FW: 1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[jbor]

on 6/5/03 11:34 PM, Otto wrote:

> But it's a binary opposition, you use it yourself in your second sentence in
> making your point. Of course the "similarities" can be generally applied to
> every government if some government is beginning to develop or to show
> "tendencies" to increase the control over the people.

No, it isn't a binary opposition at all. By all means criticise laws which
are enacted by democratic Western governments. But keep in mind that the
fact you are free to criticise them marks a major and defining difference
between Western democracies and totalitarian regimes. More than this,
however, "control over the people" as an everyday reality for virtually
every person living in totalitarian states, as in Orwell's novel, is extreme
and total. It is not so in Western democracies. The great majority of people
living in Western democracies are "politically equal" and "intellectually
free". Injustices which affect a minority are generally transitory. In every
respect life in a totalitarian state is the opposite of this.

I believe that the greater emphasis should be placed on the proven
injustices, on the actual crimes against humanity which are committed under
totalitarian despots, on real human suffering, which is what the UN
certainly is focused on through agencies such as the UNHREOC and UNHCR.
Against the injustices which the Iraqi people endured for a generation under
Saddam, or the Afghanis under the Taliban - affecting millions and millions
of people - the "infringements" on civil liberties in the U.S. stack up as
pretty trivial imo.

best (sorry if a double-up)