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September 10, 2021 – 1984, the Finale

September 10, 2021 /

I am sure that everyone has been sitting on pins and needles waiting for this day. Today, I am going to discuss my opinion and analysis of 1984. I have spilled a few drops along the way so my opinion shouldn’t be a complete surprise. I will caution that this post is not going to be an academic thesis. Let us first get into my motivations in the first place.

Hopefully, you realize that freedom is one of my anchor tenants of this blog. I picked 1984 to read and analyze because I thought that it did a pretty good job of forecasting the future when it was published in 1948. When I say pretty good job, I really mean scarily accurate. What I didn’t realize until halfway through the book that this book is not really about freedom.

Now, before everyone gets too carried away, remember what I said in my very first post of 1984. It is not my intent to speak for Orwell, he could have done that himself. It is my attempt to analyze what I read and provide an opinion. And my opinion is that this is not a book about freedom. So, let us unwind that some more.

First we need to look at the origins of the story and the author. Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blane) was born in India in 1903. He was born in imperial India under British rule but the family soon after moved to Great Britain. That did mean that he travelled the world under a favored passport. I would say his formative years were were forming the opinions that come out in 1984.

I think from reading Orwell’s biographical information, there is no doubt that geo-socioeconomic politics have colored his thoughts and opinions. This was a very tumultuous time with the Bolshevik revolution, Spanish Revolution, World War 1,2 and the pinnacle of the British Empire all occurring in his lifetime. Also coinciding with that was the prominence of psychological research along with Eugenics and progressive thought.

I think that this book is a story about Freudian theory of psychoanalysis. Orwell uses his beliefs about politics to support the story and develop Winston as the representative of the three types of personalities. In case you are not familiar with these, they are simply defined as the following.

  • Id – Subconscious thought
  • Ego – Conscious thought
  • Super Ego – Values and morals

Clues started coming to me with the dreams, the verbal out lashes, the mother issues, the seeking of erotic pleasure. Those things could have been interpreted as the repression as they were portrayed or something larger. To me, I could not make another connection to those events to the story line without going straight to Freud. Throughout the book, all three personalities were clashing, particularly in section 3.

I am by no means an expert in this area, but I started questioning my beliefs that this was a story about freedom when the book got into section 3. My limited research into psychoanalysis has caused me to understand that there is a personality progression. It seems to be tied largely to age, but I didn’t see anything strictly limiting to such. In fact, some sources supported the idea that not progressing through the stages leads to neurosis, clearly a trait that Winston exhibited at times.

While the Freudian theories were first introduced in 1890, Great Britain created the Psychological society in 1913 which was right before World War 1. It was expanded in 1919 after the war. I think that it is highly plausible that Orwell as a student was not only exposed to these theories but was highly impressionable at that young age.

The story just doesn’t go with the flow that I would expect. In fact, very little of section 3 makes much sense. Yes, there is a societal warning in 1984 but the reprogramming of Winston to accept Big Brother doesn’t make much sense without Freud. Orwell could have ended 1984 shortly after Section 2 if he just wanted a warning or he could have made Winston and Julia heroes if he wanted to go the other direction.

My point is that this story went on way too long or at least not in the correct direction if this was simply a story warning about totalitarian governments. As of right now, my belief is that Animal Farm is a story more in line with the freedom vein by Orwell. I also think that the notoriety of that earlier work has blinded people into pigeon holing Orwell into social commentary rather than being more broad which is where I am falling on the spectrum.

End Your Programming Routine: Orwell died in 1950 not long after 1984 was published. It is unfortunate that he did not get to see the juggernaut that he created and then maybe I wouldn’t even be discussing this. I also looked around and there doesn’t seem to be any commentary from Orwell about it. There is plenty of other’s opinions out there, but again it is just that which of course you know by now that I am taking a different direction.

