I
just read an opinion piece on Al Jazeera titled 'Obama is Closer to
Nixon than MLK' about how, on the 50th
anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's famous 'I Have A Dream'
speech, “it's virtually a knee-jerk reaction to associate his
[Obama's] presidency with the fulfillment of King's dream.” It was
an amazing piece – if you have a minute you should read it
(http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/08/20138296131532445.html)
– and once I'd finished it my mind was cast back, as it often is,
to my favourite book, '1984'.
I feel like I'm repeating myself in my life, because every time something like this pops into my mind in conversation or writing, I end up bringing it back to Orwell. In fact, I probably am repeating myself, but I'm repeating myself for a reason; everything in that book is fucking perfect. It talks about the means to power being the control of the past, and how any organization that can manipulate people's perceptions of past events can control their ideas in the present, so now, considering the public perception of Barack Obama as an inheritor of King's legacy, it's clear how the past is being distorted before our very eyes. It's a strange sort of racism that casts Obama primarily as a descendant of the civil rights movement of the '60s purely on the grounds of his dark skin – an insidious one, and a lie really. “The first black president, how we have progressed! Joy! Joy! Let's all go join a choir!” But in placing the emphasis on MLK's push for racial equality above all other of his agendas, those other agendas have been pushed into the background – ending war and poverty amongst them, which are no more relevant than in the warring, recession-striken US today. His character is being distorted, soon only a crude outline of the original man will remain.
What is the point of all this distraction though? What was the initial agenda of getting Obama into the White House in the first place? During the first campaign back in 2008 the race card was waved around like a beacon of joy, waved in front of our faces, but more and more it seems to have been only a distraction, making racists of us all as we truly believed the colour of a man could possibly determine his suitibility to lead. A black man has been at the helm of the world's biggest ship for five years now, and still the water keeps flooding in.
I don't even know what it is about the links between '1984' and the events of the real world that are so intriguing. It is, after all, just a book... these situations really fail to get my angry, or even emotionally connected. That's in there too, Orwell covered the apathy of the masses and how it could be manufactured within them from birth through an education system geared towards producing emotional cripples. I feel like one of those cripples. Has my mind been gripped by the hand of those who wish to control me and subdued without me even knowing? Am I already a victim of the rulers of a cruel game I am unable to understand, no matter how hard I try? I should feel scared, but it's almost relieving to think of certain loss as a sweet release from the need to fight at all. But wait, that's in there too.
Ugh, I don't even know where I'm going with this... isn't it the scariest thing ever that I try to write something about an article on governance that I just read, but it only degenerates into a commentary about how difficult it is to write such a thing? Even with my (admittedly paltry) two years of study in the field. We should all care about these things, because they WILL affect us, but in trying to think about them, I run into brick walls and become tired and impatient.
Sigh, I'm giving up today, maybe it's sufficient, for now, to know for sure at least that we ARE, DEFINITELY being lied to. I'm trying to stay vigilant, I really am, but I don't know what else to do.
Desperate.
Peace, Taco.
I feel like I'm repeating myself in my life, because every time something like this pops into my mind in conversation or writing, I end up bringing it back to Orwell. In fact, I probably am repeating myself, but I'm repeating myself for a reason; everything in that book is fucking perfect. It talks about the means to power being the control of the past, and how any organization that can manipulate people's perceptions of past events can control their ideas in the present, so now, considering the public perception of Barack Obama as an inheritor of King's legacy, it's clear how the past is being distorted before our very eyes. It's a strange sort of racism that casts Obama primarily as a descendant of the civil rights movement of the '60s purely on the grounds of his dark skin – an insidious one, and a lie really. “The first black president, how we have progressed! Joy! Joy! Let's all go join a choir!” But in placing the emphasis on MLK's push for racial equality above all other of his agendas, those other agendas have been pushed into the background – ending war and poverty amongst them, which are no more relevant than in the warring, recession-striken US today. His character is being distorted, soon only a crude outline of the original man will remain.
What is the point of all this distraction though? What was the initial agenda of getting Obama into the White House in the first place? During the first campaign back in 2008 the race card was waved around like a beacon of joy, waved in front of our faces, but more and more it seems to have been only a distraction, making racists of us all as we truly believed the colour of a man could possibly determine his suitibility to lead. A black man has been at the helm of the world's biggest ship for five years now, and still the water keeps flooding in.
I don't even know what it is about the links between '1984' and the events of the real world that are so intriguing. It is, after all, just a book... these situations really fail to get my angry, or even emotionally connected. That's in there too, Orwell covered the apathy of the masses and how it could be manufactured within them from birth through an education system geared towards producing emotional cripples. I feel like one of those cripples. Has my mind been gripped by the hand of those who wish to control me and subdued without me even knowing? Am I already a victim of the rulers of a cruel game I am unable to understand, no matter how hard I try? I should feel scared, but it's almost relieving to think of certain loss as a sweet release from the need to fight at all. But wait, that's in there too.
Ugh, I don't even know where I'm going with this... isn't it the scariest thing ever that I try to write something about an article on governance that I just read, but it only degenerates into a commentary about how difficult it is to write such a thing? Even with my (admittedly paltry) two years of study in the field. We should all care about these things, because they WILL affect us, but in trying to think about them, I run into brick walls and become tired and impatient.
Sigh, I'm giving up today, maybe it's sufficient, for now, to know for sure at least that we ARE, DEFINITELY being lied to. I'm trying to stay vigilant, I really am, but I don't know what else to do.
Desperate.
Peace, Taco.
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