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Showing posts with label thought police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thought police. Show all posts
Friday, 10 May 2013
Review of George Orwell’s 1984 stage show
Last night in Hertford a tory county town if ever there was one I went to see a stage show adaptation of George Orwell’s Science fiction come political story of 1984.
I wasn’t sure what to expect turning up having read the audio book before and really enjoying it and its deep and dark storyline I was unsure how the story would translate to the stage.
I was not disappointed from the word go the actors on stage not many of them by the way two main characters Winston Smith and Julia his partner who works for the “party” develop a relationship together away form the prying eyes of “big brother”. The sub plot is of George Orwell’s 1984 story which details his ideas and horrors of fascism and Stalinism which in 1940’s was very real and taking over large areas of the globe at frightening rates.
The ideas of the thought police, double speak, constant surveillance and keeping to a party line are quite interesting I found as in many ways you can see this in today’s society with news outlets such as the BBC who carry out the governments line/propaganda everyday with little to no scrutiny or alternative put despite their claims of impartiality .
At the interval I could hear people in the seats behind me discussing how similar and freaky this feels to today and that society is crumbling around our very eyes with greater powers to the police including secret courts being pushed through into law very soon if the Tories get their way all add to the feeling that George Orwell’s predictions or premonitions were more real than even he could have imagined 60 odd years ago.
You really got the feeling even if you couldn’t see the play like myself who is blind the atmosphere of the production and the sense of fear that George Orwell tried to get across that if you stepped out of line under the system you could find yourselves in huge trouble and even torture as the final part of the story details.
The idea of room 101 which the popular TV show today shows is your worst fears which will force you to submit to the will of the party and the leader as it were I imagine Stalinism was very much like this with the left opposition leaders in Russia who kept their principles along with Leon Trotsky fighting for greater democracy and keeping to the original ideas of the October 1917 revolution which Lenin and Trotsky so bravely lead the working class to power.
In parts the play was quite dark when Winston Smith the main character in the story was being tortured and interrogated to his thought crimes of rebelling against Big Brother and for some it borders on scary for a time but the atmosphere of this is very well done with the eventual breaking of the man to thinking the way of the party and the party line once he is “reformed”.
This reminded me very much of the Water boarding episodes the US and British governments were accused of using during the Iraqi invasion to gain intelligence from the Taliban.
A lot of this play reminded me that in any revolution the workers must have democracy at all times and the leaders of any movement must be accountable to those who they claim to represent. The degeneration of the Russian revolution reminds us of the need to ensure socialism is international and not isolated like Russia was. We live in a far more advanced world today and the likelihood of a violent revolution is fewer. But we must be aware any attempts for the workers to gain power will be fought with resistance from the ruling class’s who fear the loosing of their wealth and ultimately power.
I’d highly recommend going to see George Orwell’s 1984 for its storyline but also its political messages. Just after the interval you get to hear George Orwell’s idea of a class structure which is still relevant today the idea of a Lowe class middle class and a high class and their constant struggle is as relevant today as ever. A timely reminder of the tasks in front of us today as socialists.
Monday, 7 November 2011
The use of language by capitalists and their media barrons
I've been wanting to do this blogpost for a while now but thought i'd finnish George Orwell's excellent if dark book 1984. Its a excellent read and would recommend it to anyone interested in class politics like myself.
One feature in the book focus's in on the use of a language to portray and alter peoples ways of thinking. This ties in very nicely to todays happenings in 2011 where the capitalist media and their friends in the city use the media to try and alter peoples views and convince them that the cuts are nessesary and enivitable which as we all know are not of course.
In his visionary 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the science fiction pioneer George Orwell lays out a vision of a terrifying dystopian future where everything, even thought, ispoliced and monitored by Big Brother, an oppressive and virtually omniscient government. The diegetic world of the novel is dominated by Newspeak, a new propaganda language in which everything has at least two meanings and which uses language to obscure rather that communicate meaning and truth. Living in a world increasingly dominated by meaningless Managmentspeak – ‘going forward’, ‘learning outcomes’, ‘consultation’, etc., etc. – and by an equally meaningless and equally damaging antinomian Therapyspeak – ‘bipolar disorder’, ‘happiness’, ‘ Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’, ‘life goals’, etc., etc. – it is very difficult to escape the impression that Orwell’s future is closer to the reality that we are facing than most people would like to believe.