September 9, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

September 9, 2021 /

From what I have seen on TV, the time when the weather shifts in Alaska from below freezing to mostly above freezing is called ‘Breakup’. The ice in the rivers that have been frozen over start to break up. Icebergs can end up floating down the river and damage equipment and structures. It seems like a time that is tumultuous and semi hazardous and there are a lot of unknowns.

We are in the breakup period of pandemic buying of guns and ammunition. I am speaking mostly about ammunition and components to reload in this context. There is some availability and the prices have started to stabilize a little bit. It really depends on what it is you are looking for. What I have seen is the auto pistol calibers 9mm, 40 S&W and 45acp and not really the revolver cartridges 38/357, 44, 45. And if you are looking for anything obscure…good luck.

I was able to buy 45 Colt brass and and bullets a couple of weeks ago. I do already have some primers and powder, so I have enough to load a batch. I slowed my roll on reloading about two years ago, it did coincide some with the pandemic but also my economic status and the activities I was engaged with (remodeling). By the time I had time and money to shoot, There wasn’t anything to replace what I was shooting so I tempered a bit.

The real reason that I stopped reloading was really that I didn’t have enough data to continue to reload. Meaning, I have done a lot of planning (and reloading) but really haven’t shot much to speak of. So I didn’t want to keep going without getting some feedback on how I was doing. Can you imagine loading 1000 rounds of really poor shooting ammunition? It would be a waste of a lot of time and money.

Every load is kind of a controlled experiment. By changing one variable, the entire load must be tested again for optimum performance. In some cases, substituting one component for another is not a direct replacement. Take a look at the picture above. The lead bullets are the same weight as the jacketed ones. Lead versus jacketed bullets perform differently. One of the advantages of jacketed bullets is that they can travel at higher velocity because Lead can coat the inside of the barrel if the bullet is pushed too fast.

Another item to consider is that bullets of the same weight and density (and diameter) should be roughly the same length. However a heavier bullet will almost always be longer. A longer bullet is seated more deeply inside of the case so that when the powder ignites, there is less overall volume and therefore the bullet exits with higher pressure. All this is to say that bullets cannot just be willy nilly substituted from the load data.

If you are knowledgeable about reloading then this is all old hat. 45 Colt was first introduced in 1872 and this was in the black powder era which is why the case is so tall. There are still firearms around from that period and overly high pressure can actually blow up that firearm. So, you need to know what you are loading for and the boundaries for what you are shooting.

The same can be said for primers and powder, etc. Above is some guidance that I have used to load 250 grain loads. In this case, I have 200 grain bullets now. I think that the best way to proceed and learn something is to use the same powder and primer and only change the bullet weight. Looking at the 250 grain load guidance, you can see that the starting powder charge is 5.0 grains and can be loaded up to 6.2 grains of powder. When you look at the 200 grain ranges, the powder goes from 6.4 – 7.7 grains.

I don’t know what the ‘leading’ threshold is for velocity and pressure issues. I am presuming that Hodgdon has done the research and and would be conservative in their recommendations. I will probably load some through the spectrum of powder weights to see if I can determine any differences.

End Your Programming Routine: Don’t be scared, this is relatively safe and fun if you are diligent and follow good practice. I like the idea that I can make my own custom loads and especially save some money at the same time. I also like the idea that I can makeup what I need based on the application that I am using i.e. hunting vs plinking vs bear defense. I have been guarding my stash of ammo and components watching how this whole ‘breakup’ unfolds. But it does seem like spring is here.

September 8, 2021 – The Book of John and Loving Like Jesus

September 8, 2021 /

It is hard for me to convey how difficult this time has been. It is not that I can’t do the job using words, but that I don’t want to get deeply into explaining the situation. It involves the feelings of loss and despair along with a history of conflict. But for context reasons I will provide an abstract summary below.

Let us just say that there is a significant person in my life that is struggling. There has been a history of conflict with this individual. As a result of the conflict, most people including children have distanced themselves to the point where they are unwilling to do much more than topical help. This person is at a point where help is necessary to function on a day to day basis.

