Skip to main content

Drop Down

I have a copy of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four on my bookshelf.  Unlike many other books considered 20th Century classics, this one I did not use in the classroom.  I did not read this one in college.  In fact it was a gift.  The book was given to me by a friend who is no longer alive but happened to be in the right place at the right time.
On New year's eve in the waning days of 1983, he was at a rather opulent party in New York city.  At exactly 12:00 a.m. on January 1st 1984, along with the balloons and confetti, hundreds of copies of Nineteen Eighty Four came tumbling down on the party goers.  It was all tres chic and probably a good laugh.
Last week, I read that sales of the Orwell classic have increased sharply in the wake of the recent NSA revelations.  Guess that's not too surprising given that most of the country is wondering whether or not it's a good thing for the government to know everything. Their phone calls, their credit information, their photos, their social media contacts and content.

What would reading Nineteen Eighty Four give to anyone giving serious critical thought to the security dilemma we now face.  Does that novel adequately address the moral issues we're faced with in 2013?

We do have large screens in our homes and a media that talks in rather peculiar ways to us.  Props to Orwell for that.  But how in the late 1940s could anyone have foreseen the rapid change in technology and the specifics of a war on terror, if that is what this is about?
Like much of Orwell's writing, I hope the offshoot of all this is that we have a national dialogue about the right to privacy.  We seem, as a nation, to be obsessed with the 2nd Amendment rather than the 4th Amendment.  That needs to change.  But it does say a good deal about who we are as a culture.
So let's have a party.  A New Year's Eve party.  And let's drop a glittering ball, and let Harlequin colored balloons drift over the celebration.  Don't forget the confetti and this time, let's drop eloquently lettered copies of the 4th Amendment as souvenirs.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Body Language

I'm sitting there in a hospital gown, waiting for my doctor to complete my yearly physical.  This is when I look at everything on the walls, read the medical posters, the instructions on any equipment in the room, look in every corner and behind every chair.  I study the paper on the examination table, laugh out loud at the picture of a smiling child holding a bouquet of broccoli, and the note the placement of the computer in the room. Finally, wondering if the gown I'm wearing is on correctly, I focus on myself.  At this point in my life I'm fairly comfortable in a doctor's office.  But it always seems to take so long when waiting for the doc to enter.  So I fidget.  Then I begin a tour of myself.  Scars are tattoos.  I look at the one on my knee and see myself at 12.  Whittling a piece of wood with my Boy Scout jack knife.  The blade slips and I cut a crescent slash through my jeans and into my flesh for life.  50 years later ...

Sex, Religion, and Politics

Watching TV to keep up with the news is like going to a party.  Sex, religion and politics, in any order.  Those are the topics of choice.  We hear about "twerking," and are confronted with all manner of exhibitionism in local news.  Should women be wearing yoga pants in non-yoga areas.  The office, the workplace, school, church...and that's just the teachers! Religion encroaches in all the right places.  Christian Mingle, the online dating service pops up on the screen during the grisliest of crime shows, the politician's speeches and the sit-coms so full of sexual innuendo that every second of canned laughter barely hides the grins, the gasps, the outcries, or the mindless guffaws. So what's the message?  Are we a society and culture in decline or just rapidly changing?  Probably both.  I recall a student once coming to school with a most offensive tee shirt.  Offensive in that the cartoon image on the front made it impossible for hi...