Orwellian Snapshots (no. 18): “Winston Smith Confronts PC”
[Note: Below is the eighteenth installment of the Orwellian Snapshots series. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Orwellian Snapshots" link in the sidebar. Enjoy ...]
January 26, 2012
Few would deny that key aspects of George Orwell’s 1984 have become reality in the US, Britain, France, Austria, Canada, and other countries of the former West that have taken the suicidal plunge into the abyss of Never-Ending Equality.
Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece presents a vision of society after the tentacles of Socialism have locked it into a death grip with no hope of escape. A particularly chilling aspect of his vision were the conversations between the book’s protagonist, Winston Smith, and the Party apparatchik O’Brien. These discussions show the corruption and degradation of human relations when decency, honor, tradition, and morality have been cast aside. This is the hallmark of socialist theory and practise.
As a stimulant for his dark musing, Orwell had before him the great totalitarian movements of the early to mid twentieth century. Our own contemporary model for such speculation is the collapse of rational thought into the sewer of Multiculturalism and Diversity—the end of culture as we know it.
Lately I have been pondering a conversation between Winston Smith and O’Brien, were it to take place in our own near-future, say, in the year 2020. Below is a rendition of an encounter between the two men, at the moment when Winston is caught red-handed engaging in a thoughtcrime. They are seated in an interrogation chamber located in the bowels of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, DC.
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Headlines From the Year 2020 (no. 30)
January 19, 2012
This is the thirtieth installment in a continuing series. Here is what life will be like in the year 2020 if our civilization continues to go AWOL:
- First bisexual president inaugurated; her transgendered partner to be known as the First Human
- Fighter jets removed from USS Nimitz to make room for state-of-the-art maternity ward and nursery
- In exchange for student loan forgiveness, thousands of young women join the Peace Corps “Make an African Man Happy” program
- Chicken and cattle-rights activists unite in campaign to outlaw steak and eggs
- Man arrested in California for murdering rare protected species of cockroach
- New genetically modified monkey has the torso of a baboon, the limbs of a chimpanzee, and the head of Anderson Cooper
- Amazing revelation from the Washington Post: Bill Clinton’s great-grandfather was a chieftain of the Luo, the same tribe as Barack Obama, Sr.
- British parliament declares Shakespeare racist and sexist; references removed from all UK school curricula
- TSA sets up checkpoints at every bank, mall, post office, theater, and restaurant
- Supreme Court: Nuclear device confiscated from Iranian passenger at Kennedy Airport must be returned to owner because of unconstitutional religious profiling
- Pentagon: Memorial Day will now honor fallen combatants “from all sides” of the nation’s wars and man-caused disasters
- NAACP: Whites as high percentage of casualties proves the military is a Jim Crow institution
- Federal Court of Appeals voids entire corpus of Idaho state law due to lack of minority representation in legislature
- IRS prosecutes Santa Claus for gifting property with intent to evade taxation
- Asteroid to strike the East coast in two weeks; analysts expect undocumented Americans and child-abuse victims to be hardest hit
Would you care to add your own headlines?
[Note: To see earlier installments of “Headlines from the Year 2020," scroll down or click the All Fiction link on the sidebar (located under Orwellian Snapshots).]
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The Post-Election Aftermath
January 12, 2012
Even if control of both Congress and the White House pass to the Republican Party in January 2013—and this outcome is far from certain—it might not be time to pop open the champagne. A number of existential issues face the country, challenges that would be daunting if the nation were united and sober, let alone in its current fractured and dumbed-down condition.
An orderly transfer of power from the Obama regime to its successor is by no means assured. Several long weeks separate the election from the inauguration—plenty of time for organized mayhem. And mayhem it will be. The entire victimary establishment, shrieking their jeremiads about evil racist Americans who just rejected the messiah-of-color, rises up as one. Riots break out in the major cities, as the Negro rage carefully nurtured by Holder and his minions explodes in anti-white violence that makes the 1960s look like a picnic.
Initially, state and local authorities utilize the usual tactics: tear gas and other non-lethal methods; calling on all sides for calm; assurances of greater attention to the “systemic” and “structural” causes of poverty; promises of money.
