Saving Camelot From Becoming the Neocon’s Orwellian “Brazil”

Moin Ansari

Posted Oct 26, 2005      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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SAVING CAMELOT FROM BECOMING THE NEOCON’S ORWELLIAN “BRAZIL”

There are many visions for the future. One ruled by law and justice and without wants and need.

Chernyshevskij’s boundless optimism, from Chto delat’ (tr. Michael R. Katz): “‘Life’s great happiness resides in my sister, the goddess,’ says the elder sister. ‘But you see that every kind of happiness exists here, whatever anyone desires. Everyone lives, as he desires; each and every person has complete will, yes, free will. ... What we’ve shown you will not soon reach its full development in the form that you’ve just seen. Many generations will pass before everything which you can now forsee is to be fully realized. ... Tell everyone that the future will be radiant and beautiful. Love it, strive toward it, work for it, bring it nearer, transfer into the present as much as you can from it. To the extent that you succeed in doing so, your life will be bright and good, rich in joy and pleasure. Strive toward it, work for it, bring it nearer, transfer into the present as much as you can from it’.’’

Dostoyevskiy wrote “Zapiski iz podpol’ia, Notes from the Underground” in response to Chernyshevsky “Chto delat.” Dostoyevskiy did not agree with Chernyshevsky. He saw Chernyshevsky’s utopian `Crystal Palace’ as stripping humanity of its dignity and free will. Dostoyevskiy preferred Christianity to a socialist utopia. The “blasphemous” chapter of Zapiski iz podpol’ia that offered Christianity as an alternative to socialism was heavily censored and the manuscript does not survive.” Had Dostoyevskiy been able to propagate his utopian vision of the future, the USSR would have had a different future.

The worst vision of the future is Terry Gillian’s “Brazil” where vignettes of Big Brother are ubiquitous. Citizens in Terry Gilliam’s Orwellian nightmare “Brazil” live in fear as terrorists terrorize. The government posts propaganda across the state sporting slogans like “Happiness - We Are All In This Together” and “Trust In Haste, Regret In Leisure”.

There is a war on for the soul of America. On the one hand is our glorious constitution, and the vision of the founding fathers, on the other hand is a band of “Bolsheviks” who are corrupting the original message. Dr. Robert Dickson Crane is one of the partisans waging peace against those who are corrupting the message of the American revolution.

The Neocons seem to be taking the scripts right out of “1984”, to malign and destroy the original vision of the founding fathers of America? My land is being infested with the disease that is eating away at every fiber of our society. Where did it all begin? Perhaps it was the Iran-Contra affair? Was it the fact that Casper Wienberger, Elliot Abrams and others were pardoned and seemed to get away with “murder”. Was it the beginning of the termite infestation that is destroying our noble experiment in democracy and freedom?

In one vision of the future, in the classic novel, 1984,  the most potent political tool was: perpetual warfare, Mimetic Warfare, and protracted warfare for the maintenance of state power over individual citizens. It is amazing that they are following the script so closely. If the world does not have three powers, we are attempting to create three super states rivalry (USA, China and India).

The Neocons seem to be celebrating perpetual warfare. Those who seem to be thriving on created crises, seem to be trying to goad us into a certain paradigm. The propagation of perpetual protracted and mimetic war could have been scripted by Orwell himself and runs contrary to the basic foundations of our land"the great challenge of our new century.” “to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world..” murderous ideology” violent, political vision”.. “to develop weapons of mass destruction” ... “to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation.”

Big Brother: “When war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous, there is no such thing as military necessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded. But though it is unreal, it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs.”

“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the dominion of the few. ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” James Madison 1795:

“So long as there’s Al Qaeda anywhere, we will help the host countries root them out,”

Senator Byrd: “if we expect to kill every terrorist in the world, that’s going to keep us going beyond doomsday,”

Big Brother: “War, however, is no longer the desperate annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another. ...”

Brazil: “Happiness - We Are All In This Together” and “Trust In Haste, Regret In Leisure”.

Big Brother: “War is Peace.”

Herodotus: “fathers bury sons, rather than sons, fathers.”

Terry Gilliam’s Orwellian nightmare “Brazil” is an information-crazy society that in many ways resembles a world in which the Nazis did not lose World War II”, “a world, where everyone is obsessed with shopping, and in order to get anything done within the world of government there is paperwork to be filled out, and filled out and on and on, “a place where information is of the utmost importance and the individual is not as important as the paper receipts which bear their name.”

The Orwellian oligarchic Oceania was always at war with an elusive Eurasia or an ephemeral Eastasia-can we keep track?—the “war to end all wars”, “the cold war”. Egged on by the Neocons, the “war on terror,” has now been transformed into a “war on Radical Islam” which, will continue indefinitely. Is indefinitely just another word for forever? Isn’t forever going to at doomsday? Are we talking of “rapture”?

Iraq, AfghanistanŅ..who is next on the list? Are Iran and North Korea next? How much more? We are over stretched and bankrupt in many ways. Moral authority has been one of the great assets of America? Are we losing that? We are targeting alleged terrorists in 50-to-60 countries using the poorest of the poor as cannon fodder and have already spent $200 Billion.

America is the beacon of freedom. Is this light dimming in Camelot? Michael Moore described the use of “fear” eloquently in his “9-11” documentary. Internally our freedoms are at stake. In “1984” the elite “Inner Party” rule rattled the irradiated citizens of Oceania through three conduits of fear and intimidation: surveillance, terrorism, and perpetual warfare.

Are the Oceanians with their two-way TV screens less efficient than our Department of Homeland Security satellites, surveillance, racial profiling, torture, and outsourced torture via deportations.

COMPLETING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION BY LISTENING TO THE FOUNDING FATHERS: When Dr. Crane talks about his noble vision of completing the American Revolution, he is talking about paying attention to some of the golden rules of governance that need to be adhered to. When I reiterate the principles laid down by some of the most intelligent brains on the planet, the founding fathers of our great country, some rebut it is “not valid anymore”.

“I deemed [one of] the essential principles of our government [to be] peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none. ...” Thomas Jefferson, First inaugural address in 1801.
“There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the commission under which it is exercised, is void.” Alexander Hamilton stated it succinctly in The Federalist (#78):
“It is the providence and duty of the Executive to preserve to the Nation the blessings of peace. The Legislature alone can interrupt those blessings, by placing the Nation in a state of War.” 1793, Alexander Hamilton

“The Constitution supposes, what the history of all governments demonstrates, that the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature.” James Madison 1798

“Allowing the executive to decide unilaterally ‘the question of war’ will be tantamount to ... potentially setting the stage for ‘continued warfare,’ a condition in which liberty cannot long survive.” Norman Grigg

How do we take our government back? This week we will find out if we can do this quickly, or if it will take a long time. We need to pump some “backbone” into the “other party”!

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