Subject: [CTRL] Bush's Orwellian Address
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Bush's Orwellian Address: 
Happy New Year: It's 1984 
by Jacob Levich 

  Seventeen years later than expected, 1984 has arrived. In
his address to Congress Thursday, George Bush effectively
declared permanent war -- war without temporal or geographic
limits; war without clear goals; war against a vaguely
defined and constantly shifting enemy.  Today it's Al-Qaida;
tomorrow it may be Afghanistan; next year, it could be Iraq
or Cuba or Chechnya.

  No one who was forced to read 1984 in high school could
fail to hear a faint bell tinkling. In George Orwell's
dreary classic, the totalitarian state of Oceania is
perpetually at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia. Although
the enemy changes periodically, the war is permanent; its
true purpose is to control dissent and sustain dictatorship
by nurturing popular fear and hatred. The permanent war
undergirds every aspect of Big Brother's authoritarian
program, excusing censorship, propaganda, secret police, and
privation. In other words, it's terribly convenient. And
conveniently terrible.  Bush's alarming speech pointed to a
shadowy enemy that lurks in more than 60 countries,
including the US.

  He announced a policy of using maximum force against any
individuals or nations he designates as our enemies, without
color of international law, due process, or democratic
debate. He explicitly warned that much of the war will be
conducted in secret. He rejected negotiation as a tool of
diplomacy. He announced starkly that any country that
doesn't knuckle under to US demands will be regarded as an
enemy. He heralded the creation of a powerful new
cabinet-level police agency called the "Office of Homeland
Security."

  Orwell couldn't have named it better. By turns folksy ("Ya
know what?") and chillingly bellicose ("Either you are with
us, or you are with the terrorists"), Bush stepped
comfortably into the role of Big Brother, who needs to be
loved as well as feared. Meanwhile, his administration acted
swiftly to realize the governing principles of Oceania:

WAR IS PEACE. A reckless war that will likely bring about a
deadly cycle of retaliation is being sold to us as the means
to guarantee our safety. Meanwhile, we've been instructed to
accept the permanent war as a fact of daily life. As the
inevitable slaughter of innocents unfolds overseas, we are
to "live our lives and hug our children."

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. "Freedom itself is under attack," Bush
said, and he's right. Americans are about to lose many of
their most cherished liberties in a frenzy of paranoid
legislation. The government proposes to tap our phones, read
our email and seize our credit card records without court
order. It seeks authority to detain and deport immigrants
without cause or trial. It proposes to use foreign agents to
spy on American citizens. To save freedom, the warmongers
intend to destroy it.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. America's "new war" against terrorism
will be fought with unprecedented secrecy, including heavy
press restrictions not seen for years, the Pentagon has
advised. Meanwhile, the sorry history of American
imperialism -- collaboration with terrorists, bloody proxy
wars against civilians, forcible replacement of democratic
governments with corrupt dictatorships -- is strictly
off-limits to mainstream media. Lest it weaken our resolve,
we are not to be allowed to understand the reasons
underlying the horrifying crimes of September 11.

  The defining speech of Bush's presidency points toward an
Orwellian future of endless war, expedient lies, and
ubiquitous social control.  But unlike 1984's doomed
protagonist, we've still got plenty of space to maneuver and
plenty of ways to resist. It's time to speak and to act. It
falls on us now to take to the streets, bearing a clear
message for the warmongers: We don't love Big Brother.

____________
Jacob Levich is a writer, editor, and activist living in
Queens, New York.

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