OPPapers.com

1984 Is Now

To accept orthodoxy is always to inherit unresolved contradictions. George Orwell, ‘Writers and Leviathan' 1948
So what, George? Surely you jest. Nobody blindly accepts orthodoxy here in America -- we are free here. Free to get a good job, free to have credit, and free to consume. We don't make mistakes here. (2+2=5)
For me to pretend I have even a remote idea about what is really going on with the world is folly. I don't, that is why I'm here (in your class). I bring with me only an inane desire to find out, and to do what I can to make things right. Original thought is vital in our times (Thoughtcrime) and rhetoric has a place, but not in my paper. That being said, I wish to make clear my understanding of the institutions in Orwell's 1984, as they relate to the institutions of Palast's Best Democracy money can buy, and my understanding of the concepts thereof.
In 1984, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. We find that the party slogan "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (1984, pp 35) Leibnitz put it thusly: "The Present is loaded with the Past, and pregnant with the Future." This applies heavily to the Ministry of Truth, as they are the disseminators of information. Our media in America is (supposedly) part of a free market, meaning the information given out is subject to competition. Usually, the media mogul with the most money wins here (ie, Bush's cousin at FOX) Marx tells us that in all class societies the state is the coercive instrument of the owning classes, this means the majority of the information disseminated here in America is that which the owning classes wish for the "lower classes" to hear. Winston himself is in the business of falsifying records, and thereby, changing the past. History becomes relative to the viewpoint the State wishes to be prevalent at any given moment. One such example is Winstons inside knowledge that Oceania was...