Thursday, July 25, 2013

2013/1984, Part 3

Trey Smith


The titular "leader" of the Inner Party and the whole of society, for that matter, is Big Brother (BB). Though presented to the masses as an actual person, BB is nothing more than the supreme power of the elite. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, there is a visual depiction of BB, but he never speaks to the people "himself." No, his lieutenants handle such responsibilities.

It could be argued that in today's world the US President is one such lieutenant. Though many view him -- whichever bloke happens to occupy the office at any given time -- as THE Commander-in-Chief, he is little more than a frontman for the military-intelligence-industrial complex and Wall Street. Upon winning the office, he (someday maybe she) is informed what he can and cannot do, what he can and cannot say. It doesn't matter what he campaigned on or what pledges he made. The die is already cast.

In my view, BB has much greater chance of being established in the US as opposed to Europe or Asia. While Europe has moved away from the Judeo-Christian belief system and said system never had much of a foothold in the Far East, it remains alive and well to a greater degree here.

If you think about it, the model for BB is not that much unlike the hierarchy in the Christian Church. You have this God who cannot be proven to exist, but millions of people believe he does. He never addresses the people himself; various spokespeople handle such chores (the pope for Catholics, the living prophet for Mormons, and the pastor/minister for fundamentalist Christians). We are told that these speakers have the ear of God and, in many instances, whatever they utter is deemed infallible.

It is not a big jump to utilize this same model for secular government. Big Brother IS God (or Santa Claus), in a manner of speaking. He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes!

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