To be 100% fair, this is not my burden to bear alone. In fact, I am a lessor party in this dynamic and it is more directly impacting my wife. The problem is that we are also having some issues related our differences. We have been seeing a counselor over the summertime to try and help. We know the problems, it is more about how to move beyond them.

In general, I am opposed to conflict. Intellectually I know that sometimes it is necessary, my issue is the frequency, intensity and root cause of the conflict. I understand that there is a give and take in a relationship. For the most part, I am ambivalent about a lot of things and then the problem is that I don’t have strong enough opinion leads conflict. For those reasons, I have been tempted to give up but for some reason God pulls me in.

This entire year, our church has been going through a series on the book of John. I didn’t give it much thought last fall when the series began. The truth is, sometimes I have a hard time with continuity because I would estimate that we attend 50% of Sundays. One time a month, we are at the church but teaching in the children’s area and missed the service altogether.

Not this year, with the sermons getting put onto podcast form, I can now listen at any point in the week. That has made me follow the progression more closely and it has also put more faith touchpoints in different parts of the week. Consequently, I have put more thought into the message and how it applies to my life.

If I am honest, there are times that I have not lived to the values that I aspire. Christians would label as ‘sin’ but I think a better descriptor would be ‘humanness’. It is not easy to engage in a situation that outside of your comfort level no matter how right it is supposed to be.

Let me cut to the chase, do you help someone significantly if you can’t stand to be around them and you are the only person willing to entertain the thought at this time? If I play devil’s advocate for just a second, the faith dichotomy comes to head. One end of the spectrum there is living like Jesus versus the god will provide belief.

My journey through this year has led me more to the former and living like Jesus. It is the reason that I made an attempt to resolve relationships with my brother in law. The thing that I did wrong was not trying to understand his perspective and stop having a relationship as a result. Despite doing that, I am under no illusion that there won’t be difficult times in our relationship in the future.

How else can you reconcile values versus action? By doing the difficult things because they are the right things to do is the only thing I know. Standing alone is difficult, it is thankless and it makes you question your decisions. But, I think that is the only way.

End Your Programming Routine: This situation is not all entirely my decision on how to proceed. So, I cannot say how it will ultimately play out. What I am trying to convey today is that regardless of the choice, the path is not easy. Additionally, I appreciate the opportunity to follow along in various forms of media to help me walk my walk. We can only get ‘better’ as humans by looking at our actions and striving to make corrections for the future.

September 7, 2021 – Putting up Green Beans

September 7, 2021 /

My weekend wasn’t as good as it could have been but it was much better than the previous one. Friday and Saturday were spent going through my father in laws effects trying to get ready for my mother in law’s trip back to Texas next week. Sunday was the annual family day at the state fair. And Monday was doing a lot of things around the house including grilling some ribs and corn.

My parents came over on Thursday and brought me some things out of their garden. We got cabbage, corn on the cob and green beans. My mom likes to eat raw green beans, I do not. For my tastes, I want some minimal amount of cooking to get the ‘squeaky’ out of them. If you ever tried to eat green beans that were fresh, then you probably know what I am talking about.

It was probably around 10 pounds of green beans. There was definitely too much to eat, so I needed to get them processed for storage. When I was in college, I used to spend my summer working at a frozen food processing plant. One of the things that we did most of the summer was green beans. Not only growing up canning beans, but my knowledge of how they were done on a truck load scale is helpful in knowing what to do.

  1. Inspect the beans and remove both tips
  2. Wash the beans and heat up the water

3. Blanch the beans for about five minutes.

4. Drain the water and quench the blanching process using ice

5. Fill up the freezer bags and evacuate.

That is it, that is all there is to it. I made seven packages of ready to use green beans. That means each one is about a pound and a half give or take. Probably my favorite recipe to use them is a stir fried green beans with black bean sauce. If you are more of a meat and three then you can eat them that way or however you like.

This probably took me an hour and a half to do including cleanup. If I had more than 10lbs, it wouldn’t have taken that much more time. What takes time is heating up the water for blanching. I considered breaking out the propane burner to do this faster, but I only needed one batch. Another thing to consider is I used all of our ice, so you might need to have some additional ice ready if you were doing more.