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Michelle Knows Best, episode 33: “The Christmas Gift”
[Note: Below is the thirty-third episode of the TV series Michelle Knows Best. For background information, read this post. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Michelle Knows Best" link in the sidebar. Enjoy...]
January 5, 2012
The First Couple are seated on the beach adjoining the “winter White House” in Hawaii. It is early evening, just after Christmas. The sky displays the full palette of colors one would expect from a beautiful Hawaiian sunset. Waves crash gently onto the sand. The air, still warm, has only just begun to cool. The only other people in the area are security personnel, and they are maintaining their distance.
MICHELLE
Ughh, I hate sitting in sand. You need to take a shower every five minutes. Weird insects all over the place. And that sun, boiling down on us. I can’t understand why white people come here in droves.
Barack, with a dreamlike expression, is staring into the surf.
MICHELLE
Barry, are you listening to me?
BARACK
[Jerks his head as if to shake off the reverie] Sorry, dear. I was just reminiscing about my childhood in Hawaii. Those were such wonderful days.
MICHELLE
Wonderful days? What, all three months that you lived here? [laughter from studio audience]
BARACK
[Sighs, returns his gaze to the surf] It’s a mixture of all the races. I feel right at home.
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New Edition of “Workshop” Has Arrived
December 17, 2011
I am pleased to announce that the second edition of my novel Workshop of the Second Self is now on sale. To find out more, and to read the first chapter on line, go here. Review copies are available upon request. The new edition contains stylistic changes only; the plot remains exactly as before.
AWOL Civilization is taking its Christmas vacation. The next post will appear on Thursday, January 5th. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2012.
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Audie Murphy is Turning in His Grave
December 15, 2011
The race is on to see who will “own” the U.S. military. Our habitual image of a bastion of patriotism and good old American values may have to be modified to fit reality. Rest assured that there are clever people working diligently to ensure that this new reality arrives with all possible speed.
The struggle for control of the armed forces is of paramount importance whenever a rogue regime comes to power or the old order is crumbling. This can be seen time and again throughout history. It was as crucial during the fall of Rome or during the French Revolution as it is when the ranking world power appoints a brown-noser of Muslims as its chief of general staff, and a hater of the majority population as its head of “homeland security.”
Causing men to fear the proverbial dropped soap in the shower; assigning young females to submarines as the “sexual harassment” apparatus descends upon the men; and conveying loud and clear that coddling the enemies of the nation takes precedence over the lives of GIs are not the only ways to demoralize an army. It is also possible to ship the troops off to savage lands to be sitting ducks, their hands tied by ridiculous rules of engagement. Their lives are expendable, and for what? To make the world safe for Islam?
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Strawberry Fields Forever
December 7, 2011
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of viewing the exhibits on display at the Monroe Gallery of photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of the last vestiges of quality in a town packed with art galleries, Monroe specializes in the good old stuff: classic photos by Eisenstaedt, Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, and others at that level.
One wall featured a series by Bill Eppridge covering the Beatles in their heyday. This fine collection of prints was most instructive. Behind-the-scenes shots revealed the arrogance of young men with nothing to recommend them but their hairstyles. Whether sitting, standing, talking, or eating, the adorable new icons radiate an air of condescension and a lack of modesty as they adopt crude, tasteless poses.
Evidently, the time was ripe for a campaign of mind-bending publicity to promote a form of musical entertainment capable of eviscerating traditional culture. Repetitive chords and nonsensical lyrics helped prepare the youth of the Western world for their new station in life: drug dependence, mindless rebellion, hostility to real art, a generalized angst, and subservience to the marketing juggernaut. The new music would become an integral component of the sickly counter-culture, just as painting, literature, and architecture had been put through the meat grinder.
