From Professional Soccer Player to Professing Believer
I had heard of George Orwell's "1984" for many years but did not get around
to reading it until 1984. The coincidental date was motivation for me to read
this great book. Orwell was famous for showing how totalitarian systems of
government change the very meaning of language and enforce these new meanings
to stay in power. This was common under Nazism, but Orwell wrote in the
context of Communism.
A totalitarian system is one that seeks to control all important aspects of
society from the top down including media, religion, economics, business and
the arts. In Orwell's universe slavery was defined as freedom, and democracy
was redefined as dictatorship. Big Brother made sure that historical
information supported the rulers - it was simply rewritten to maintain their
power. If circumstances required, history could be rewritten over and over.
Older histories and all factual information were simply discarded in the
memory hole where all such information was destroyed.
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the Institute for Labor and Mental Health, or Rabbi Michael Lerner.
A totalitarian system is one that seeks to control all important aspects of
society from the top down including media, religion, economics, business and
the arts. In Orwell's universe slavery was defined as freedom, and democracy
was redefined as dictatorship. Big Brother made sure that historical
information supported the rulers - it was simply rewritten to maintain their
power. If circumstances required, history could be rewritten over and over.
Older histories and all factual information were simply discarded in the
memory hole where all such information was destroyed.
