As an eighth grader at H.B. Thompson Junior High School in Syosset, New York – in the year 1984 – my English class read George Orwell’s 1984. A hot topic due to the year, it was required reading for American students…
Back then, the world was a far more productive, safe, and more moral place. Not that “HUMAN NATURE” was any different, of course. However, as the gold standard had been abandoned just 13 years earlier, the U.S. national debt was dramatically lower (just $1.5 trillion, to be exact); and the “giant sucking sound” of jobs moving overseas was but a gleam in Ross Perot’s eye…
Additionally, consumer prices were less than half of what they are today…
…as the “ill effects” of inflation had not yet poisoned the global economy; and thus, Middle Class families like mine could live comfortably on one income…
Heck, even my beloved Mets were good that year; and likewise, reading 1984 appeared more of an amusement than a warning…
Unfortunately, those “good old days” didn’t last long – as the inevitable parabolic growth in DEBT, DEFICITS, and MONEY PRINTING kicked in shortly thereafter; prompting Western governments to take increasingly draconian measures to “ensure the national defense”…
Increasingly, the Executive Branch realized it must use dictatorial powers to keep the “proletariat” class in check; utilizing PROPAGANDA…
Ron Paul: “Obama’s Syria Policy Looks a lot like Bush’s Iraq Policy”
…totalitarian “Executive Orders” like the National Defense Resources Preparedness decree of March 2012…
…and last but not least, direct violations of basic Constitutional rights; such as the sixth amendment, following December 2012’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act …
Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and other rights of the accused
…and now – prompting this topic – the fourth amendment; upon public disclosure the government’s PRISM surveillance system is spying on every email we send, telephone call we make, and internet page we view…
Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure
A 29 year-old NSA hacker – whom I view as a patriot – brought this scandal to light…
Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
…with frightening quotes such as below…
Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being watched and recorded. …it’s getting to the point where you don’t have to have done anything wrong, you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you’ve ever made, every friend you’ve ever discussed something with, and attack you on that basis, to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life.
–Washington’s Blog, June 10, 2013
…creating such an ado – about something we all already suspected – that the modern day Benedict Arnold himself called Snowden a “traitor”…
Snowden: No Higher Honor Than Being Called a Traitor by Dick Cheney
I have long feared – and written of – the upcoming draconian decrees I anticipate when Western governments lose control of angry, inflation-oppressed populations. I’ve seen too many movies depicting the realities of Nazi Germany; such as Brazil, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and my ALL-TIME FAVORITE – V for Vendetta – to think the current, GLOBAL economic catastrophe will end otherwise. “Fortunately,” others are waking up as well; as in the days following the Snowden “revelation,” sales of 1984 literally exploded…
Sales of George Orwell’s 1984 have Surged 6884% in the Last 24 Hours
Sadly, “life often imitates art;” and in this case, death may be the more appropriate analogy.