{"id":191152,"date":"2019-07-07T09:16:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T09:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=191152"},"modified":"2019-07-11T06:25:03","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T06:25:03","slug":"when-the-clocks-strike-thirteen-daily-life-in-the-orwellian-dystopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=191152","title":{"rendered":"When the Clocks Strike Thirteen \u2014 Daily Life In the Orwellian Dystopia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Bridge \u2013 RT<\/h1>\n

Abridged by Lasha Darkmoon \u2013 Darkmoon July 6, 2019<\/em><\/strong>
\nwith added pictures and captions, video,<\/em><\/strong>
\nand an editorial endnote on \u2018The Rat Torture\u2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing\u2026. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals \u2014 DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>\u2014 George Orwell, 1984, Ch. 1<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n

————–<\/p>\n

70 years ago, the British writer George Orwell captured the essence of technology in its ability to shape our destinies in his seminal work, <\/strong>Nineteen Eighty-four<\/strong><\/em> [1984]. The tragedy of our times is that we have failed to heed his warning. No matter how many times I read <\/strong>1984<\/strong><\/em>, the feeling of total helplessness and despair that weaves itself throughout Orwell\u2019s masterpiece never fails to take me by surprise. <\/strong><\/h5>\n
Although usually referred to as a \u2018dystopian futuristic novel\u2019, it is actually a horror story on a scale far greater than anything that has emerged from the minds of prolific writers like Stephen King or Dean Koontz. The reason is simple. The nightmare world that the protagonist Winston Smith inhabits, a place called Oceania, is all too easily imaginable. Man, as opposed to some imaginary clown or demon, is the evil monster.<\/h5>\n
In the very first pages of the book, Orwell demonstrates an uncanny ability to foresee future trends in technology. Describing the protagonist Winston Smith\u2019s frugal London flat, he mentions an instrument called a \u2018telescreen\u2019, which sounds strikingly similar to the handheld \u2018smartphone\u2019 that is enthusiastically used by billions of people around the world today.<\/h5>\n
Orwell describes the ubiquitous device as an\u00a0\u201coblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror\u201d\u00a0affixed to the wall that\u00a0\u201ccould be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.\u201d\u00a0Sound familiar? It is through this gadget that the rulers of Oceania are able to monitor the actions of its citizens every minute of every day.<\/h5>\n
At the same time, the denizens of 1984<\/em> were never allowed to forget they were living in a totalitarian surveillance state, under the control of the much-feared Thought Police. Massive posters with the slogan \u2018Big Brother is Watching You\u2019 were as prevalent as our modern-day advertising billboards.\u00a0 Today, however, such polite warnings about surveillance would seem redundant, as reports of unauthorized spying still get the occasional lazy nod in the media now and then.<\/h5>\n
In fact, just in time for 1984\u2019s anniversary, it has been\u00a0reported\u00a0that the National Security Agency (NSA) has once again been illicitly collecting records on telephone calls and text messages placed by US citizens.<\/h5>\n
Another method of control alluded to in 1984 fell under a system of speech known as \u2018Newspeak\u2019, which attempted to reduce the language to \u2018doublethink\u2019, with the ulterior motive of controlling ideas and thoughts. For example, the term \u2018joycamp\u2019, a truncated term every bit as euphemistic as the \u2018PATRIOT Act\u2019, was used to describe a forced labor camp, whereas a \u2018doubleplusgood duckspeaker\u2019 was used to praise an orator who \u2018quacked\u2019 correctly with regards to the political situation.<\/h5>\n
Another Newspeak term, known as \u2018facecrime\u2019, provides yet another striking parallel to our modern situation. Defined as\u00a0\u201cto wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense.\u201d\u00a0It would be difficult for the modern reader to hear the term \u2018facecrime\u2019 and not connect it with \u2018Facebook\u2019, the social media platform that regularly\u00a0censors\u00a0content creators for expressing thoughts it finds \u2018hateful\u2019 or inappropriate. What social media users need is an Orwellian lesson in \u2018crimestop\u2019, which Orwell defined as\u00a0\u201cthe faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought.\u201d\u00a0Those so-called unacceptable \u2018dangerous thoughts\u2019 were determined not by the will of the people, of course, but by their rulers.<\/h5>\n
And yes, it gets worse.<\/h5>\n
Just this week, Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s \u2018private company\u2019\u00a0agreed\u00a0to give French authorities the\u201cidentification data\u201d\u00a0of Facebook users suspected of spreading \u2018hate speech\u2019 on the platform, in what would be an unprecedented move on the part of Silicon Valley.<\/h5>\n
Another modern phenomenon that would be right at home in Orwell\u2019s Oceania is the obsession with political correctness<\/strong>, which is defined as\u00a0\u201cthe avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.\u201d\u00a0But since so many people today identify with some marginalized group, this has made the intelligent discussion of controversial ideas \u2013 not least of all on US college\u00a0campuses, of all places \u2013 exceedingly difficult, if not downright dangerous. Orwell must be looking down on all of this madness with much surprise, since he provided the world with the best possible warning to prevent it.<\/h5>\n
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An original illustration from George Orwell’s 1984. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2014 Opening sentence of <\/strong>Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n
For anyone who entertains expectations for a happy ending in 1984, be prepared for serious disappointment.\u00a0 Although Winston Smith manages to finally experience love, his brief romance\u2014like a delicate flower that was able to take root amid a field of asphalt\u2014is crushed by the authorities with shocking brutality. Not satisfied with merely destroying the relationship, however, Smith is forced to betray his \u2018Julia\u2019 after undergoing the worst imaginable torture at the \u2018Ministry of Love\u2019.<\/h5>\n
Source<\/a><\/h6>\n

