Re:With Apologies to Orwell, We’ve Gone Way Past 1984
by azangru on Sunday June 09, 2019 @10:23AM
(#20139382)
> We’ve Gone Way Past 1984
> From Putin to Trump, We Are Being Told to "reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."
Every time I see statements like this, I wish someone presented a deeper historical and cultural analysis. Is the level of official lies any different than during Cold War, WWII, WWI, Crimean war, etc.? Is the offence of asking from people to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears any different than what various religions and cults have done to their followers for millennia?
Sure, the capabilities to surveil the population and to reach masses with a message have reached historically unprecedented levels; but other than that, have there been any substantial shifts?
I know Yuval Harari has expressed his skepticism on this point; but he never really undertook a task of comparing the present and the past as regards to the levels of lying.
As an aside: I am also a bit surprised by the role attributed to Aleksandr Dugin in some of the narratives of Putin’s Russia (e.g. "Inspired by the fascist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, he called it Eurasia" in this article). I am not sure whether there is any concrete evidence of Dugin’s direct influence on the thinking of top Russian politicians. This is probably a question for historians and literary scholars to assess that.
> From Putin to Trump, We Are Being Told to "reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."
Every time I see statements like this, I wish someone presented a deeper historical and cultural analysis. Is the level of official lies any different than during Cold War, WWII, WWI, Crimean war, etc.? Is the offence of asking from people to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears any different than what various religions and cults have done to their followers for millennia?
Sure, the capabilities to surveil the population and to reach masses with a message have reached historically unprecedented levels; but other than that, have there been any substantial shifts?
I know Yuval Harari has expressed his skepticism on this point; but he never really undertook a task of comparing the present and the past as regards to the levels of lying.
As an aside: I am also a bit surprised by the role attributed to Aleksandr Dugin in some of the narratives of Putin’s Russia (e.g. "Inspired by the fascist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, he called it Eurasia" in this article). I am not sure whether there is any concrete evidence of Dugin’s direct influence on the thinking of top Russian politicians. This is probably a question for historians and literary scholars to assess that.