In 1984 George Orwell details his idea of New speak as it is called and a way of changing the language ever so slightly but not too much so people will notice slowly slipping in new words and changing their original meanings.
Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak
Key Facts
1984George Orwell
Book Three: Chapters IV–VINext Section >
Important Quotations ExplainedAppendix: The Principles of Newspeak
The Appendix of 1984 stands as Orwell’s explanation of New-speak, the official language of Oceania. Although Orwell felt that these ideas were too technical to completely integrate into the novel, they support the novel’s stance on language and thought in relation to the public’s acceptance of governmental control.
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, scheduled for official adoption around 2050, and designed to make the ideological premises of Ingsoc (Newspeak for English Socialism, the Party’s official political alignment) the only expressible doctrine. Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Newspeak contains no negative terms. For example, the only way to express the meaning of “bad” is through the word “ungood.” Something extremely bad is called “doubleplus ungood.”
Newspeak’s grammar is arranged so that any word can serve as any part of speech, and there are three different groups of vocabulary words. The A vocabulary contains everyday words and phrases, as Orwell says, “for such things as eating, drinking, working” and so on. In comparison with modern English, these words are fewer in number but more rigid in meaning. Newspeak leaves no room for nuance, or for degrees of meaning. The B vocabulary of Newspeak contains all words with political or ideological significance, specially tailored to engender blind acceptance of the Party’s doctrines. For example, “goodthink” means roughly the same thing as “orthodoxy.” The B vocabulary consists entirely of compound words and often compresses words into smaller forms to achieve conceptual simplicity: the English phrase “Thought Police,” for instance, is compressed into “thinkpol”; “the Ministry of Love” becomes “miniluv.” The C vocabulary encompasses words that relate specifically to science and to technical fields and disciplines. It is designed to ensure that technical knowledge remains segmented among many fields, so that no one individual can gain access to too much knowledge. In fact, there is no word for “science”; as Orwell writes, “Ingsoc” covers any meaning that such a concept could possibly have.
The particularities of Newspeak make it impossible to translate most older English (oldspeak) texts into the language; the introduction of the Declaration of Independence, for instance, can be translated only into a single word: crimethink. Furthermore, a great many technical manuals must be translated into Newspeak; it is this bulk of translation work that explains the Party’s decision to postpone the full adoption of Newspeak to 2050.
Anyone who says that the world is fully disenchanted world has obviously never really looked at contemporary advertising practices, which enchant the world for the mercenary aim of profit.
Of course my examples i make are not quite how we are today but i wanted to draw peoples ideas to the fact that what we are told in the media and in advertising is not always the gods honest truth. At the end of the day we live in a capitalist society where the sheer drive for profit by the 1 % far outways anything else . The capitalist governments we have had try and use the media and the use of the english language to bend their ideas in to a more softer reality of a neo-liberal agenda which is where we find ourselves today. The so called human face of capitalism. Which when it breaks down as it always will do into a crisis of capitalism the use of this language becomes even more pronounced as the capitalists look to guard their profits and extend them further by making the working class pay if they can get away with it.
I've mentioned the idea of divide and rule and the use of words and language in this instance is a key factor in this counter revolutionary tactic employed by the ruling class.
As Marxists we must combat this abuse of the language and look to point out the capitalists real motives in things. The little thing called democracy leads in nicely here as quite often you will hear a capitalist leader of a country state they are for democracy in their country or abroad yet if you replace that word democracy with the chance to make a profit, A capitalist order of society in other words you very quickly learn what their true intentions are.
So i may revisit this topic again in the futur on this blog as it interests me greatly but do beware what you are being told in the media and by polititians may not always be as cut dry as they would like you to believe. We must learn to question everything. Question the inequality, the hypocrisies and injustices of the ruling class. Only then will we begin to understand the true order of society .
One feature in the book focus's in on the use of a language to portray and alter peoples ways of thinking. This ties in very nicely to todays happenings in 2011 where the capitalist media and their friends in the city use the media to try and alter peoples views and convince them that the cuts are nessesary and enivitable which as we all know are not of course.
