Daily Archives: February 25, 2017

Haley Saffren 20 /Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

In 1949, George Orwell created a classic novel about a dystopian society that takes place in, what seemed at the time, a futuristic version of the year 1984. The story follows a man named Winston who is entrenched in a corrupt society that uses lies and propaganda to ensure that its citizens follow the Inner Party without any questions. Winston harbors a strong hatred for the party and yearns for a rebellion to one day overthrow it. When Donald Trump became president, sales of this book, which has been in publication for many decades, began to spike because of the eerie similarities to what is going on today in the US government. It is not difficult to understand why.

In the novel, extreme oppression of independent thoughts and ideas is rampant, especially if these thoughts and ideas present a challenge to the government. If someone is even suspected of being a traitor to the government, they are manipulated into revealing their position, captured, and tortured. From just the first few weeks of Trumps presidency, his methods seem eerily similar to those of the followers of Big Brother and the Inner Party in 1984. While no one has been treated as harshly by the US government as they were in 1984 (so far), extreme occurrences of discrimination and oppression of freedom of speech already have occurred. Police arrested journalists at Trumps inauguration protests, holding some of them overnight just for doing their jobs.

This was a clear attempt to stop them from reporting accurate accounts of events and highlighting how more people seemed to show up for the protests against the new president than for his inauguration. Trumps administration tried to manipulate the media coverage to trick the public into believing that more people showed up for his inauguration than Obamas in 2009 and 2013. When the Muslim Ban was put forth, Trumps staff tried to say it was not a ban, even though Muslims were being explicitly held at airports and arriving Muslims were sent out of the country. Trumps methods are not as extreme as the atrocities Big Brother committed in 1984, but Trumps administration is showing signs of taking the government down a similar, dark path to the ruling body in the book.

Increased sales may also be due to the fact that some people are scared. They know the near future looks bleak as long as Trump is in power.1984 shows readers how far Trump could go with the power he has. However, this book also reminds us to never stop fighting for civil rights so that the US government cannot take the terrible turn Winstons government did in the novel. If people stop fighting wrongs and exercising their rights, Trump will be allowed to do whatever he wants. Even though most believe it could never happen, it could get to the point where he is willing to torture people who remotely oppose him. In 1984, when Winston was suspected of being a rebel, the government had one of his coworkers pretend to be an ally and gain his trust. Once this so-called friend figured out Winston was against Big Brother, he exposed him.

They tried to change his way of thinking by using torturous methods including electroshock therapy and drastically exposing him to his worst fear (which involved him being nearly eaten by rats). Although this is the worst case scenario, it is still a possibility in our world. The book is a marvelous showcase of what effects a government under the worst form of dictatorship could have on society. Although it is hard to imagine America falling to this level, the US is entering unknown waters and a period of a horrifying use of power.

The increase in sales of 1984 reveals the terror and resolve people are feeling in order to address this dark era. People are trying to understand what government looks like under extreme, oppressive leadership, especially since Trump is already exhibiting these characteristics. Not only is this book informative, but also it gives people hope that things are not as bad as they could be, and, unlike the citizens in 1984, a lot of people in the United States are actively standing up for what they believe is right.

View post:

Opinion: The Relevance of Orwell's 1984 - Emertainment Monthly (registration) (blog)

As I get older, Im more and more inclined to see life as a collection of cycles. What goes around, comes around; to everything there is a season, from glorious Spring to blazing Summer, from brilliant Autumn to frozen Winter, to glorious Spring again.

Like the moon, everything waxes and wanes our economies, our schools, our families, our governments large and small even our diets. Sometimes things are going well, sometimes badly. Sometimes things are going marvelously well. Sometimes unbelievably badly. Sometimes a brilliant sunset, sometimes a rainbow, sometimes a snowstorm.

Cultural norms swing from liberal to conservative, from conservative to liberal, and back and forth again; hemlines rise and fall, neckties and lapels grow wider and narrower, beards grow, and are shaved away, and grow again. As a people we seem to move from comfortable to excess, to contraction, to comfortable; from comfortable to belt-tightening, to recovery, to comfortable.

Good government waxes and wanes, too, like the moon.

Powerful people take charge, creating new departments, expanding little empires, taking on bigger and bigger projects until eventually the departments are bloated, the projects are full of hot air, and the bubble bursts, putting good people out of work at the same time as getting rid of deadwood.

Perhaps you see some of this the same way, or perhaps not; you are your own Spiritual Authority.

Someone asked me today how I would respond, as a Wiccan, to our present national situation. Here is my reply:

I call to the powers of Air; I ask that you lend clarity of thought, release of oppressions, a cleansing breeze to blow through the corridors of power and sweep away what does not serve our nation and all its people.

I call to the powers of Fire; I ask that you lend passion to the ideas of liberty and justice, and that you transform the ideas of power-over, of greed, of privilege, of unfair taking; bringing in their place the warmth of shared community and shared resources throughout our nation.