End Your Programming Routine: This is the harvest season, I have some plans for plum wine, we need to put up peaches and pears and I am wanting to make some sauerkraut. I really don’t know if I will be able to do all that while my wife is gone, but we will see. I am going to do what I can to take advantage of the season.

September 3, 2021 – 1984 3:6

September 3, 2021 /

This is the end my friends and Winston loves big brother. How did this happen? The truth is I don’t really know. In the previous chapters, Winston was threatened with his greatest fear which caused him to renounce his love to Julia. Somehow, he was forever changed both mentally and emotionally to being ambivalent towards her and the switch was flipped to his current thoughts and beliefs.

Because Winton now has a love for big brother, he got a new job and it seems a degree of new freedom. He even had the freedom to meet with Julia again. From the description in the book, it may be that she got some sort of lobotomy to change her behavior as he said that she had a big scar. For all we know, Winston did as well.

Belief is Reality – This is not a new concept in my ongoing review but it is one that Orwell keeps driving. It is the only way I can explain Winston’s behavior. Once he decides that he loves Big Brother all of his other beliefs fall into line. I suppose that it is the scientist in me that wants a root cause analysis of how did this happen and why it is true. I am probably lacking the psychological background to understand the effect of fear or maybe it is post traumatic stress?

I am going to cut Orwell some slack as this was written in the late 1940s. PTSD was recognized as psychiatric disorder in 1980. It seems like he got so much right in Parts One and Two. Maybe it was pure chance and possibly he had some clairvoyant capability, I am not sure. We know from the Nazis and the other Eugenics experiments of the early century that medical establishments were doing research on the brain and behavior. This is not a subject that I have put much effort into learning. I have to believe that information of the day colored Orwell’s presentation of Part Three.

I am the most important thing in my life – I think that this is probably the biggest and most often missed concept in this book. There are many connections to the Freudian School of psychology throughout the book. When Winston and Julia meet, the discussion was primarily around the betrayal of each to the other. Both are quoted as “You want it to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.”

I am going to talk extensively about the Freudian connection in my final analysis next week. So, I am going to hit the surface today. The more that I have researched the Freudian school and Orwell’s biography, the more I am convinced that 1984 is not the book that I was expecting or was written as the tome of liberty that most believe that it is. I suppose we will see if I can make a convincing argument next week.

End Your Programming Routine: This has been an interesting experiment. I first read 1984 about four or five years ago. When I read it, I read it as a novel. This time reading it, I paused for a week at least on each chapter. Despite the fact that I knew what was coming next, I really thought about what was happening each week. I even looked back on my previous weekly analysis to see if I had conflicting opinions as the weeks progressed. This process had definitely given me a new outlook on the book, the process and hopefully it was enjoyed.

September 2, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

September 2, 2021 /

As I talked about last week, I had two lessons. This is the second one from my recent experiences. It also might be a little juvenile, but I have found myself in this position in the past as well so let’s get into it.

I haven’t written about it much, maybe not at all. I am a member of the Brotherhood of the Protective Order of the Elks (or Elks). The biggest reason that I wanted to do so was to get involved in the local trap range. The Elks sponsor the local high school trap team by providing the facility to shoot. My son is part of the high school trap team.

Our local state representative is also an Elk in our local lodge. He hosts an annual campaign fundraiser at the trap range and the trap team helps operate the event. I wanted to help out but I had to work that Saturday so I dropped my son off while I went back home. When I went to pick him up, I found him with his shotgun in pieces.

When I asked my son what was going on, he said that his shotgun was not functioning. He took it apart at the gun club and parts were all piled on the ground. People were trying to put the furniture away and clean up to close down the facility and event. I was finally able to persuade him that we should do this at home and not on the ground.

