrant, it could set off a precedent that will undoubtedly be used by police across the country.
According to Ars Technica, investigators are focusing their probe on an online photo of someone with the same name of a local financial fraud victim. The image turned up on a fake passport used to trick a credit union to fraudulently transfer $28,500 out of an Edina man’s account, police said. The bogus passport was faxed to the credit union using a spoofed phone number to mimic the victim’s phone, according to the warrant application.
According to the warrant, Google must help police determine who searched for variations of the victim’s name between December 1 of last year through January 7, 2017.
The ominously worded warrant makes some chilling demands — all over a small fraud case.
A Google search, the warrant application says, as reported by Ars Technica, reveals the photo used on the bogus passport. The image was not rendered on Yahoo or Bing, according to the documents. The warrant commands Google to divulge “any/all user or subscriber information”—including e-mail addresses, payment information, MAC addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, and IP addresses—of anybody who conducted a search for the victim’s name.
READ MORE: Police Chief Shot an Unarmed Man and Actually Went to Trial for It, Judge Declares Mistrial
Independent journalist and public records activist, Tony Webster discovered the warrant and posted photos of it online. He has also expressed the grave reality surrounding such broad and sweeping dragnets — and their ability to sweep up innocent people in the process.
According to Webster:
But search warrants require supporting probable cause, not just mere suspicion or theory. For that reason, “anyone-who-accessed” search warrants like Detective Lindman’s can be risky to execute, as evidence could potentially be thrown out in a pretrial motion. Moreover, it’s possible that such a wide net could catch completely routine and non-criminal searches of the victim’s name by neighbors, prospective employers or business associates, journalists, or friends.
Could this type of search warrant be used to wrongly ensnare innocent people? If Google were to provide personal information on anyone who Googled the victim’s name, would Edina Police raid their homes, or would they first do further investigative work? The question is: what comes next? If you bought a pressure cooker on Amazon a month before the Boston bombing, do police get to know about it?
Holy shit. Case name should be In re Minnesota Unconstitutional General Warrant. Nice job unearthing @webster https://t.co/lGUd6s32dt
— Andrew Crocker (@agcrocker) March 16, 2017
Prior to the actual warrant, Edina police sent Google an administrative subpoena “requesting subscriber information for anyone who had performed a Google search” for the victim’s name. However, according to the documents posted by Webster, Google easily refused to comply with that order as it does not have a judge’s signature.
However, after Google balked at complying, authorities pushed back even harder.
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“Though Google’s rejection of the administrative subpoena is arguable, your affiant is applying for this warrant so that the investigation of this case does not stall,” officer David Lindman wrote the judge in the warrant application.
The good news is that Google, while they declined to specifically address the warrant, appears to be fighting it.
“We aren’t able to comment on specific cases, but we will always push back when we receive excessively broad requests for data about our users,” Google said in an e-mail to Ars.
If Google does comply with this order, the implications for what comes next are shocking, to say the least. Political activists, peaceful anti-establishment folks, and any generally but peaceful subversive individual could be identified and rounded up through this process. If ever there was a time to change your habits and begin using startpage.com, it is now.
As the Free Thought Project has previously reported, Google maintains a record of not only your entire search history but also your browsing history and voice recordings of all sounds associated before and after you say the words, “Okay Google.”
If you would like to know how to find out what Google has on you, how to stop it, and how to clear all of your data from their database, you can do so by clicking this link.
