Ryan Blethen Times editorial columnist
 The resemblance grows between the Bush administration and the sinister, monolithic political party INGSOC, from George Orwell's novel "1984," with every twisted and evasive defense for the violation of American civil rights. Bush and Co.'s battle against terrorism has turned into a power grab and a war on Americans. Fear and contorted language are the weapons of choice.
| Ummm... I'd call the "fear and contorted language" as coming from the other side. People like the Seattle Times, in fact. |
The administration's assertive actions after 9/11 might have made sense in the raw aftermath of nearly 3,000 dead. With time and distance comes perspective.
| Despite the time and distance, they're still dead. Despite the time and distance, our enemies still want to destroy us. You're supposed to be a newspaper. Read the goddamn news. |
Those new presidential controls awarded to help ensure the safety of Americans now look more like the political clubs wielded by INGSOC.
| "Socrates was a man, therefore all men are Socrates." |
Orwell might have got the year wrong, but his nightmarish vision of a super-nation at perpetual war, dominated by a government only concerned about control and party preservation, could gain purchase in 2006.
| The mere utterance of the words belies the statement. In Orwell's world, the writer would have been carried off and reeducated, if not simply disposed of. But poseurs like this like to demonstrate their "bravery" by bearding their enemies, secure in the knowledge that their enemies won't slap them down. Rather than being carried off, in Orwell's world the writer would likely have been writing propaganda for the regime. |
I hear more of Newspeak, the restrictive language created by INGSOC, with every presidential explanation as to why the government feels compelled to spy on Americans. Orwell wrote that the idea of Newspeak was to restrict the language to the point that people would have to think in the limited language of the party.
| Orwell was actually pretty prescient in the way he imagined Political Correctness. |
In true INGSOC fashion, the administration has used Bushspeak to spin a story broken by The New York Times about a domestic-spying program run by the National Security Agency and approved by executive order soon after 9/11 into a necessary program needed to weed out the deeply integrated terrorists living next door.
| He's big on the "domestic spying" angle, even though one end of the phone calls would have been connected to a turban. The turbans, y'see, deserve to have their calls to residents of the U.S.A. sacrosanct. That's because if somebody blows up Seattle, why, just give it a few years and time and distance will make it not so important, and certainly not deserving of any kind of counteraction. |
The timing was curious when, last week, Bush revealed that a terrorist plot was thwarted in 2002. Bush talked about the plot the same day stories surfaced about the doubts a secret surveillance court judge had about the legality of domestic spying. Of course, an administration spokesperson danced around the question of whether the NSA program was involved in stopping the terrorist plot.
| Liars and thieves, the lot of 'em!" |
The use of powerful and well-placed words and images worked for INGSOC. Its slogan — war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength — fits like a truncheon in the cradle of shattered bone with Bush's recent State of the Union address:War is peace
"There is no peace in retreat."
| Takes more imagination than I have to connect the two statements... |
Freedom is slavery
"The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America."
| The first statement's a mere oxymoron. The second is a statement of fact. If Ryan has evidence that it's not true, then he should present it. I suspect he has nothing but his opinion and his hysteria. |
Ignorance is strength
"... We have benefited from responsible criticism and counsel offered by members of Congress of both parties ... Yet, there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure."
| There's nothing in there about ignorance. In fact, Bush was stating that he does receive advice, and that he discounts the nattering and the spew from dipshits like Ryan. |
Political doublespeak is nothing new, but has become a real threat to democracy in the hands of this administration.
| This threat is currently visible only to trained observers like Ryan, but just you wait... |
Bush has taken communication strategy to new heights, said David Domke, associate professor of communications at the University of Washington. "This administration has become preeminent in crafting messages for political gain," Domke said.
| It looks to me like Bush is under continuous attack domestically from people like Ryan, including the press, the Democratic party, various moonbats, and the peculiarly foul specimens like Ramsey Clark who hate the United States for what it is. Attack calls for counterattack. The fact that he responds by refuting their arguments just makes them furious. |
The Republicans have made no secret about what they will run on this year. A recent Pew poll showed that Americans believe the Democrats could lead the nation better on every issue except national security. Bush aide Karl Rove has given speeches about national security and the president skips across the nation talking about the importance of spying on Americans to keep us safe. This strategy works only if the electorate is fearful that a hostile world is ready to overrun America.
| The hostile world periodically states intent to do that very thing. Where the hell have you been, Ryan? Don't you believe them? |
Bush's fear-mongering resembles a version of INGSOC's Two Minutes (of) Hate, in which party members watch a video of legions of the enemy army marching behind a bleating political enemy.
| Two minutes of hate might be appropriate, since Orwell took an observed phenomenon — Nazis and Commies and Fascists, who're all fond of doing such things — and made them INGSOC's bugaboo. But that doesn't mean they're not fond of doing such things in the real world, and it doesn't mean they're not intent on defeating us in this very real world. In Orwell's novel they weren't real. In ours they are. You get the difference?... I thought you wouldn't. |
American democracy has buckled under the weight of Americans voting scared, a weak press diluted because of consolidation by mega-public companies, and no real political alternative. It does not matter that the administration and, by extension, the Republican Party are only doing what is needed to hold on in November and again in the 2008 presidential election. Their actions are beginning to eclipse our civil rights, potentially reducing freedom to a dim flicker.
| Can we get a paper bag over here? Ryan's hyperventilating. |
|