On the ride home, I was trying to figure out what was the problem and why he was so disparate. I got that the shotgun wasn’t cycling so he cleaned it and then it wasn’t firing. He told me that a pin in the trigger group occasionally works it’s way out causing the trigger not to work. He was trying to get the trigger group out at the club to determine if he had already lost the pin when he was cleaning it.

As it turns out, he did lose the pin somewhere on the grounds of the trap club. We probably ought to take a swing at looking for it again just in case but I don’t know where to look and he has been working at night since this happened. Fortunately, Brownells stocks the pin and it is $4 to replace.

I have been guilty of being frustrated and taking apart a firearm in the past. One time I lost a spring to pistol because it wasn’t firing properly and I took it apart in the woods. I have since learned to stop and do things in an appropriate time and place. Sometimes, part are not so readily available as this time.

End Your Programming Routine: In contrast to the story above, sometimes field repairs have to be done. It is a matter of weighing the risk vs the reward of the situation. I would highly encourage that evaluation is done before something irreplaceable goes flying off into the unknown. I even worry about stuff being torn down too long in a controlled environment; stuff gets moved or piled on top of. Another good practice is put the parts in a small box or something to keep them together. I am expecting the pin early next week.

September 1, 2021 – Wake Me Up When September Ends

September 1, 2021 /

Continuing on the theme of music as a distraction today, can you believe that today is September 1? My kids are going to a half day orientation for school today and tomorrow. The summer is for all intents and purposes over. As my wife and I were talking last night, we did some fun things but all-in-all it was another Covid summer. I can say that my kids are looking forward to going to school and having a little bit of normalcy even if it isn’t.

When I was looking up songs to help with the playlist for my father-in-laws funeral last week, I was reading on one song list that ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ was the number one grief song. It was apparently written about the passing of Billie Joe Holliday’s father in 1982. When you read some of the comments, they are all people hurting, except for today when people just want to comment and be silly.

It is interesting that the video does not actually match the true intent of the song. It does however have current relevance. We don’t know the true story, but it seems like the boy enlists and ends up in either Iraq or Afghanistan where he becomes a casualty. We don’t know his fate, but it seems like the parallel reality to this story is the girlfriend waiting and worrying about the boyfriend.

I am going to diverge for a paragraph here. I was sickened and horrified by September 11, 2001. But to start a twenty year war with two theatres and all of the senseless death, destruction and cost was a total waste. In 2001, I was at the apex of my Republican beliefs but I was on the fence about war. Now, in 2021 I am totally against any form of aggression outside of self defense. I am hard pressed to find vengeance as justification for war. This was George W Bush’s war, but Obama campaigned in 2008 for ending it which he never did, Trump actually set the withdrawal date and Biden finished it. I feel really bad for what is currently happening in Afghanistan but we cannot correct a wrong with another wrong (by staying in country).

I am not sure when things will return to normal at my house. September 13, my wife has tickets to return to Texas to support her mom with cancer treatment. Everything is so much up in the air at this point because there is no return date on that trip. There is a real possibility that this is another trip ending in bad news. There is another possibility that this trip is not just two weeks like the last one. We are going to do our best to stay strong and normal as possible.

You can probably tell from my writings over the last couple of weeks that this family is still grieving. The funeral service was a milestone which I don’t see as the end but rather the beginning of the cycle. People were so focused on the logistics of the service that there was no time to grieve. Now that is over, emotion is boiling.

But, I don’t want to make another post strictly about grief. Sometimes I want to hear a certain song, I will look it up on YouTube and then I let it play. The problem is that when you do that too much, the AI starts to develop a pattern and then it goes into the same genre loop every time. Sometimes I use a different browser so I can try to fake that it is me. I like to have some variety from time to time. It is kind of like Chicago, maybe I want one song and not everything in that particular genre or artist.

In my previous job, I used to frequently create a Friday playlist. You can see it on my YouTube channel still. They were songs that I thought captured the week or were funny or silly. After I set the initial list, I would open it up for the rest of the team to contribute. Sometimes they did and sometimes not, but we would usually put it on while we were working Friday afternoons.

