1984

Have I commented on this before?

This summer I read the novel 1984 for the first time.

Some recent discoveries made me revisit it again, this time via Netflix (I tried to pick up the DVD but it is hard to find for any decent price!), as I watched the movie version. What can I say, this is a very faithful adaptation of the book. But mostly it got me thinking of current events.

Granted, 1984 marks the extreme in government manipulation, but with how the press is supposed to be free, and in an essence a check on the government, how the media is giving a pass on events that are happening right now. I don't know the full details to the global warming emails, showing that a lot of the data pertaining to global warming shows that it has been misrepresented to make it look worse then it is. Is this not manipulation of the facts by the government and otehr agencies in an effort to control the people? Cap and Trade comes to mind, the bill that's stalled in congress as of present.

Not to say that Republicans are exempt, the Patriot Act is a bit orwellian as well come to think of it, and I can see why some people are so opposed to it. Every government program may have good intentions behind it, but that program in time will become corrupt. Look at the Department of Homeland Security. It started as a very conservative idea, to secure our country against foreign threats, but now that Janet Napolitano is head of it, she's painted a broad stroke of possible terrorist suspects that falls under conservative ideals, and as far as I know, since that report we have had one guy shoot an abortionist? Meanwhile, we have extremists attacking our troops both on the inside and out.

Fortunately, i don't think things will ever be depicted as they are shown in 1984, at least, not in the US, we're to independant for that. But you can see in levels of the government that people in power are trying to get control over the people, and they start by taking away their freedoms and providing them with what they need. One of the reasons why I'm opposed to government providing me much of anything. There are only a certain things a government should do, but that's another blog post.

Back to 1984 itself, watching it I discovered a few things that it mentions from the book that I missed the first time I read it. If you haven't read it in a while, I would highly recommend checking this book out.

And remember, we've always been at war with Eastasia.