ENDNOTE BY LASHA DARKMOON<\/h2>\n

The writer is referring to the famous\u00a0 \u201crat torture<\/a><\/span>\u201c. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith,\u00a0 is terrified by rats. Arrested by the authorities, Winston is dragged off to Room 101 in the Ministry of Love for \u201creprogramming\u201d.\u00a0 A cage filled with giant rats is placed over his head.\u00a0 There is a screen separating the rats on one side of the cage from Winston\u2019s face on the other side. When the screen is lifted, the famished rats will fling themselves at Winston\u2019s face and start eating it\u2014their only source of food\u2014in a frantic attempt to escape their cage. <\/strong><\/h5>\n
It is up to Winston to cooperate with Big Brother by betraying the secrets of his nearest and dearest, by acting as an informant and name and shame as many others as possible, including the innocent, and\u00a0 by admitting that even lies are true if Big Brother says they are, e.g. that 2 + 2 = 5.\u00a0 Failure to cooperate with Big Brother will mean the lifting of the screen, with the rats being let loose to carry out\u00a0 their dental demolition of the human face\u2014a torture so inconceivably cruel that it didn\u2019t even occur to Dante when imagining the tortures of hell in his <\/strong>Inferno<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
The rat torture in Orwell\u2019s novel is a variation of the rat torture used in the Soviet Union in Stalin\u2019s reign of terror, applied by the Bolshevik dictator\u2019s\u00a0 hired Chinese torturers against the Russian people, mostly Christian clergy and dissidents. (Scroll down to picture featuring the rat torture here: The Crimes of the Bolsheviks<\/span><\/a>.)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Winston breaks down and begs for mercy when threatened with the rat torture fang frenzy , betraying his true love by saying <\/strong>\u201cLet it be Julia \u2014 not me!\u201d<\/strong><\/em> This is the sign that he has been finally broken. Dehumanized completely.\u00a0 Little better now than a human vegetable, a\u00a0 zombified Hollow Man. When he sees Julia next, he knows from the look in her eyes that she knows he has betrayed her.\u00a0 And that she, too, has betrayed him.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
In the words of T.S. Eliot: \u201cAfter such knowledge, what forgiveness?\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
In Orwell\u2019s own memorable words\u2014in the final paragraph of his great book\u2014Winston\u00a0 Smith looks up into Big Brother\u2019s face with the fatuous entrancement of a man who has learned the hard way that two plus two does indeed equal five \u2014 if Big Brother says it does.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.\u201d <\/strong><\/h5>\n
For the reader\u2019s convenience, here is a chart<\/span><\/a> outlining the social structure in the Orwellian dystopia. It is pretty much the social structure we have today in our so-called \u201creal world\u201d. <\/strong><\/h5>\n
We are the \u201cproles\u201d, roughly 85 per cent of the population: a demoralized and wretched ragbag of economic serfs, brainwashed into believing we live in a democracy. At the top of the pyramid are the richest and most powerful men in the world, aided and abetted by an elite oligarchy who implement their every wish \u2014 and who are suitably rewarded for their cruelty by enjoying all the emoluments of oppression. The Utopia of the rich is the planned dystopia of the poor. This is the hell world of tyrannical master and submissive slave, of predator and prey, and of big dog eating small dog on an eternal treadmill of pain.\u00a0 [LD]<\/strong><\/h5>\n

VIDEO\u00a0 \u00a0:\u00a0 \u00a07.38 mins<\/h4>\n
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