Off Topic.

In response to 1984

I have just completed 1984, a novel by George Orwell. It has taken me 3 times to finally complete the whole book. I have always touted this book as one of my favorites even though I have never finished the novel before until this very moment. To be honest, I have never felt anything like I feel right now. I don’t know how to describe the feeling that I have this instant. I have great respect for such a piece of literature that has the power to move me like this novel has. I don’t know if I love it or hate it. Haha, it is almost the principle of doublethink. It is impressive that Orwell can captivate your mind and put you into the shoes of complete sanity knowing that 2+2=4 but then understanding why Winston has changed his thoughts at the end of the novel knowing why he thinks 2+2=5. The book is magnificent and just incredibly depressing. In my heart and soul, I wanted Winston to hold strong. That part in my body wanted the last lines of the book to be “Down with Big Brother,” but in complete opposition, the book ends with “I Love Big Brother.” This brought the question at hand in my mind. Would I have the strength to resist complete submission of my mind so stop torture? I would love to say that I have the strength. What makes me human says that I have the strength, but in extreme circumstances that Winston was under, any mind would break…..or would it? A complete “hero” in a novel or in life would stay strong and resist betraying everyone that is close to them. The undeniable force of Love was the key message I got from out of this novel. But even Love fails in this novel. Love is the key to life. Utter and complete Love in life is what keeps me living day in and day out. Love for and from family, friends, and one day my eventual wife. What George Orwell does in this novel is question one’s sanity and beliefs. I now have a complete different outlook on life. I am so privileged to have been raised by loving parents and positive energy all around me. I can not help to think that this type of society is being applied to our current time. What makes me sane is that the fact that I can see right and wrong. An interesting point was brought up by the book but wasn’t directly addressed. When you hear that people have confessed to crimes, treason, atrocities against government, or other things of that nature, can you really believe that they actually confessed? What I want the people who I call friends and intellectuals is that you can not really know the truth in some cases. Maybe they were being tortured into incriminating themselves. What scares me even more is the whole “water-boarding” torture that has been used by our government. What is next? Being sent to Room 101 in the Ministry of Love? It seems absurd now but we are closer to that than we think. What makes me even more pissed off at society is the fact that people believe that it is ok to torture another human being. What pisses me off is that people, today, have the same beliefs that would push this nation into 1984. It is not the Bush Administration that I believe people should be leery of but in regimes in general. What people have to do is ask themselves the same question that Winston is constantly asking other characters in the novel. Is your life better now than it was 10 years ago? Before you rashly answer that question, really ask yourself that question. What any drone would say is “yes” immediately. That same person would say that “We are winning the war.” What war, people? War on terrorism? Al-Quieda? Saddam Hussein? Osama Bin Laden? A number of his masterminds? Drugs? Profanity? JUST WHO THE FUCK IS THIS WAR WAGED AGAINST? The answer that the current administration wants you to say is all of them. It is fear where they derive their power. Guns and ammo are mere child’s play when it comes to the power of putting fear into your mind. And THAT is why so many people are on the fence on what they believe. Of course you are against these different battles, what person wouldn’t be? But the reality of the thing is that this type of war is complete imaginary. So the point of this message or whatever the hell you want to call it is that people need to control their mind. It is the only thing that makes us human.

Love CAN endure in this society. And fuck anyone who wishes to tell me otherwise.