I call to the powers of Water; I ask that you lend gentleness to the deliberations of our legislators, that they enter the flow of caring for the highest good of this land and its many peoples; I ask that you dissolve the barriers that set us to seeing each other as red states and blue states and let us see our common interests and feel our common devotion.

I call to the powers of Earth; I ask that you lend stability and support to our judges and our executives at all levels of government; that you remind them often of this holy ground on which they stand, and lead, and rule our peoples.

Later I realized I had asked for guidance and support from the Elements, but had not made corresponding pledges of my own. So here are some now:

I pledge to be mindful, as I read the news, that not everything published is true, and not everything true is right or fair.

I pledge to be mindful, as I cast my ballots, that not every candidate is honorable and not every candidate will be able to resist the work of lobbyists and horse-traders.

I pledge to use my voice, and the privileges I have been granted, to lift up and amplify the voices of those who bear greater oppressions than my own. I pledge to acknowledge and work to reduce my sense of entitlement and my unearned privilege.

But this post would not be complete without mention of a grave confusion I feel, a grave error I see around me, some important questions whose answers escape me: What is it in our humanness that leads so many of us to act as if we need to oppress some group in order to be sure of our own value? How is it that so many of the people I would naturally love have somehow concluded that they deserve more consideration than people who dont look like them, or who dont believe like them, or even who are a different gender than they are?

And a corollary, whether I can ever answer those questions or not: What can I do to reduce the oppression in which I participate, and to prevent new oppressions from arising?

All around me is reason for despair, but also reason for hope. More of my companions are deeply engaged than Ive seen in decades. More actual work is being done to reduce racism, ageism, sexism, ableism, and what I have to call religionism.

I know, as I said at the beginning, that everything goes in cycles. The pendulum swings, sometimes farther and sometimes more briefly. May the present cycle of oppression and doublespeak be brief, may the hard work continue and may it be effective; may the pendulum swing back toward center, and may we dwell in a fair-minded place longer than before.

So mote it be.

Maggie Beaumont, Halfway to Ostara at the Dark of the Moon

More here:

Cycles and Oppression - Patheos (blog)

Is it ever acceptable to break the law? This question has gained new urgency under the oppression of the Trump presidency. For example, is it morally acceptable to hide our neighbors and friends from violent deportation raids? Can we destroy government property to slow the progress of unconstitutional proposals like Trumps border wall? How can we stand up against an incompetent administration that refuses to recognize our most basic human rights?

These questions are not new. In fact, this country was founded through lawbreaking when the 13 colonies decided to reject an oppressive government that did not fairly represent their interests. Countless other examples of disobedience from Rosa Parks to the Stonewall Riots that sparked the modern movement for LGBTQ equality have been defining moments in U.S. history.

The key point is this: There is sometimes a difference between what is legal and what is right, and understanding that distinction is a critical part of what it means to be a patriot in the United States. Standing up for ones country does not mean blind obedience. As the famed Civil War General Carl Schurz said, [The U.S. is] my country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right. In some cases, setting the country right may involve working within the system and following the rules, but other times it may not. Perhaps in a perfect world the need for disobedience would not exist, but sadly, this world is far from perfect, and an unjust law is no law at all. Our actions, therefore, must be dictated not by legality but by our conscience.

When the law is found to be lacking in morality, crime can be a powerful force of good. For example, in 2014, a 90-year-old Floridian was repeatedly arrested for feeding the homeless an illegal act punishable with a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. This goes to show that the law is not always representative of justice or the will of the people it is simply a tool for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the status quo. However, the act of breaking the law can reject a corrupt status quo, inviting a new status quo to take its place. As a result, disobedience becomes an unofficial last resort in a system of checks and balances.

Now, Im not advocating for anything malicious. Disobeying the law does not necessarily require one to harm another person in any way. In fact, one should be disobedient only when there are no alternatives that may be taken in good conscience, such as in cases of defending oneself or others from police brutality or unjust deportation raids.

Some argue that breaking the law can be detrimental to ones own cause. The alt-right movement has used crimes against white supremacist leaders as propaganda, disguising themselves as victims rather than oppressors. A prominent example of such propaganda is the alt-rights use of the viral video of neo-Nazi Richard Spencer being punched by a protester. Ultimately, it is important to remember that lawbreaking is an inherently risky activity especially for anyone who lacks the protection of social privilege and should not be taken lightly.

So if you choose to break the law in any way, choose an issue that matters one that is worth the consequences, whatever they might be. Productive crime is only necessary because legislation is fallible. Laws are only as fair as the people who write them sometimes less so and if they are not constantly questioned, then our democracy is already lost.

In the end, well-behaved, law-abiding citizens seldom make history. Bystanders are well-behaved. These were the people who shrugged as the slave trade thrived, who allowed the Nazis to commit their atrocities, and who now turn a blind eye to police brutality, immigration raids and the cruelty of the rising alt-right movement, simply because these injustices were or are considered legal. A petition and a nice speech are rarely enough to change the world. Sometimes, when the rules are rigged, the best thing to do is break them.

Excerpt from:

Disobedience Checks Unjust Laws - The Oberlin Review