Bloggishness

The Crime of Apathy...

The following is a repost from my blog The View From the Cheap Seats at http://jamesdillingham.com dated 12/13/11

This just in: You don't need to be afraid; but sometimes it helps.

I'm a believer in the idea that I never have to be afraid - ever. At the same time, I think that fear can have it's uses, much like pain has a purpose. For example, put your hand in flame and a "pain" signal is sent to your brain. It's basically saying, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." It's pointing out the consequences of your actions.

Fear can be like that.

Let me back up a bit...

I'm reading 1984. I haven't read this book since high school. I remember thinking back then, "This would never be allowed to happen in today's enlightened age."

In the book, the protagonist is a man named Winston. He works for the Party and is terrified that they may find out he has not completely bought into their propaganda. He works in an area dedicated to rewriting history. For example, last month, the Party said they would produce 100,000 pairs of boots. In reality, they only produced 50,000 boots. So, he goes back and edits the original Party prediction to say they would make over 40,000 boots. In this way, he changes the past - and no one seems to notice; except for Winston. He is amazed that by simply rewriting history, the new past becomes as real as anything that actually did happen.

This bothers him. He wonders how people can so readily accept what they are hearing on their televisions in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

In another example, he hears that Big Brother is winning the war, but the chocolate ration will be reduced to 20 grams per week to support the war effort. Then the next day, he hears Big Brother proclaim that record production of all consumer goods will allow them to "raise" the chocolate ration to 20 grams. He is in a cafeteria when he hears this. Winston is astounded to see people all around him cheer Big Brother for this bounty. He wonders how could they accept this as a new benefit when just the day before, it was called a sacrifice. How could they be so empty-headed?

Every now and then, I look up from my book and think, "We have become them."

I think we have become the people cheering the televisions in 1984. I think this...and I become afraid.

This fear is not something I am electing to turn away from. Instead I choose to take it for what it is - a warning that if I don't take action, my chocolate ration will be taken away and Big Brother will tell me he just invented chocolate (and I will blindly cheer his benevolent leadership).

This fear is telling me, "I wouldn't let them do that if I were you."

I see that the latest military appropriations bill allows the government to scoop me up from my bed at night, put me in prison indefinitely and never have to justify the action. In 1984, Winston calls this being "vaporized." In the United States, we will be expected to call it patriotism. We will call it that because Big Brother will tell us it's for our own good.

A recent speech writer for George W. Bush is making a splash by pointing to Fox News and Conservative Radio and saying, "They are making stuff up and people are blindly buying into it." He wants to know what happened to the rational thought that was once his Party of Choice.

To me, Bill O'Reilly is the Big Brother on the televisions of 1984. He tells us what to believe and we follow. He makes stuff up and puts it out as fact. When caught in a lie, he ignores the accusation and moves on to his next lie.

Instead of "WE" are following, I should say, "THEY" because I am the Winston of 2011. I am watching the cattle blindly follow the most insane propaganda without question; without apparently noticing that they are being told 2+2=5. They just believe.

Political debates in recent months have seen Republicans cheer at the fact that people are being executed in Texas. They give standing ovations to the idea of an uninsured person being left to die in a hospital hallway. They boo a gay soldier serving on the front lines in Iraq and they applaud when the GOP front-runner says poor children should not be subject to labor laws so they can be put to work instead of becoming lazy like their parents.

I see an entire political party defy all logic and propose economic plans that can do nothing more than perpetuate the practices that got us into the current situation. They say, "Small businesses will not hire if tax rates go up." When NPR asks for them to provide an example, they cannot come up with a single one. NPR, with almost no effort, finds dozens of small businesses that tax rates play no role in hiring plans. In spite of this, the Republican party keeps saying the same thing and their "cattle" nod knowingly.

I see us cheer protesters overseas while vilifying them in our own country. Fox calls the Tea Party protests patriotic while the Occupiers are dirty bums. The only difference is their position and yet, the No Spin Zone, spins away...

I see all of this and I become afraid.

I'm not afraid of Fox news. I'm afraid of those that follow Fox News. They are like the crowds in the 1984 cafeteria. They clap and cheer because Big Brother tells them to for no other reason is needed.

I can choose to not be afraid. I can look down the barrel of a gun and not blink - if that is what I choose.

Right now, fear is my choice du-jour. I choose this because it makes me take action - while I still can; before 1984 becomes a reality It's happening here and it's happening fast. In the last 10 years, the Republican Party, my party, has disappeared. Logic has been replaced by the repetition of ideology that clearly serves the few while hardly bothering to pretend otherwise.

I change from one radio station to the next, each is saying, "Bad Obama." I can't help but think they must be right. I hear something enough and I begin to doubt my own mind. Maybe 2+2 actually does equal 5. After all, if enough people say such, mustn't it must be so?

I turn off the radio and shake off Big Brother. I can do this...for now. But for how long can I do this? It feels like I should be able to do this forever. Then the fear comes back. This time it's saying, "Those that are blindly clapping for their new overlords - they too once thought they could stand strong against tyranny. And then one day, they woke up and said 'I love Big Brother.' "

Fear makes me write. It motivates me to squeeze a bit of sanity into an increasingly futile situation. After all, we gave up a lot of our Freedoms with the Patriot Act. We are listening to and accepting news that can be easily disproved. We are granting the government the ability to "vaporize" us in exactly the same manner used in the "once unlikely scenario" of 1984.

I'll tell you this. I write for I intend to be Winston. I intend to remember the difference between truth and clearly falsified ideological dogma. I intend to stay afraid...at least where this issue is concerned.

Doing nothing is not an option for the crime of Apathy is punishable by loss of self.

We were, by any measure, the greatest country in the history of the world. Those days are gone. But if enough of us become afraid, we can get it all back.

After all, who we are, who we were and who we want to be are separated by a thought.

Decide to be afraid and watch what happens. It will wake you from a stupor you didn't know you were in. Fear will make you a soldier - a freedom fighter.

On a related note...

I'm on my way home from Hungary. This is a beautiful country with great people.

That is all changing before my very eyes. Two years ago, they changed governments. The new leaders were elected easily. All they had to do was blame the economy on their predecessors and promise the moon. They have taken over the press and made it a crime to publish news critical of the government. They have confiscated retirement plans. They had taken over the judicial system as they gerrymander the districts so they cannot be thrown out. They have implemented laws that make it almost a crime to belong to the current opposition party.

The EU is stunned by how fast all of this has happened. As for the Hungarians, the average person on the street...they shrug and say, "What can I do?" They are the fallen. They have become the sheep of 1984, too tired and beaten down to resist.

This happened almost overnight.

I cannot sit by and just watch it happen here. I may lose this fight but it won't be because I sat by too busy elsewhere to say, "The king has no clothes."

Let me be clear, the Republican Party is little more than a sock puppet manipulated by a small minority of the extremely wealthy that want to control you completely. They know your "soft spot" and push with the expertise of a neural surgeon. If you get your news from Fox or if you listen to Conservative radio, you are not being a Republican, you are being a cow herded towards the slaughterhouse. Once you are there, it will be too late. It will be your turn to shrug and say, "What can I do?"

As for me, I intend to fight. I would rather be taken at night and "vaporized", than to live the life of a cow.

If you disagree, comment on this post and I'll leave it there for everyone to read. If you agree, send this blog onward. We need to become millions insisting on sanity. We need to unite. Until then, I remain an army of one. My blog is my weapon of choice.

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Up, up and away...

jim