Revisiting an old friend, thirty five years later.

[MadHound]

For a variety of reasons I picked up a new copy of George Orwell's "1984" last week. I hadn't read it since I was fifteen, and thought that it was well worth re-reading at this point, for a variety of reasons.

I once again found it to be a fine prescient piece of work, but one particular chapter struck me, namely Chapter 3 of the Brotherhood book that Winston received. A relevant snip follows:

"But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction-indeed, in some sense was the destruction-of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motorcar or even airplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction. It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged cast. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. for if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."

snip

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. 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. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labor power without producing anything that can be consumed. . .
In principle the war effort is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population."

Orwell brilliantly caught on to what the purpose of modern warfare is all about, namely to continue to keep the old, hierarchical power structure in place in this country. Instead of all that surplus economic production going towards the betterment of all of us, via war, all of that economic production is shifted up the socioeconomical ladder, and thus keeping the wealthy and powerful in their pinnacle position.

That is why these illegal, immoral wars, in Libya, in Iraq, in Afghanistan are going to ultimately contribute to the downfall of our society. That is why those other one hundred and fifty odd wars, military actions, excursions, what have you, have brought us to the low point that we're currently at. And in the end, it is war which will kill our country, our society.

This is why we need to end these wars. Not just because they are illegal and immoral, but if for no other reason that simple self preservation. The wealthy and power elite in this country have the money and resources to flee the US when it collapses, the rest of us do not. Thus, we should work towards ending our military adventures in order to prevent this country's collapse, otherwise we're all SOL.

[tabatha]

1. We need to end the manufacture of armaments.

And instead of blowing up our precious environment, we should try a better way of resolving conflicts.

Although I am 100% behind the rebels, I shudder every time I see the muck and mess of armaments that blow up and destroy land and people.

[luv_mykatz]

2. +100,000,000!

K & R!!!!!!!!!!!!

[snagglepuss]

3. Hear. Hear. Brilliant post. I read 1984 years ago in HS and clearly not everything

sunk in. Very insightful. Thanks for posting.



Bookmarked.