November 18, 2002
Orwell as Textbook
Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune finally hit on something many have been feeling for a long time. In one of the best lead lines to come along in a while, he said, "Some people read George Orwell's '1984' with a sense of dread. Others read it and think, 'Hmmm, cool idea!'" (See "Beware: Uncle Sam wants all of your data".)That's it, isn't it? These Bush characters, from Karl Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and going back to all the other holdovers and retreads from the Reagan and Bush I administrations seem to have studied every technique of tyranny ever devised, and are eager to employ them.
Funny line, not a very funny scenario. Our only hope is that Americans will find this New World Order so detestable that they will resist it with as much gumption as they resisted it last time around, when it was being pushed by Hitler. (See New World Order, "The Push Towards a New World Order In The 1990s".
You know they are feeling invincible when they pull out convicted Iran Contra criminals like John Poindexter to head up a plan to spy on all of us. Poindexter's conviction for lying to Congress was only overturned because he had immunity for testifying to Congress, not because he was not guilty as hell. That was a technicality.
But the Bushies are redefining the very essence of law. It's becoming more like Nixon's view: "If the President does it, it's not illegal."