In his visionary 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the science fiction pioneer George Orwell lays out a vision of a terrifying dystopian future where everything, even thought, ispoliced and monitored by Big Brother, an oppressive and virtually omniscient government. The diegetic world of the novel is dominated by Newspeak, a new propaganda language in which everything has at least two meanings and which uses language to obscure rather that communicate meaning and truth. Living in a world increasingly dominated by meaningless Managmentspeak – ‘going forward’, ‘learning outcomes’, ‘consultation’, etc., etc. – and by an equally meaningless and equally damaging antinomian Therapyspeak – ‘bipolar disorder’, ‘happiness’, ‘ Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’, ‘life goals’, etc., etc. – it is very difficult to escape the impression that Orwell’s future is closer to the reality that we are facing than most people would like to believe.
In 1984 George Orwell details his idea of New speak as it is called and a way of changing the language ever so slightly but not too much so people will notice slowly slipping in new words and changing their original meanings.
Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak
Key Facts
1984George Orwell
Book Three: Chapters IV–VINext Section >
Important Quotations ExplainedAppendix: The Principles of Newspeak
The Appendix of 1984 stands as Orwell’s explanation of New-speak, the official language of Oceania. Although Orwell felt that these ideas were too technical to completely integrate into the novel, they support the novel’s stance on language and thought in relation to the public’s acceptance of governmental control.
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, scheduled for official adoption around 2050, and designed to make the ideological premises of Ingsoc (Newspeak for English Socialism, the Party’s official political alignment) the only expressible doctrine. Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Newspeak contains no negative terms. For example, the only way to express the meaning of “bad” is through the word “ungood.” Something extremely bad is called “doubleplus ungood.”
Newspeak’s grammar is arranged so that any word can serve as any part of speech, and there are three different groups of vocabulary words. The A vocabulary contains everyday words and phrases, as Orwell says, “for such things as eating, drinking, working” and so on. In comparison with modern English, these words are fewer in number but more rigid in meaning. Newspeak leaves no room for nuance, or for degrees of meaning. The B vocabulary of Newspeak contains all words with political or ideological significance, specially tailored to engender blind acceptance of the Party’s doctrines. For example, “goodthink” means roughly the same thing as “orthodoxy.” The B vocabulary consists entirely of compound words and often compresses words into smaller forms to achieve conceptual simplicity: the English phrase “Thought Police,” for instance, is compressed into “thinkpol”; “the Ministry of Love” becomes “miniluv.” The C vocabulary encompasses words that relate specifically to science and to technical fields and disciplines. It is designed to ensure that technical knowledge remains segmented among many fields, so that no one individual can gain access to too much knowledge. In fact, there is no word for “science”; as Orwell writes, “Ingsoc” covers any meaning that such a concept could possibly have.
The particularities of Newspeak make it impossible to translate most older English (oldspeak) texts into the language; the introduction of the Declaration of Independence, for instance, can be translated only into a single word: crimethink. Furthermore, a great many technical manuals must be translated into Newspeak; it is this bulk of translation work that explains the Party’s decision to postpone the full adoption of Newspeak to 2050.
Anyone who says that the world is fully disenchanted world has obviously never really looked at contemporary advertising practices, which enchant the world for the mercenary aim of profit.
Of course my examples i make are not quite how we are today but i wanted to draw peoples ideas to the fact that what we are told in the media and in advertising is not always the gods honest truth. At the end of the day we live in a capitalist society where the sheer drive for profit by the 1 % far outways anything else . The capitalist governments we have had try and use the media and the use of the english language to bend their ideas in to a more softer reality of a neo-liberal agenda which is where we find ourselves today. The so called human face of capitalism. Which when it breaks down as it always will do into a crisis of capitalism the use of this language becomes even more pronounced as the capitalists look to guard their profits and extend them further by making the working class pay if they can get away with it.
I've mentioned the idea of divide and rule and the use of words and language in this instance is a key factor in this counter revolutionary tactic employed by the ruling class.
As Marxists we must combat this abuse of the language and look to point out the capitalists real motives in things. The little thing called democracy leads in nicely here as quite often you will hear a capitalist leader of a country state they are for democracy in their country or abroad yet if you replace that word democracy with the chance to make a profit, A capitalist order of society in other words you very quickly learn what their true intentions are.
