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| Fifth Column |
| Reassessing Orwell to Understand Our Times |
| 2017-10-09 |
| [AMERICANTHINKER] Social media have great power to narrow the range of acceptable thought. On Facebook, those who openly support a politically correct view -- what appears to be the popular majority view -- are frequently lauded with thumbs up, while dissenters often remain silent to avoid being criticized or denounced. All of which leads to what is called "the spiral of silence," which reinforces the groupthink of what seems to be the social and cultural majority. What comfortable and disengaged Americans have forgotten is that there are determined enemies within and there is an internal war being waged against the values and institutions that made America a great nation. The left is the vanguard leading this war, following a course laid out by cultural Marxists such as Antonio Gramsci and members of the Frankfurt School. Becoming influential in the 1930s and beyond, they believed the "long march through the institutions" was the best route to taking power in developed, industrialized societies such as the United States and Europe. This "march" would be a gradual process of radicalization of social and cultural institutions -- "the superstructure" -- of bourgeois society, which would transform the values and morals of society. In retrospect, there is a high correlation between the softening of morals over the last two or three generations and the corruption of our family, political, legal and, economic foundation. There are three measures of the establishment’s venality. First there is a high incidence of denial, manifest for instance in little to no discussion of the doubling of national debt in just 9 years to over $20 trillion, and unfunded entitlement liabilities now five times greater than that -- conditions inviting financial collapse of the U.S. A second measure of corruption is the establishment’s reluctance to prosecute fellow establishment law breakers in government, which has effectively created a two-tiered justice system. A third measure of establishment corruption is its accommodation of turban anti-American groups as though they have a legitimate role to play in reform and influence on policy-making -- whether in taking down historic monuments, creating sanctuary cities and controlling the nation’s borders, establishing police protocols in law enforcement, fighting wars overseas, or restructuring the economy at home. The hostility to the Trump Presidency by the establishment elite in both political parties, the media, the teachers’ unions, the university faculties, and Hollywood is probably a contrary indicator. It likely tells us more about the real state of corruption in government, the establishment media, and popular culture than it does about Trump and his peccadillos. A society committed to maintaining liberty, prosperity, and opportunity for all needs to focus on real threats, a key one of which is now the loss of freedom of speech and the assault on the First Amendment. One of our nation’s founders, Patrick Henry of Richmond, Virginia, was a gifted and passionate orator best known for his declaration, "Give me liberty or give me death." But his most important, substantive and lasting contribution to the legacy of freedom was his tenacious and ultimately successful fight to have the Bill of Rights amended to the Constitution because of his conviction that the First Amendment and nine others were absolutely necessary to protect individual liberty against the power and abuse of centralized government. Orwell reminds us today of the critical importance of the First Amendment, noting "if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." Exactly the opposite of the current trajectory and what the politically correct crowd wants. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950). Someone sent a Brit to forewarn us. Speaking of the 'Spiral of Silence.' Anyone seen anything regarding the Abid Awan and the DNC information systems case ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-10-09 04:29 |