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Headlines From the Year 2020 (no. 29)
December 1, 2011
This is the twenty-ninth installment in a continuing series. Here is what life will be like in the year 2020 if our civilization continues to go AWOL:
- Heisman Trophy awarded to third-string halfback at UCLA for “courageously advancing the status of women in college football”
- Black Friday violence declines this year, with only 270 deaths reported
- National debt reaches $100 trillion; Republican congressmen threaten immediate action if President Sharpton refuses to cut spending
- Chinese entrepreneur accumulates worthless dollar bills for use in new board game, “Devastopoly”
- Apple joins Microsoft in relocating headquarters to Singapore; New York Times blames lack of minority presence in Silicon Valley
- Price of gold hits $50,000 per ounce; “Big deal,” says Merrill Lynch CEO Timothy Geithner, “what can you buy these days for fifty grand, anyway?”
- General Motors receives $60 billion government loan to develop solar-powered flying bicycle
- Elena Kagan busted for running page-girl service from her chambers; “my constitutional right to privacy has been violated” protests the Supreme Court justice
- White bread to be phased out by all manufacturers; “it’s both racist and unhealthy, so we win a double victory” declares Food Czar Michelle Obama
- New Hampshire woman arrested for boasting of her lineage from the Mayflower, in the presence of new immigrants from Haiti
- New Jersey man to get electric chair for shooting two of the 75 urban teens who were just having some fun at his auto dealership
- Swiss bid to join EU in jeopardy; strong opposition from majority of member states, including Morocco, Libya, and Egypt
- Archbishop of Canterbury leads mass conversion ceremony in Umma (formerly Trafalgar) Square; “we had rejected Allah, but now we are coming home” confesses the spiritual leader of England
- Twenty-third American correspondent gang-raped this year in an Arab country; journalism grads clamor for assignment to the region
- Occupy Wall Street merges with Green and Communist parties; new movement to be called IYFOS (In Your Face on Steroids)
Would you care to add your own headlines?
[Note: To see earlier installments of “Headlines from the Year 2020," scroll down or click the All Fiction link on the sidebar (located under Orwellian Snapshots).]
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Michelle Knows Best, episode 32: “Thanksgiving at the White House”
[Note: Below is the thirty-second episode of the TV series Michelle Knows Best. For background information, read this post. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Michelle Knows Best" link in the sidebar. Enjoy...]
November 24, 2011
We join the First Family in the formal dining room of the White House as they begin their Thanksgiving feast. Both Obama daughters, Sasha and Malia, are present. Guests include the former Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones; filmmaker Michael Moore; MSNBC broadcaster Rachel Maddow; and Barack’s half brother, Malik. On the menu are arugula salad with low-fat, imitation turkey bits; organic, free-range turkey burgers on spelt buns; sheep’s-milk cheese dusted with oregano and red chili powder; free-trade decaffeinated lattes and African rooibos tea delivered from a nearby Starbucks; and a cornucopia of domestic and imported fruit. The cook was also given permission to prepare fried chicken and chitlins, but these items were to be kept out of sight, available to the help and anyone else who cares to come eat in the kitchen.
MICHAEL MOORE
[chewing with a sour face] This arugula salad is fantastic. Whose idea was it?
BARACK
[cocks his head to one side; lifts his chin] I have to say, it was my idea. But the real credit must go to our Moroccan chef, Jamal. Ahh, his couscous is the best in the world.
MALIA
Daddy, why can’t we have a big old turkey, like everybody else?
BARACK
We’re not everybody else, dear. We have to set an example for the entire country. When people find out what we’ve been eating, they’ll do the same. You just wait till next year, and ask your classmates what they have on their Thanksgiving table. You’ll see.
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The State as Enabler
November 16, 2011
One of the great challenges involved in the diagnosis of political pathology is the explanation of events. We see a field of misbehavior and dysfunction, and then endeavor to explain the chain of causality. Today, many of the explanations floating through our discourse are false, misdirected, or otherwise flawed.
A prime example that passes through many lips is “greed.” The fact that greed is a component of the human experience is beyond debate, but this does not imply that it has explanatory power when it comes to political and economic trends. Much of the confusion stems from the observance of people taking advantage of a situation to augment their personal fortune. We see what appears to be greed in the financial industry, among corporate CEOs and politicians, among union officials who grow rich and powerful, in the “Occupy” movement as people clamor for countless benefits with no cost to themselves, and in a thousand and one other places. Each of us has his own story of observed greed.