Maybe I should have been a DJ? I am not deep into all of the facts about bands and songs but rather the connection music has with emotion. There is something about the senses of sound and smell that have a more triggering connection to memory more so than sight. It is probably because we are constantly using our eyes, but when we isolate our other senses, then we are specifically focused on that particular pathway.

End Your Programming Routine: If we are not careful, we will wake up in a few short days and it will be October 1. I don’t want to skip through the month, I want to get through the month otherwise we will be at the exact same place as we are now.

August 31, 2021 – Distraction Through Music

August 31, 2021 /

There are so many things going on in the world at the moment, it is hard to stay focused on the best ones to talk about. There are a number of things that are heavy on my heart and those tend to be the ones that are pushed to the forefront. I think I am going to go in a different direction today.

I will say that the American evacuation of Kabul is my generation’s evacuation of Saigon. The war in Afghanistan has lasted almost twenty years and it ended about the same fashion as Vietnam. I don’t really want to get into politics but what a sad situation that we created and then left.

Clearly I have been pretty quiet on Covid in the last couple of weeks. This state has lost it’s mind and the majority of the people have joined in the ‘hate week’ celebration. We have counties passing even more restrictive measures. Again, I don’t want to get into politics.

Harvest season is really kicking in. I have a bunch of plums planned to make some wine. My wife wants to put up some peaches and pears for the next year. Our chance to do so will be in the next week. School is starting next week. We are barreling into hunting season, the fall and then the holidays. Right now, the plan is that my wife is going to be out of town for most of it.

A few months ago, this was planned as a period of celebration. We had a tickets and a family trip planned to go to Silverwood. My wife had four different days of the state fair tickets, that we were looking forward to. We did get one day where the primary plan was to see Chicago and we are going next Sunday.

Chicago is one of those bands that I have always liked, I suppose that it is my 1980s childhood. Depending on where you fall on the generational gap, most of their top 40 songs were released in the 1970s. But, it is also a band that I had to be in the mood to listen to. The funk was not really my era and the melodrama of the 80s is often times kind of moody.

It really wasn’t until I saw them last Friday that I really appreciated the band. What I was thinking as they were on the stage was when was the last time there were musicians playing brass instruments as part of a rock bank? And more so, a major rock band? I looked up a couple stats and it said that Chicago has the most top 40 hits of any band in the 1970s. Chicago was really the grand finale of big band, jazz and funk and the transition into popular rock, something that had lasted for around 40 years..

There are those kind of seminal moments like Guns n’ Roses full orchestra that are combining two unique elements in a way that hasn’t been done, done for a long time or just doesn’t mix. And when done right, like this case you get it. The primary reason for going aside from already having tickets was that it was an homage to my father-in-law as this was his era of music for sure. We enjoyed the concert which was primarily the earlier side of band but it was OK as we felt a healing connection for that hour.

End Your Programming Routine: I think of music as a vehicle to jog memories of happy times. Maybe I didn’t have the same kind of memories as my wife does, but I could imagine the feel good part of being a seventies youth or young adult. I still prefer the 80s part more, but I came away with a different perspective about Chicago. That is to say that I enjoyed the concert.

August 30, 2021 – We Made it Through

August 30, 2021 /

I am all over the place this morning. It doesn’t happen very often, but today I completely scrapped what I initially wrote and started over. It was an emotionally and physically draining weekend with the funeral of my father-in-law Frank. I think part of my indecisiveness this morning has to do with the juxtaposition of feelings that multiple people have. I will try to explain.

Before the service, my wife was saying that she was feeling light headed and feint. This was after waking up with a headache and an upset stomach. I felt it was anxiety which she denied it but I know but having had all those symptoms related to anxiety myself, I am almost sure of it. Things calmed down a bit as we readied to get to the funeral home and arranged all of the memorabilia and prepared for the service, until my mother-in-law showed up.

