13.5.10

The Left vs. 1984 #3

The Left:
"The government indeed may [subject particular ideas to disadvantage], if acting upon neutral, harm-based reasons.”
-- Elena Kagan, 2010 Supreme Court nominee, 1996, CNS News

1984:
"He would talk ...of thought-criminals [and] the executions in the cellars of the Ministry of Love...Quite likely the person at the next table was a spy of the Thought Police, and quite likely he [himself] would be in the cellars of the Ministry of Love within three days..."*
-- George Orwell, 1984

And this was worthy as well:
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
-- George Orwell, first published 1972

*After deliberating over several ideas of the telescreens, the Thought Police and the children spies, I decided on this one.  The intended emphasis is on "Thought Police" and "Ministry of Love" compared to "the government" and "harm-based reasons".  This particular comparison is, granted a stretch, but it is important to note that it is incredibly difficult to find a concise quote which fully contained the desired thematic elements while simultaneously staying focused on the current topic; in 1984, the Ministry of Love "maintained law and order". 

11.5.10

The Left vs. 1984 #2

The Left:
"And with Ipods and Ipads; and Xboxes and Playstations—-none of which I know how to work—information becomes a distraction, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than a means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and our democracy..."
-- Barack Obama, 2010, NewsRealBlog

1984:
"This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance...minute by minute the past was brought up to date...
"A number of The Times which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it."
-- George Orwell, 1984

10.5.10

The Left vs. 1984 #1

The Left:
"The 9.9% unemployment rate figure...shows...that jobs numbers are looking up."
-- Jason Henry, Examiner, paraphrasing President Obama.

1984:
"[T]here [had been] demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to [20 grams] a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to [20 grams] a week...[T]hey swallowed it...with the stupidity of an animal."
-- George Orwell, 1984