Topic Tuesday #105 2014/07/22 "Orwellian"

Ingsoc (English Socialism), is the regnant ideology and pseudophilosophy of Oceania — *Ingsoc* (English Socialism), is the regnant ideology and pseudophilosophy of Oceania

War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

Ignorance is strength.

1984, written by George Orwell and published in 1949, is the quintessential dystopian novel. There are some fascinating political concepts that are critical to the work. Manipulation, omnipresent surveillance, perpetual war, historic revisionism. Thoughtcrime, as a concept, was not new to Orwell. Nor was the concept of Big Brother. It's easy to make parallels to historic events, people, places, and the story itself. As we approach the 30th anniversary of this novel, we have sadly seen many of the concepts put into practice.

For instance, the NSA prevalent global surveillance efforts exposed by Edward Snowden.

We can look to North Korea for a Big Brother figure in their Supreme Leader.

The United States has technically been involved in a state of conflict (even if WAR was not declared, the body count sure continued to escalate), since it declared independence from Great Britain, with an exception during the extreme isolationism of the Great Depression in 1935-40. To be conservative, 21 years have had no "real" war like activities since 1776. Highly debatable.

The working poor have always represented a form of indentured servitude in the world, especially when we look at fully socialized systems that Orwell was involved in. The wage slaves are free to make their narrow range of choices.

And the ignorance... Oh the ignorance... It is amazing how so many people believe whatever is served up by their favorite talking head pundit about world events, economics, and what to buy. It is remarkable how similar the world we live in now is to the Orwellian existence of Winston Smith.

Don't forget the oxymoronic and yet fitting Ministry of Peace (War), Ministry of Plenty (Rations goods), Ministry of Truth (controls information and edits history), and the Ministry of Love (which monitors, arrests, and tortures/alters dissidents.) The theme is continued in the language of Newspeak combined with Doublethink and Doublespeak, where words have dual meanings that are not only contradictory but exist and are meant simultaneously.

The work is so iconic, it took on a life of it's own in the term, "Orwellian". As an adjective it describes it's targeted noun with looming official deception, secret pervasive surveillance and manipulation of the facts by a authoritarian/totalitarian/all powerful state government/agency.

In a world (this one by the way and said in the movie trailer voice), where we can predict many behaviors (and may be approaching the ability to read minds) the godlike ability to read your mind and rout out "thoughtcrimes" becomes a real fear. When all your email is read, calls are recorded, movements monitored, and certain agencies rewrite history books for our children, it is not difficult to make comparisons and think that someone has been using the novel as a playbook, and not the warning that it clearly was to a rational person.

1984 has another great thing going for it. It has been on banned book lists and legally challenged for being "subversive" and "corrupting". This makes me smile, as it is ironic, given the content of the book.

Remember kids, read your banned books!

Big Brother is watching.

Topic Tuesday #100 2014/06/17 "Inner Monologue"

Well holy crap, I have done 100 of these! I hope they are worthwhile in expanding conversation and highlighting those items you may have never considered or perhaps just never given time to. I have no intention of stopping. My thoughts on this fall to my children, since we just passed the equitable Hallmark holiday of Father's Day. One day, many years from now these musings and explorations will be read by my offspring, and at least then they will either learn something about the world or about their dear old dad. Hi girls! I hope you are well in the future and make sure to buckle your seat-belts and fly your cars at the speed and height limit. Love you always.

Today is not about a time capsule but about our inner voice, our internal monologue. This is the "voice" in your head when you actively think about things, or perhaps you have in different voices when you are reading or remembering something someone said. We usually have this voice in our heads at a conscious level. This is how we can argue with ourselves. It gets complicated from here.

Which one is going to do that "Over the Top" thing?

In cultures where the Abrahamic traditions predominate, we have a cultural perspective on the inner voice. It may be construed as your "conscience" or as "the holy spirit". If the thoughts are classified as being...detrimental, then perhaps that inner voice is not your own but of a possession by a malevolent power or of Beelzebub himself. This is societally prevalent but also based on pure conjecture.

Buddhists, whom have a spent a great deal of time, in meta-cognitive states, thinking about thinking, see the inner voice as a path to new concepts or to the next idea. "Thought following thought." This does not exactly directly address the inner voice but it does bring us to a place where we can make our inner voice question itself. Once we hit that point, then our minds tend to provide some ambiguity to the source of the concepts we think about or debate with our inner voice. This can be a maddening line of thought all on its own, so... think about it, before you think about it.

Attribution of the inner voice can easily slip into schizophrenia and hallucinations, or more commonly, hearing voices that have an unidentifiable source to the mind. This is also the realm of the supposed demonic possessions, and often is the scapegoat of a tired mind reaching the end of it's cognitive ability, where a little voice tells you to give up.

We higher apes, with our expanded cognitive abilities, have what we assume to be a unique ability for self reflection and philosophy. We have the awareness of our own voices and even our own thinking. This "higher self" that we have spent extraordinarily large amounts of time and energy exploring is also the reason we "think" and think that the thinking portion of our selves is somehow separate and above the brain that it emerges from. This gives rise to a soul. Our innate fear of the unknown gives rise to the immortal soul. We have clear examples of brain injuries that have changed the way a person behalves and the way they think, so we are close to certain scientifically that thought and consciousness is an emerging aspect of our brain.

If you are keeping track, I just talked you through why I do not believe in a soul and the reason I don't believe there is life after death. We are our brains, and our brains are us. We have the ability to talk to ourselves, and answer. Some of us like the answers we receive and others may have cause to think otherwise. What is a person to do?

To give you an example of how your thoughts may not be your own, have you ever had someone say, without the melody, a lyric to a song and been instantly transmuted into a jukebox where the song plays in your head and your inner voice breaks out into song? The same works for less "tangible" thoughts, like the smell of food taking you to your grandparents kitchen. The brain has some things on instant recall, and not always things we enjoy. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a nearly Pavlovian response to mental or physical stimulus. Hear a car backfire, and suddenly your brain transplants you to a personal hell-scape where you were being shot at. Or someone touches you a certain way and you remember being violated decades ago. Or even worse... makes you think of that Sarah McLaughlin ASPCA commercial...

Thinking about thinking can be rewarding. Thinking about 'what' you are thinking can be hazardous, but also rewarding. Our brains are fascinating constructs that can turn dreams into reality and reality into dreams. Or... at least that is what my inner monologue told me to write...