A human trait that is common to all times and places can never be used as the explanation of a systemic disease. The refutation is simple: When the U.S. economy was booming, the government was solvent (as during most of American history), and major institutions functioned reliably, was there no greed? In the era when the Constitution was drafted, indisputably a time of fantastic accomplishments in the art of governance, was there no greed, jealousy, resentment, fraud, betrayal, and other assorted nastiness? Were people angels? Of course not. The same reasoning can be applied to any period in which society is on the upswing, thus negating the “greed” thesis.
The explanation of decay and widespread corruption must lie elsewhere. I submit that the primary proximate cause is, simply, the law. Or, stated differently, the exercise of governmental power as based in law. (Naturally, the ultimate origins of social phenomena are far beyond the scope of this article. I only wish to illuminate the factors that cause these behaviors to become embedded in the everyday functioning of society’s institutions.)
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The Downfall of Man
November 10, 2011
Remember the craze of YouTube videos a while back, when people were dubbing a scene from a movie showing Hitler and his general staff in the command bunker at the end of the war? Folks from every notch on the political spectrum put words in the mouths of the highest-ranking Nazis in order to mock and deride the contemporary bad-guy of choice.
The other day I watched the entire film, entitled Downfall. Released in 2004, the German dramatization is a powerful account of the final days of the Fuhrer’s rule. Life in the bunker is interspersed with scenes from the chaos and carnage taking place in the city above. Direction (Oliver Hirschbiegel) and all other elements of production are top-notch, as is the acting, starting with a brilliant performance by Bruno Ganz as Adolph Hitler.
One of the subjects dissected with great skill is the degradation of human character that accompanies an immersion in fanaticism. This degradation takes diverse forms, ranging from an impassioned tirade by the Fuhrer to the quiet, resigned murder of children by their own mother. The wife of Joseph Goebbels sedates and then poisons her offspring because “a world without National Socialism” holds no future for them.
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Democrats, Republicans, and the Art of War
November 3, 2011
I envy collectivists for one thing: they understand war. Whether they are Obamunists, multiculturalists, National Socialists, cultural Marxists, or some other variety, collectivists know that the struggle for control of society usually takes the form of low-intensity warfare. Overt violence may be absent, but it is warfare nonetheless.
And they aim high. Cultural Marxists, flourishing in the West for at least half a century, seek the total destruction of the pre-existing culture. They have issued a declaration of war against civil society, and as such follow in the footsteps of the “classic” revolutionaries who preceded them, and of the yet earlier French socialists such as Fourier and Saint-Simon who plied their subversive trade when Karl Marx was still in diapers.
Obamunism is no different. The “fundamental transformation” of America is not a policy, but rather a scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners declaration of war. If it can be accomplished without bloodshed—at least not bloodshed directly caused by the government—all the more efficient. There are no guarantees, however, if and when stiff resistance is encountered.
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Roving Reporter (no. 8) – “A Visit to 10 Downing Street”
October 27, 2011
[Note: This is the eighth installment of the Roving Reporter, in which an intrepid journalist is sent by AWOL Civilization to interview someone whose activity has a great impact on our lives. For previous installments, scroll down or click the "Roving Reporter" link in the sidebar. Enjoy...]
In light of the European financial crisis, it was fortuitous that AWOL Civilization managed to secure an interview of no less a figure than British Prime Minister David Cameron. The Roving Reporter was snooping around in the vicinity of 10 Downing Street at about two o’clock in the morning, in a light rain, braving the cold and damp conditions in the hope that something unusual would happen. Sure enough, a man came running down the street, pulled out his keys, and took a sudden fall into a puddle. Our man raced over, helped the victim to his feet, and fetched the keys from the gutter. In gratitude, the Roving Reporter was invited inside for a drink. As you might guess, the bruised runner was David Cameron himself.
No questions were asked regarding Mr. Cameron’s unorthodox arrival. Likewise, it was agreed that nothing be written about the interior of the house, nor about the refreshments that were served. So, without further ado, we skip straight to the interview.
ROVING REPORTER
Mr. Cameron, you must be very pleased with the results of the Libyan campaign. It’s a feather in your cap.
DAVID CAMERON
Not just my cap, but yes, I’m pleased. That obnoxious dictator was deposed, a bit unceremoniously I admit, but one can’t have everything go flawlessly, eh?
