If any of you have seen the Word of the Day on Dictionary.com you might have seen my inspiration for this post. The word of the day is:
newspeak
[noo-speek, nyoo-]
noun
(sometimes initial capital letter)an official or semiofficial style of writing or saying one thing in the guise of its opposite, especially in order to serve a political or ideological cause while pretending to be objective, as in referring to “increased taxation” as “revenue enhancement.”
This makes me think of our society today and it's faux pas. It also brings back memories of the book by George Orwell, 1984. It used to be required reading in English class for those of you who remember it. For those of you that don't remember or never read it I will give you the short version.
1984: The Summary
In 1984 (yes it was written before 1984 as a dystopian novel) the world only has three countries that are constantly at war with each other. The people are watched 24/7 by 'Big Brother' to ensure domestic tranquility. You have four main parts to the government that are housed in four giant structures. The Ministry of Peace deals with war and defense, the Ministry of Plenty deals with rationing and starvation, the Ministry of Love deals with torture and brainwashing, and the Ministry of Truth deals with propaganda. Individualism and free thinking are viewed as "thoughtcrime" and is enforced by the "Thought Police".
Now, some of you may wonder why I bring this up. What does this have to do with our world today? Well, it has everything to do with it! They don't want you to think. Why would you need to do that? They do much better thinking than you do, so we should all let them do it for us. Political correctness is the box of "thoughtcrime" that we're forced to put up with today. If you think for yourself or disagree with the main stream (media mainly) about anything you are bigoted, brainwashed, etc. Instead of having a "Thought Police" we have a culture of thought policing. We're not supposed to come up with our own views or opinions. If you don't agree you are unarguably wrong.
We have been being controlled. How? They work it into our culture. This process has been going on for a long time. What should be viewed as opinions are viewed like facts with definite right and wrong sides. The ability to debate (have a discussion involving opposing viewpoints) has disappeared because they tell us that there is no need. There is only one right and wrong after all so why should we debate? Why should we be individuals who think for themselves when the group knows better? We wouldn't want the government to tell us where to shop or what to eat so why do we allow them to tell us what is right and wrong?
We do it to fit in. We do it to belong. We do it because eventually you get tired of fighting those who don't want to do the hard work of thinking for themselves.
How do we fix it? We question our own ideas. We question other people's ideas. We talk to each other about why we think the way that we do. Be reasonable with each other, listen first and then express your differences in a polite way. We can't have a productive discussion while one part is calling the other names. In order for this to work we have to bring all sides to the table and talk to each other as the equals that we are in this society. Don't just preach equality, practice it.
No comments:
Post a Comment