So i may revisit this topic again in the futur on this blog as it interests me greatly but do beware what you are being told in the media and by polititians may not always be as cut dry as they would like you to believe. We must learn to question everything. Question the inequality, the hypocrisies and injustices of the ruling class. Only then will we begin to understand the true order of society .
Thursday, 25 August 2011
The "thought police"
I have been reading George Orwells excellent book 1984 which was banned in America for a time as it was thought to be so contravertial and explain too much the ruling class decided. Well as well as a fine book it got me thinking as many booksl ike this do.
In 1984 which was George Orwells vision of the future of when he wrote his book in 1948 cleverily turning the two last numbers around 1984 was meant to be the nightmare vision of the future that Goerge Orwell had invisidged . In the book there are such people known as the "thought police" who are there to read your mind and stop the workers falling out of line. They are thre to make sure they do not start thinking of revolutionary thoughts or wanting to change things.
This reminds me very much of today in many ways. George Orwells book has often be credited with how true his predictions of the future were quite often and this idea of a "thought police" seems quite relevant today. Where we see young and disenfranchised youths of today roaming the streets rioting and talking of causing riots. Of course investigations are still on going but the "thought police" would not be out of place today where people are arrested before they have committed a crime just because they have thought of committing a riot or a public disturbance.
All this is apparently in the name of public safety. To me and other socialists this seems like state oppression going too far where the government are stepping beyond their role of protecting us by enforcing the law before it has even needed to be.
Take the guy who was given a 4 year sentance for talking of going to a riot on facebook. Huge sentances and totally disproportional . But this is all seen as fair game by the ruling class in the on going class war they are currntly carrying out on the working class.
Of course we do not condone riots as a legitimate form of protest but i believe it is a fundemental human right the right to protest. Civil disobedience and peaceful protests should be allowed. Of course we do not condone violence but we can on the other hand fully understand the anger and frustration of these young disconnected youths who feel they ahve nothing to loose by rioting and gets them attention to their issues.
But the role of a police in all this has been utterly contemptable the way they have pre arrested people in the name of inciting a riot and arresting people even when a riot hasnt even happened is just goign too far in my book.
So we should always be careful of the ruling class and the tactics they will use to protect their system and their way of life. At any cost sometimes using the police and agent provocutuers to infiltrate a movement to divide and rule us.
George Orwell was a excellent writer and i fully recomend people to read his materials if they can get hold of some. The man is famous for his fine work and should be well respected and preserved.
In 1984 which was George Orwells vision of the future of when he wrote his book in 1948 cleverily turning the two last numbers around 1984 was meant to be the nightmare vision of the future that Goerge Orwell had invisidged . In the book there are such people known as the "thought police" who are there to read your mind and stop the workers falling out of line. They are thre to make sure they do not start thinking of revolutionary thoughts or wanting to change things.
This reminds me very much of today in many ways. George Orwells book has often be credited with how true his predictions of the future were quite often and this idea of a "thought police" seems quite relevant today. Where we see young and disenfranchised youths of today roaming the streets rioting and talking of causing riots. Of course investigations are still on going but the "thought police" would not be out of place today where people are arrested before they have committed a crime just because they have thought of committing a riot or a public disturbance.
All this is apparently in the name of public safety. To me and other socialists this seems like state oppression going too far where the government are stepping beyond their role of protecting us by enforcing the law before it has even needed to be.
Take the guy who was given a 4 year sentance for talking of going to a riot on facebook. Huge sentances and totally disproportional . But this is all seen as fair game by the ruling class in the on going class war they are currntly carrying out on the working class.
Of course we do not condone riots as a legitimate form of protest but i believe it is a fundemental human right the right to protest. Civil disobedience and peaceful protests should be allowed. Of course we do not condone violence but we can on the other hand fully understand the anger and frustration of these young disconnected youths who feel they ahve nothing to loose by rioting and gets them attention to their issues.
But the role of a police in all this has been utterly contemptable the way they have pre arrested people in the name of inciting a riot and arresting people even when a riot hasnt even happened is just goign too far in my book.
So we should always be careful of the ruling class and the tactics they will use to protect their system and their way of life. At any cost sometimes using the police and agent provocutuers to infiltrate a movement to divide and rule us.
George Orwell was a excellent writer and i fully recomend people to read his materials if they can get hold of some. The man is famous for his fine work and should be well respected and preserved.
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