March 10, 2006
by Steve Osborn
GEORGE Orwell wrote his book, 1984, in the 1940's. The year, 1984, was a long way off then, but what he foresaw as a possibility seemed much closer. We approached it during the McCarthy years in the fifties, but sanity reasserted itself.
When Nixon came to power, it looked like Orwell's fears might come to pass, but Nixon and his cronies overreached themselves and we were saved again. Reagan and Bush I came fairly close also. They refined a lot of the techniques, but the time was not right. It is beginning to look like the Regime of Bush II might turn Orwell from a novelist into a prophet.
The scenario in 1984: The nation always at war with someone, far off. The nation always under threat by subversives and terrorists. The thought police were everywhere, watching out for subversives. Nothing was private, everything was subject to surveillance. The government always pointed out that times were getting better, even though there were more shortages, less food, less public services, less medical help. History was constantly rewritten to reflect what the government said had happened. Anyone who remembered better times or a different history was automatically a thought criminal and disappeared. Even the language was being changed to eliminate the possibility of protest by eliminating the way to express it.
The Scenario in 2006: We are at "war," with an enemy who might be anyone, anywhere. Our appointed leader (he was never elected to office, see the GAO report on the 2004 election frauds) tells us that any nation that harbors terrorists or terrorist sympathizers will feel our wrath. Afghanistan and Iraq lie in shambles, Iraq is involved in a near civil war. The only thing uniting Iraq is the desire and will of the Iraqis that we get out and leave them alone. Bush dictates to all the countries of the world, what they must do or face reprisals. The U.S. will not be associated with the World Court, or anything which might call our actions into question or interfere with profits. Treaties ratified by Congress and therefore the law of the land are routinely dismissed by Bush. We are forcing the world back into a nuclear confrontation by disregarding the anti-nuclear and peaceful-uses-of-space treaties the whole world worked so hard to finally achieve and ratify. As a Nuclear Veteran (Bikini 1956) who has experienced at first hand the horror of nuclear weapons, I fear the new "treaty" which reduces the world nuclear stockpile by putting them in storage instead of destroying them. I'm told that der Bush has been given permission from his rubber stamp Reichstag, er, Congress, to attack Iran with nuclear weapons if he deems it necessary. That is the ultimate insanity. I have written about nuclear weaponry here. This new crop of chicken hawks have no idea of the horror they so blithely want to unleash on the world.
Each one of der Bush's cute sounding "bunker busters" will vaporize hundreds of thousands of tons of earth, water, and rock, render it highly radioactive and throw some of it as high as the stratosphere, to condense and rain down on earth, around the world. The people immediately down wind will be dead in hours or days. Those far down wind will take longer to die. The whole world will see an increase in cancers, birth defects and mutations. Crops and animals will be contaminated.
Chernobyl, which was not a nuclear explosion, but simply an intense fire in radioactive fuel, has contaminated a vast area around the area so it cannot be inhabited for an estimated three to six hundred years. Fallout was registered around the world. Even now, Depleted Uranium is taking its toll on the Iraqis, the American troops, and the people of Kosovo.
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On the home front, we have the modern equivalent of the thought police gearing up, it is called Homeland Security. It has great latitude in describing what a terrorist is. The definition is growing and changing even now. According to Cheney and others, Congress is aiding the terrorists by questioning what the Executive Branch is doing. Anti-war protesters may well be on the list as may be those concerned about the WTO and NAFTA, or worker's rights, or safety in the workplace.
KBR has received a multi-million dollar no-bid contract for the construction of concentration camps in the United States, for the detention of illegal aliens, the quarantine of pandemic victims, or for such other reasons as may be deemed necessary.
American citizens are increasingly monitored. Their communications, phone, e-mail, where they go, whom they associate with, what they buy, their credit, their medical history, job history; all this is grist for the government's information mining operation. Der Bush's Republican controlled Reichstag is engaged in writing legislation that will backdate permission for this unconstitutional behavior.
NSA, the FBI and the CIA are linked up and twenty-first century technology is harnessed to track down "terrorists." Citizen's communications are monitored, phone conversations and e-mail is run through the data mining programs, where key words and phrases are picked up and the sender's communications are monitored, as are the communications of anyone he contacts and anyone they contact.
Apparently these enemies of the state may be anyone. It could be you, or me, your neighbor or mine. We must watch them and each other, and inform the government if anyone does anything suspicious. It could be anyone who worries about the erosion of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, or the treatment of war prisoners, or the excesses of government and corruption such as the Enron debacle, no-bid contracts for favored defense contractors, etc. Records, supposed to be in the public domain, have all been reclassified, so questions of perfidy by the government under Reagan, and Bush I are now locked away forever. The huge military arms profits earned by groups closely allied with Bush and the government are being covered up, while Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales virtually beg for a terrorist act to get our minds off government corruption and venality. I'm sure there will be a "terrorist" act before the next election, even if it has to be a black operation by our own side. We've done it before. Remember the Tonkin Gulf incident that stampeded Congress into a declaration of war against North Vietnam.
Exercise of freedom of speech is beginning to be considered treasonous. People criticizing the government or the president are routinely arrested or sequestered in holding pens far from the scene of protest, cut off from the media. The government is now able to alter videos, photos and audio tape at will in a virtually undetectable manner, so who will ever have proof of what happened. History can now be rewritten to reflect anything the government wants it to. Orwell's Ministry of Truth in operation.
The stage has been set and now all "good" citizens should not have any objection to having everything opened to government scrutiny; our bank accounts, where and when we travel, who we associate with, our credit accounts, our e-mail and phone conversations. Next will be a national ID card with a smart chip in it. Eventually, for our own safety, each citizen will probably have an embedded chip that can be read by a scanner. Then, whenever we travel, whatever we buy, whatever we do, it will all be monitored by Big Brother, er, the government and we can all feel safe, for any thought or deed that gives comfort to the enemy, whoever that might be at the time, will be detected and the traitors will be rooted out.
Then we will be safe, doing and acting exactly as we are told, for we will know that Big Brother is watching us. And George Orwell will be spinning in his grave.
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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.
