Some recent GOP attempts to soften their message while retaining their policies remind one of Orwellian doublespeak.
Essayist Dylan Nice describes how Orwell’s essay “Shooting the Elephant” pulled him out of kneejerk rightwing prejudices.
The Oscar-winning German film “The Lives of Others” speaks to the ability of art to change people’s lives.
Apparently Anders Breivik was very well read and he mentions George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and Ayn Rand. What I find striking about them on the list is that they all articulate high levels of paranoia.
Posted in Beowulf Poet, Dexter (tv), Kafka (Franz), Orwell (George), Rand (Ayn) | Also tagged 1984, Anders Breivik, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Franz Kafka, Terrorism, Trial |
An indication that defenders are not entirely at peace with the practice is their use of a euphemisms. They don’t call waterboarding “torture,” even though the U.S. used to call it torture and it has generally been considered torture since the Spanish Inquisition used it. They instead call it “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Anyone who knows George Orwell’s 1984 recognizes this as classic doublespeak.
Christopher Hitchens I confess to bristling when I hear the name Christopher Hitchens. The intellectual provocateur has been in the news recently, first for publishing his memoirs and second for contracting throat cancer. Although he is smart and well read, he has always struck me as a self-righteous intellectual bully, one who is more interested [...]
Posted in Hitchens (Christopher) | Also tagged Christopher Hitchens, Darkness at Noon, David Brooks, Graham Greene, Hitch-22, How Green Was My Valley, Plato, politics, Republic, Richard Llewellyn, Wilfred Owen |
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault famously exclaims in Casablanca, only then to be secretly presented with a bribe from the winnings. Why did this scene come to mind when I heard about the shenanigans of Goldman Sachs this past week? It did so, I suspect, because [...]
