My headline today is a little misleading. There’s nothing “creeping” about the UCP government’s fascism – they’re practically steamrolling the province with it right now. However, in the last 24 hours I’ve seen two things that really concern me. The first of these is a motion that I consider deeply
Continue readingTag: 1984
Writings of J. Todd Ring: Covid-1984: The Worst Of Both Worlds
With covid-1984, which is a virus that is statistically as dangerous as the common flu, we have taken extreme, draconian, authoritarian measures. In short, we have dangerously and vastly over-reacted, and in doing so, we have combined the worst of both worlds: medieval and modern. If we’re going to go
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Welcome To The Brave New World
Speaking of censorious scrupulosity…. While censorship is rising rapidly, with Google, Facebook and Twitter, as well as the major media, controlling and restricting what people can see or read, say or share; Facebook is now blocking me from posting my own essays from my blog to my Farcebook page. Welcome
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Cheery Monday Reading – 2084 Orwell Revisited – Tom Engelhardt
Ever get that feeling of being a leaf in the wind? It is the state of the world that makes me not want to care about what’s going on because it is so overwhelming. Tom Engelhardt from Tom’s Dispatch compares the current dystopia with withe one portrayed in 1984. “Unfortunately,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: George Orwell Meets Rudy Giuliani
“Truth isn’t truth,” proclaims the increasingly zany and demented uncle known as Rudy Giuliani. Start at the 1:20 mark to take the full measure of the man, the man he represents, and the fulfillment of George Orwell’s direst warnings: Recommend this Post
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Trumpland: 1984 or Brave New World?
It's fashionable to compare to Donald Trump to Big Brother in Orwell's 1984. And there are some disturbing similarities. President Trump on Friday moved to chisel away at the Obama administration’s legacy on financial regulation, announcing steps to revisit the rules enacted after the 2008 financial crisis and to back away from
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Very Timely Reminder
In 1984, the Enemy of the State was the elusive Emmanuel Goldstein, likely a contrived figure upon whom the masses could hurl their hatred, while Big Brother, the real enemy, surveilled and controlled the masses. In the noir world of Trumpland, it appears the first of what will likely be
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Trap of Identity Politics
Smells like 1984… “Identity has become the axis of so much university activism because, for all the radical posturing associated with it, identity politics does not threaten the established order of society. It promotes a moralistic and self-indulgent anti-politics, where a person’s use of language and the purity of their
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Winston Smith – Alive And Well At The CBC?
You may recall the protagonist of Orwell’s 1984, the records clerk named Winston Smith whose job it was to continually rewrite history so that it accorded with the constantly-changing imperatives of Big Brother’s government. The novel’s ending is ambiguous; Winston, a broken man, may or may not die. I am
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – Nick Kristof writes that the growing gap in income reflects a similarly growing gap in social perception – and that there’s plenty of need to reduce both: There is an income gap in America, but just as important is a compassion gap. Plenty
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Big Brother’s power is building, warns George Orwell biographer
Mankind, like the proverbial lobster in the pot, is becoming conditioned to losing rights and freedoms at an alarming rate. ‘Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning. He felt that if someone didn’t sound the alarm loudly enough, eventually a lot of the freedoms he cherished would be lost. -’CBC News
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Doublespeak Watch: Kent, environmentalists & “money laundering”
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive | Mar 7, 2013: The Harper Government is increasingly using doublespeak to stifle the democratic conversation on the issues of our time, including: the Alberta tar sands. It’s quite possible that this government has studied Joseph Goebbels. First, let’s take a look at the one where Stephen Harper’s environment Minister, Peter Kent, bizarrely accused environmental groups
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Stephen Harper’s Canada is reminiscent of Orwell’s Nightmarish “1984″ World
By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 18, 2013: Allan Gregg, a prominent media commentator, chairperson of polling firm Harris/Decima, and strategist for the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney, says Stephen Harper‘s Canada is reminiscent of Orwell’s nightmarish “1984” world. So he said in an impassioned delivered at Carleton University on September 5, 2012.
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Canadians to Conservative MP Kelly Block: We Disagree With Racism
by Obert Madondo (@Obiemad) In Canada we hardly confront racism by political figures. As a consequence, Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s government and Conservative MPs are having a field day practicing racism and creating resentment towards minority groups dominated by persons of color. Earlier this year, Harper’s immigrant-bashing minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Move along, nothing to see here
And certainly no reason for worry about this afterthought as the Cons decide which immigrants they’d like to throw out of Canada on their respective ears (or prevent from arriving): And there are another 2,500 people who, for various reasons, have prompted the concern of the government. Mr. Kenney said
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Assault on Reason
Yesterday I wrote a post on the important role education plays in the development of critical thinking skills, skills that are crucial for anyone who aspires to being something more than a puppet of government and corporate propaganda. Unfortunately, as I noted, current education reforms under consideration in Ontario will
Continue readingTrashy's World: George Orwell’s 1984…
… was supposed to be a warning about police states. Not an instruction manual on how to set one up! The Canadian Border Services Agency told The Ottawa Citizen that unidentified sites at airports and borders are already equipped with audio-video monitoring to boost security. The audio technology, though installed,
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Orthodoxy is unconsciousness
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive … Continue reading →
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