Freedom= Slavery

Before I get to book 9- 1984; I briefly tagged this Dad- because I told him I was re-reading 1984... and he mentioned that HIS mother loved it. Not tagging this grammy or anything because my grandma- was my mom's mom... I never knew either of my father's parents. My dad's dad died after open heart surgery and his mother died about a year or so later. Growing up I had been told she 'pinned away', but as I got older I learnt that 'pinned away' is sometime adult code for suicide... so when I was old enough I asked both my mom and my dad's cousin( when he was NOWHERE in earshot) if his mom commited suicide... and the answer was, yeah we think so.
I say this because I know very little about my dad's mother, so learning that 1984 was one of her favorite books was sort of odd to me. I do intend to talk about this more with him as I realize I have very rarely, if ever, asked him that many questions about his parents. I know alot more of my mom's family but that's because there was more of them... and I met her parents... my grandpa and grandma.

Now to 1984. I'm very happy I re-read it. While I remembered the ending- and who can forget the image of the boot forever stomping on the face... I forgot the 'love story' in the middle and many of the other details. My dad mentioned in his letter the totalitarian themes of the book... which I remember- Big Brother is watching you. And I don't think I gave it a second thought that the bad guy- Big Brother's arch foe was a jew, but this time arround I quickly realized that the reason for a jew bad guy was NOT anti-semitism but because Stalin's biggest foe at the beginning was Trotsky- a jewish fellow revolutionary. And indeed I remembered the 'revisionist' history- he who controls the present controls the past... and remember as I learnt of Soviet Russia that Stalin did indeed 'change' photos to help disappear people...

However what I found truely intersting is I understand the sword/plows arguement more in a post Iraq War/Katrina world. My 12th grade teacher tried to show this by linking Brave New World and 1984- showing that both books dealt with the idea that the industrial revolution would lead to WAY more stuff then needed and how to deal with that. In 1984- the Inner Party decides that if they allow the state to make 'plowsheds' everyone would be happy and content and that's not good- so they decided it would be better to use all the materials and factories to make BOMBS and Floating Fortresses and other stuff that is a)meaningless and b) will get destroyed so will have to be built again. Brave New World 'solved' the problem of too much stuff with a) conspicuous consumption= which we teenagers liked and b) built in obsolesce= again a concept easily understood in America... as there's always a NEWER BETTER {insert product here}.
I see sadder parallels between 1984 and the W. white house then the illegal spying they do( which is also shades of big brother). Consider for a moment the monatery cost of the Iraq war; here's a link that show how much that money could've been used to help things like public education and kids health. Likewise, I know I previously blogged about the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter- a nuclear sub costing us about $3.2 BILLION. It was commissioned in the late 90's and finished in 2004. How can we justify spending that much money on a sub- when people are going hungry, when most americans don't have decent health care and when it would be great to have working computers in schools for all the kids.
And speaking of 'for the kids...' could you imagine the Department of Education lettig it slide if Steve Jobs charged them an extra $250 million for computers... because Haliburton did that to our army( this is of course before they decided to move their headquarters to Dubai).... Heck I'd be surprised if the Federal government gave $250 million to public schools in 2006.
And finally on this subject- as mentioned Iraq and Katrina. How many billions have disappeared in Iraq and how much could that have helped New Orleans. How many of the LO National Guard were in Iraq, and how much could they( and their equipment) have helped both before and after Katrina hit?
So again- as I'm older I understand the 'post industrial complex', the idea that Orwell put forth that by having a continous war( like against drugs or terror) the state uses up resources that otherwise could've been used to help it's citizens.