1984 Big Brother Doublethink And Ominous Parallels
II Chronicles 16
7 And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.
8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.
9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
10 Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.
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Thesis:
Our American governmental leaders have increasingly and dangerously elevated themselves to the place of god-like overseers. We’re back in the Garden of Eden: “Ye shall be as gods.” (Genesis 3:5)
A key component: Doublethink.
Doublethink is the newly expressed language masquerading as truth.
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Disclaimer: This blog is not a total endorsement of either 1984 or Ominous Parallels. However, they are books that need to be read, with care, now.
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George Orwell, 1984 — Part 3, Chapter 3.
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” (my emphasis)
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Ayn Rand’s introduction to: Ominous Parallels by Leonard Peikoff, pg. viii
She writes:
“While today’s philosophy departments make it a loud point to proclaim that philosophy has nothing to do with practical life or with reality (which, they add, does not exist) - Dr. Peikoff shows to their mangled victims what philosophy is, what it does, and how to recognize its influence all around us. He gives a virtuoso performance of shuttling effortlessly between abstractions and concretes — keeping the first tied firmly to reality and thus illuminating the second. He shows that a nation brought up to regard the principles of duty and self-sacrifice as cardinal virtues will be helpless when confronted by a gang of thugs who demand obedience and self-sacrifice.” (my emphasis)
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The book 1984 really impacted me as I read it recently. In 1984 I was 30. Nobody, I mean nobody, thought anything like 1984 could/would happen to America.
We were all taught, and believed, that it is a privilege to be good patriotic citizens in our God-blessed nation. In essence, we were “a nation brought up to regard the principles of duty and self-sacrifice as cardinal virtues”. That sounds right. That sounds noble. Who could argue with that?
But more recently in our Country, a subtle shift away from our God-based moorings has been developing. Our governmental leaders have decided we don’t really need too much God-involvement in our lives. We’re allowed to like Him, talk about Him, even patronize Him but …
We don’t need too much God or the Bible. We need just enough so as to appear we do.
We don’t need too much “Jonathan Edwards Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” type preaching. We need just enough to look and sound like we do: contemporary, relevant, non-invasive, non-binding.
We’d don’t need too much God-talk in our public schools or work places. We need just enough to say that it hasn’t been forbidden altogether.
Doublethink application:
We’re told In God We Trust, but we don’t really trust In God.
We’re encouraged to sing God Bless America, but we don’t really want Him to bless us only through obedience to His Word.
We’re told we have Freedom Of Speech, but we don’t really have Freedom Of Speech.
We’re reassured we have “the right … to keep and bear Arms” without being “infringed” upon, but we don’t really have uninfringed rights to “bear Arms”.
Interpretation:
We can believe In God We Trust but … actually not.
We can ask God to Bless America, but … actually not.
We can have Freedom Of Speech, but … actually not.
We can “keep and bear Arms,” but … actually not.
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Here’s a quote about “Doublethink” from the George Mason University website:
“Doublethink: the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct. According to Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, doublethink is “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.” Four examples of doublethink used throughout 1984 include the slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, and 2 + 2 = 5.”
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In our Country today:
Government is the new God.
Science is the new Holy Ghost.
Politicians are the new self-appointed ones who speak and lead “ex Cathedra”.
And … it’s all for the good of society — the new collective.
And … they are watching over us for our own personal good.
In other words …
Welcome to the all-caring, all-knowing, all-wise Americanized version of 1984 and your new …
Big Brother. (It’s such a warm and tender familial term, isn’t it. What’s not to love?)
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Patriotism (coupled with carefully chosen verbiage) has been intentionally used to condition Americans to become “helpless when confronted by a gang of thugs who demand obedience and self-sacrifice”.
Disagree?
Seen any city buildings recently being torched and nobody doing much about it?
Seen any cities where people have been mercilessly beaten and/or shot and nobody doing much about it?
Seen any homes attacked and owners threatened and nobody (neighbors) doing much about it? (example: McCloskey home in St Louis.)
Are you feeling “helpless” and almost paralyzed as our national freedoms and God-given Bible rights are being hijacked, little-by-little. We are becoming neutered as a people: politically and Biblically.
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The Bible in II Chronicles 16:9 tells us who, in all reality, has the ability and power to watch over us:
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.”
Systematically we have been misdirected away from belief in God and the Bible. God (not governmental authorities) is the only one to whom we owe supreme allegiance. God created us. God owns us.
Romans 13:1 makes it very clear that “there is no power {authority} but of God”. Government can only rule in our best interest when it is subservient to Almighty God. When government transgresses the Law/Torah of God it stands opposed to God and must be viewed as such.
Example:
John the Baptist in Matthew 14:1-4.
“At that time Herod the tetrarch {i.e., the government} heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him {i.e., the government}, It is not lawful for thee to have her.”
John rebuked Herod, not for breaking a human law but, for transgressing/overstepping the Torah of God. God’s Law/Torah always stands above human law when human law violates it.
Just because something is “legal” doesn’t make it Lawful, i.e., Torah compliant. Hitler (and others like him) consigned millions to death legally. We do the same thing legally in our Country every day. We’ve just sanitized it with Doublethink brainwashing. How so?
Abortion: We’re not really killing, but … actually we are. But … really we’re not.
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1984 BIG BROTHER DOUBLETHINK (along with its Ominous Parallels) has arrived and is thriving.
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
AMERICA:
“HEREIN THOU HAST DONE FOOLISHLY”