*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Monday, July 23rd, 2012 10:36am PDT - promote requested by kulpims.

*books

Adding video to channels (Books) - requested by MrFisk.

Is there still time?

Very *dark, like some of his writings. Not just the lighting design, also his comments and warnings are very dark.

Invocations (dark) cannot be called by rich_magnet because rich_magnet is not privileged - sorry.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'George Orwell' to 'George Orwell, 1984, opression' - edited by messenger

Tags for this video have been changed from 'George Orwell, 1984, opression' to 'George Orwell, 1984, oppression' - edited by messenger

If we don't kill us, the heat will.

A modern day prophet.

A liberal reads 1984 as a warning.
A conservative reads 1984 as a blueprint.

It's after the end of the world don't you know that yet? -Sun Ra

*dark

Adding video to channels (Dark) - requested by RhesusMonk.

Dunno about eradicating the sex instinct...
Sex, pleasure, drugs, entertainment - base pleasures are addictive and distracting.
When people are miserable and downtrodden a base primate instinct to punish unfairness is triggered.

The best form of enforcing social conformity is to encourage people to enslave themselves.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Great post.

At first I thought this was a parody, as those appearing are Rebecca Front and Chris Langham, both of whom are (great) comedy actors.

Abolish the orgasm?!?

Good luck with that.

As Huxley said, "It is possible to make people contented with their servitude. I think this can be done. I think it has been done in the past, but then I think it could be done even more effectively now because you can provide them with breads and circuses and you can provide them with endless distractions and propaganda."

@StukaFox

Your comment is as clever as it is simpleminded. You can worship the elephant or the donkey and I'll disagree with you based on the zeal you have for one and the disdain for the other. The world is a complicated place and whats best isn't found in one camp or the other.

Look at Huxley's last novel Island. He merges 'East and West'. He takes what he feels is best from both.

>> ^StukaFox:

A liberal reads 1984 as a warning.
A conservative reads 1984 as a blueprint.


A anarchist reads 1984 as a challenge.

>> ^kevingrr:

As Huxley said, "It is possible to make people contented with their servitude. I think this can be done. I think it has been done in the past, but then I think it could be done even more effectively now because you can provide them with breads and circuses and you can provide them with endless distractions and propaganda."
@StukaFox
Your comment is as clever as it is simpleminded. You can worship the elephant or the donkey and I'll disagree with you based on the zeal you have for one and the disdain for the other. The world is a complicated place and whats best isn't found in one camp or the other.
Look at Huxley's last novel Island. He merges 'East and West'. He takes what he feels is best from both.


I upvoted because my reaction to this is that we've ended up in a world a lot closer to Aldous Huxley's shiny, distracted, and soul suckingly disconnected dystopia than we have 1984's drab, brutal, overtly totalitarian one. Our dystopia is much harder to break out of, because on the surface it seems open, free, and filled with prosperity, until you scratch the surface, and see the rot festering underneath.

I could've just as easily have downvoted for the stupidity of your pox upon both their houses view of modern politics though. I don't really get the sense much of anyone on the left is filled with some sort of "zeal" for the "donkey" -- and the disdain for the Republicans largely stems from the way they seem to be functionally identical to the Inner Party members from 1984. They can shamelessly go from lauding an individual mandate as the "personal responsibility principle that's essential to bring costs down" and then when the party's needs change, decry the same policy as somehow being a violation of everything that Americans hold sacred. All this while demanding they still be treated as if they were serious people of conviction and principle, and painting those who dare to point out their hypocrisy as some sort of dishonest partisan hack.

The fact that one side, and only one side has fully committed to this level of partisan loyalty should make even the most cynical, above the fray, non-partisan person sit up and take notice. Maybe it's time to stop pretending this is politics as usual, and see it for what it really is: a battle to stop a group of committed fanatics without a shred of human empathy from pushing out the last vestiges of the flawed, inept, but well-meaning opposition standing in their way.

On being complimented on one of the literary achievements of the century (and possibly one of the most important books ever).... he is "not entirely dissatisfied with it".

I love that.

>> ^NetRunner:

a battle to stop a group of committed fanatics without a shred of human empathy from pushing out the last vestiges of the flawed, inept, but well-meaning opposition standing in their way.


I steadfastly hold the view that those who are most suited to power are least suited to attaining power, and those who are least suited to power are most suited to attaining it. Those who feel no remorse are able to lie, cheat and steal their way to any goal whilst those who have the empathy we need in a leader would never dream of doing such a thing in return. The kind of leader we need now would never accept money from huge businesses in exchange for favours when they're in power. So they're never gonna get in power, and we're left to be led by those who are most capable of tricking us.

Think about it. If an extremely intelligent person decides (or is already decided) that they want something, it's very hard to stop them. It's simple to manipulate and trick people less intelligent than you are, we all know that, we've all surely experienced it at some point (perhaps through accident). The only thing that stops you is your conscience.

There are people in this world with immense intellect and empathy, people who are held accountable to their own conscience more than they could ever be held accountable in law. Yet we live in a world where we (on average at least) PREFER to listen to people who sound and look convincing.

There are people who spend their entire lives thoroughly investigating things to satisfy their own desire to understand the world - and we show skepticism towards THEIR opinion.

When a government drug expert reports upon scientific and statistical findings that show how marijuana and ecstasy are less harmful than alcohol (amongst other things), he was instantly sacked and replaced by someone who said something different.

We have government ministers in britain stealing from our pockets, getting caught in the act, and then later having the gumption to say "If you pay someone cash in hand, you are allowing them to dodge tax, therefore YOU are immoral." Do these idiots even understand the word "hypocrite"?

We actively shun and show disdain to intelligent people. We've become fixated on celebrity. When a huge news item comes along, we cut to katy perry's twitter feed to find out what she thinks, or a person on the street who knows nothing more than i do about the situation to hear what their opinion is. This is Idiocracy.

I love how NewSpeak has actually come to pass. Texting and Twitter?

>> ^NetRunner:

I could've just as easily have downvoted for the stupidity of your pox upon both their houses view of modern politics though. I don't really get the sense much of anyone on the left is filled with some sort of "zeal" for the "donkey" -- and the disdain for the Republicans largely stems from the way they seem to be functionally identical to the Inner Party members from 1984.
---
The fact that one side, and only one side has fully committed to this level of partisan loyalty should make even the most cynical, above the fray, non-partisan person sit up and take notice.


It seems to me having (effectively) just two parties makes some degree of partisanship mandatory for anyone participating in politics. You yourself talk of sides. A blue vs. red system like that leaves anyone truly independent-minded somewhat disenfranchised.

I was talking with a guy from California not long ago, he was pretty pissed that his tax money was being used to blow people up in other countries. Will Obama stop the killing? Will Romney? Who should someone who really, really doesn't want to have his government blow folks up vote for, the nice guy with blood on his hands or the nice guy who's waiting to get some on his? Or should there actually be some other option?

No, you have it reversed. Assuming liberals prefer a larger government that is more engaged in telling people what to do, as well as passing laws to make them do it?

>> ^StukaFox:

A liberal reads 1984 as a warning.
A conservative reads 1984 as a blueprint.

You have to take a little from Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury as well.

I can't look at a Kindle or Kinect without thinking about a world voluntarily giving up books for immersion gaming and entertainment.