She was a wreck, I had never seen her so despondent. She couldn’t walk without two people’s help, she couldn’t breathe, I don’t think that she was even aware of what was going on around her during the service. That was definitely anxiety. We weren’t even sure if my brother-in-law Juaquin was going to attend the service and he wasn’t on the docket to speak but he did. I don’t want to diverge too much, however there has been lots of strain between my brother-in-law and the rest of the family including my mother.

When I spoke to my wife August 13, I told her that after a prayer for the family, it was on my heart to try and reconcile with Juaquin. I knew that I wasn’t living my values by trying to block out my brother-in-law. As Frank was the family peacekeeper he was the one that always looked after his son and he would want that if at all possible. I decided that I would try to apologize and see if we could move past our differences but had not had a chance to do so yet.

As was customary for Juaquin, he wanted to have the last word and inserted himself into the program after all of the eulogy was completed while the service was in progress. He spoke the truth. The truth was that Frank did not have any desire for a bunch of fuss of a funeral. It was an angry kind of Malcolm-X like tone, nevertheless it was true. What was also true was that my wife also spoke truth. She spoke the words ‘were you hungry?’, ‘were you cold?’, ‘what do you need?’. This funeral was not for Frank, this was for his wife to appease the guilt of his death, it was for his family and friends to see him one more time.

There is still a lot of hurt and hangups here. There is misplaced blame of why and where and all that. Trust me, there is much more to the back story than I have relayed, but it is personal and inappropriate for me to write about. Unfortunately, all the plans post the funeral were changed because it was just too raw for some and we needed to spend time on healing. With that, we spent most of yesterday cleaning up and delivering leftover flowers to people that had attempted to help the family post the funeral.

End Your Programming Routine: I did say that I was sorry to Juaquin for the past and that I would like to move forward. He accepted it lukewarmly, I think that was about the best I could hope for and didn’t leave a lot of room for more than that. At least I can say that I will try to be more empathetic and look through his eyes before judgement and typecasting.

August 27, 2021 – 1984 3:4-5

August 27, 2021 /

Technically, there is one chapter remaining . In my book at least, there is an appendix the talks about ‘Newspeak’ as well as an afterward which is someone else’s opinion. I think I will probably skip talking about those things unless a bombshell comes up. For now, I am not reading ahead so that my thoughts are not influenced unduly by someone else.

These two chapters are more rehabilitation. Winston still knows everything is wrong on a subconscious level but has accepted that there is nothing that he can do about it. He is able to repeat the ‘facts’ as truth but still balks at believing those facts.

We finally got to the answer of what happens in Room 101. It seems that this is the final stage in rehabilitation. When Obrien says you know what Room 101 is he means that you know your greatest fear. Apparently, so does Obrien.

I think that I will skip the concepts today. Partly because I could try to make a thinly veiled comparison between your greatest fear and compliance. But also partly because I really don’t buy it. I believe what I said previously that torture could elicit any kind of answer be it true or false. I am not sure why this particular method or encounter would be any different.

The second reason is that I really didn’t see anything new. Maybe I should have combined the last three chapters together… moving on. I did see one thing that I thought stuck out. Winston is re-enforcing what he knows as facts on a tablet. The last thing that he wrote was “God is Power”.

That was puzzling to me. I thought that this world like most totalitarian regimes was agnostic. In fact in the last chapter, Winston proclaimed that he believed in the spirit of man and not in God. I suppose that this statement was written to prove that he has accepted the facts. But why choose that particular statement when there are so many others throughout the book?

I do not want to speculate why Orwell chose this phrase at this point, but my opinion is that it was deliberate. I think that we will possibly come back to this in the overall analysis of the book.

End Your Programming Routine: As we are nearly to the end of the book, I find myself less dogmatic on the world of 1984. I am struggling with where the ending is going in context of Parts One and Two. It very well be that the message is the game is rigged and individualism cannot coexist with power. But if that were really the case, then why even have a Part 3? This seems to suggest that once we accept the reality then things will better. I guess I will continue to try and reconcile in the next couple of weeks.