ROVING REPORTER
No, I suppose not. The key thing now is that democracy can flourish.
DAVID CAMERON
Right you are, old chap! We accomplished in one fell swoop what the colonial office never seemed to get done in most of the Third World, and they had centuries to work with. Think of it, man—we’re bringing democracy to a bunch of shepherds and rug merchants.
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Headlines From the Year 2020 (no. 28)
October 20, 2011
This is the twenty-eighth installment in a continuing series. Here is what life will be like in the year 2020 if our civilization continues to go AWOL:
- After laying waste to major retail outlets, Occupy Wall Street burns down mom-and-pop grocery stores; “it’s time to go after the real seat of bourgeois greed and exploitation in this country” explains Van Jones
- Massive earthquake hits Philippines; Ron Paul blames “U.S. imperialist war machine”
- Waiting time for heart surgery averages two years; “serves ‘em right for bad dietary habits” says Health Czar Michelle Obama
- Congress declares the 2020s to be Breast Cancer Decade; programs to be administered by new cabinet-level official, the Secretary of Misogynistic Diseases
- In show of solidarity with cancer victims, National Hockey League to redesign goal nets as brassiere cups
- Supreme Court declares widespread use of balls in sports to be sexist and unconstitutional; appoints commission to investigate gender-neutral alternatives
- Aggregate U.S. debt now exceeds total value of planet Earth
- Harvard economics professor Timothy Geithner: “Because of that damn Tea Party, the stimulus was never big enough to produce real growth”
- Iran nukes self; “our glorious martyrs know that we had to rid ourselves of dissidents, infidels, Zionists, apostates, and Christians, before it’s too late” says spokesman for the Grand Ayatollah
- French authorities reinstate guillotine to deter racists, Islamophobes, Global Warming deniers, Euro-skeptics, and other enemies of progress
- During inauguration ceremony for footbridge across Straits of Gibraltar, EU President Christine Lagarde boasts that in the first year, 175 million Africans are expected to enter Europe, “to escape oppression and build better lives for their families”
- Rampaging mob of disadvantaged youth kill over three hundred in posh Philadelphia suburb; Attorney-General Sharpton moves to disarm remaining homeowners, “otherwise we’ll have a full-blown civil war on our hands”
- In sweep of Brooklyn synagogues, FBI arrests twenty Orthodox rabbis for “homophobic incitement” as they recite from Leviticus without apologies or disclaimers
- TSA to begin random colonoscopies at major airports
- U.S. President Wasserman-Schultz announces winner in contest for redesign of U.S. flag: fifty pink and black stars over a green background
Would you care to add your own headlines?
[Note: To see earlier installments of “Headlines from the Year 2020," scroll down or click the All Fiction link on the sidebar (located under Orwellian Snapshots).]
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Michelle Knows Best, episode 31: “The Interplanetary President”
[Note: Below is the thirty-first episode of the TV series Michelle Knows Best. For background information, read this post. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Michelle Knows Best" link in the sidebar. Enjoy...]
October 12, 2011
In the middle of the night, Barack receives a phone call from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. The General informs the President that his presence is required immediately at the top-security wing of Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. A helicopter is already waiting on the White House grounds. Nothing further can be said over the phone due to the highly classified nature of the matter.
With a grumbling Michelle in tow, Barack hurriedly dresses himself and hustles to the helicopter. Within minutes, they land at Walter Reed. A platoon of Marines escorts the First Couple to an office deep within the facility. Waiting in the room is General Dempsey, his aide, and several officials from various intelligence agencies.
MICHELLE
This better be good.
GENERAL DEMPSEY
[with gravest expression] Yes, ma’am … I mean Mrs. Obama. [laughter from studio audience] This matter is of the utmost importance to national security.
A pregnant silence grips the room.
GENERAL DEMPSEY
I’m sure you’re aware, Mr. President, of the stories about old satellites falling back to earth.
BARACK
Yes, of course.
GENERAL DEMPSEY
Well, I know this sounds far-fetched, but one of those satellites was a spaceship from Mars.
MICHELLE
What!?
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