Tag: 2:9

November 11, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 2:9

November 11, 2022 /

I would say happy Veteran’s Day, but I don’t really think this is an appropriate statement. I have spoken about feelings on veterans on Memorial Day. And to get more technical, a veteran is a living person that served in combat, not just spent time in the military. Despite my feelings on whether our country should have been involved or not, I can appreciate the sacrifice of service.

Growing up, we had a parade in town that was billed as the largest Veteran’s Day parade west of the Mississippi. I was in band, so I was marching in the cold and the rain every year. Since leaving home, I have never had it as a holiday so I really haven’t seen it in a long time. But, I assume this is not the reason that you are here so let’s get into it.

I had in my notes “short chapter, kind of worthless”. What happens is Francisco goes to Dabny to see if she will change her mind about going back to working for the railroad. Of course she will not. This conversation is interrupted by Henry Reardon coming in and loosing his cool.

I won’t say that there is nothing of value in the chapter, the conversation and debate between Dabny and Francisco was pertinent. There are two camps: either don’t support the looters by continuing to work or don’t let the looters win by quitting. Which side is correct? I suppose that it has to do with where you stand on confidence with your abilities, pride in outcome and stubbornness to continue.

I know which side I fall on. Maybe you can guess what it is, but I can relate an anecdote to highlight my stance. I have spoke of this before, but I once ran a program. The people above me were extremely poor running their own programs, hence I would call them looters. In fact, the company was taking money out of my program to prop up these other failing programs. In the end, it was all from the same bucket but the point was taking from me to make them look better.

These people made my life miserable. Misery at work translated to misery at home. But, I was running a successful program. I was happy with my team’s results. We were named a ‘Center of Excellence’ for the company. Along with that success came more meddling to the point where the company took that program away from me in a way. They hired someone to run and expand the program I was running, in effect pushing me away.

That move was explained to me as ‘making my life better’ by reducing my interactions with the looters. What they didn’t realize was that my fundamental success running the program was the only thing keeping me satisfied with my job. In my mind, it simply gave me no possible way to happiness because instead of making my life better, I was more miserable. I had reason to keep fighting when I had something to prove. By being relegated to team lead instead of a program lead, I no longer had that motivation.

So, I quit. The program failed within six months. In fact within a year, the company imploded. I don’t claim that this was all me. Mismanagement left a structure riddled with holes like termites in wood. I was simply a part of the structure that was no longer sound and when I crumbled, so did the rest.

It is not in my nature to quit. For right or wrong, this is one of the few things I have ever quit. I was devastated to surrender my identity but I was also at a point where staying was self-destructive. I no longer wanted to prove something, I wanted to take the whole thing down. I had no other success criteria than a total re-write of the company in my own image. That wasn’t realistic, so I gave into the looters and natural consequences took their course.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that you can see that I side with Francisco. At the time, I didn’t do it with the same intent, it just happened to prove his theory. On my last day, I walked out the door with a small box of my personal belongings. I didn’t leave a single item that was mine, including the business in which I was engaged. I choose the path of force disrupter rather than head on battle for change.

July 16, 2021 – 1984 2:9

July 16, 2021 /

This was a big and a dense one. Finally Winston gets the book that is supposed to explain everything that is going on in his society. There are two excerpts that he reads verbatim (and is printed) in the book that covers the concepts War is Peace and Ignorance is Strength.

Before I get started, Winston says near the end of the chapter that there is nothing new here. Generally speaking and for the reader, this is true. We do get a much better explanation of the justifications for why things are the way that they are. Editorially I got a lot of clarity in the world of 1984.

Oligarchical Collectivism: This is the what of Big Brother. It makes perfect sense to me because I understand both words. But, in case you don’t I will define them here. Oligarchy is the form of government that where a set few run the government. Typically those few have ties to some sort of private enterprise and by proxy run the government for their personal benefits. Collectivism is a sociological term whereby a group of people live by and for the the same goals. Typically some sort of equality is tagged as the goal.

Put those two words together to describe 1984. An elite class of people rule a society who live and work for the existence of the Oligarchy. This is why the state of perpetual warfare and the exclusive production exists so that Big Brother continues to profit by the activities of the party. This is the basic premise of the the chapter titled ‘War is Peace’.

Double Think: This is the how of Big Brother. The concept of Double Think is an individual holds two conflicting ideas as true i.e. War is Peace or more aptly for this term Ignorance is Strength. Naturally, the two cannot be true when paired together.

The book tries to explain how it works, but not necessarily why. My interpretation of the psychology of Double Think is that the paradox of two opposites create an inequality. By saying everything is equal and yet nothing is actually equal it makes nearly all statements meaningless. And when that is the case, people either tune out to all things becoming agnostic drones or they believe everything becoming useful drones in the collective.

Since 1984 is held as a cautionary tale, I thought it would be interesting to overlay today’s Unted States to some of the concepts of Big Brother.

  1. Oligarchical Collectivism – Did you know that federal departments such as the FDA or Department of Agriculture are a revolving door of industry leaders from companies like Monsanto (now Bayer). Policy and power are consolidated in the hands of a few. Regulations are written to benefit the players in the game and exclude any competition. Also, despite polling, the collective continues to elect the same individuals supporting the Oligarchy.
  2. War is Peace – Afghanistan, Syria, Korea and who knows where. We have been in a state of War technically since 1953. Practically speaking we have been in deployed conflict since 2001. There is a generation of people (now adults) who have only known middle east conflict. This now low grade conflict not only benefits the military industrial complex which in turn benefits the Oligarchy without completely upsetting the apple cart for the rest of society.
  3. Double Think – Cloth masks do not stop the transmission of Covid-19 but Masks Save Lives. Take your pick of the many other examples. How about there is no inflation, we have an epidemic of gun violence, the food pyramid, etc. Anyone is free to have an opinion and even an ignorant one, but look at the claim and then look at the data and you will see that we are manipulated by Double Think. The problem is that no one actually looks at the data and accepts everything at face value
  4. Ignorance is Strength – Knowing what I have said about the first three items I am going to set the trigger with Black Lives Matter. I am not debating the validity of the statement or movement but using Double Think, the Oligarchy creates an environment where the population is divided and uses the situation to create chaos and therefore solidifying power. (Our) Ignorance is (Their) Strength, let that set in for a minute. As stated, it is Double Think but as application it should be written as I have above.

End Your Programming Routine: We are on the downhill side of this analysis. There are technically six chapters left to go so this should be finished in less than eight weeks. I didn’t think that it was going to stretch out that long originally. I think that you can see from my argument that Orwell was pretty right how things are going.