gelatik
10.03.02, 03:39
"Tell me, Winston - and remember, no lies; you know that I am always able to
detect a lie - tell me, what are your true feelings toward Big Brother?"
"I hate him."
"You hate him. Good. Then the time has come for you to take the last step. You
must love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him; you must love him."
- George Orwell, 1984
If anything has happened to me personally since the events of September 11, it
has been that my consumption of reading material has increased so drastically
that it now rivals my consumption of food. At times I go hungry, yet I am never
without a book or paper easily within an arms length. And if there is any book
that never leaves my grasp, following me closely wherever I may be, it is 1984
by George Orwell. I suppose it would not be going too far to say that I have
read this book at least a dozen times in the few months that have followed
those horrific events.
But why mention this? Certainly, the book has a merit in that it stands on its
own as one of the greatest pieces of literature of the 20th century. However
the worries of Orwell are over, aren't they? Communism, the "evil empire" has
crumbled like a house of cards. Capitalism and Democracy are spreading
throughout the world, brought under the glorious banner of the United States of
America. Whenever the forces of wrong have risen up, the United States has led
the world in a courageous effort to smash this neo-fascism and restore the rule
of the just. She has employed the concepts of jus bellum more nobly than any
state before her. She stands as a power unmatched: any who contest her or try
to attack her are met with swift, overwhelming power. As the Colossus once
bestrode Rhodes, now she stands over all other nations as the greatest power
the world has ever known in history.
You may wonder why I included the opening quote in this essay. I did so because
if one could have pried into my mind, as O'Brien did to Winston, in the days
after the United States started her unrelenting assault on Afghanistan it would
have read like the above. Only one may replace "Big Brother" with "America." It
is true that I am an American; there have been plenty of times when I have been
proud of the way that my country has acted and the way that her people have
risen to challenges almost unthinkable to most and yet swiftly conquered them.
However, lately there has been a more sinister aspect to what we can best
term "American neo-Imperialism." We are no longer merely satisfied with forcing
states into submission. No, we now demand not only submission but also that the
states love us, want us, look up to us.
This is something difficult to grasp at first. I myself was not sure of it when
I first felt it pulling at the corners of my mind. The more I read Orwell,
however, the more I became convinced that 1984 is more important to us now than
it was in the 1950's when the Soviet Union was at its peak. Ironically, we are
in more danger now than we were then. This time Big Brother does not reside in
the personage of Stalin, but in the potential governance of the United States
in her quest for complete global hegemony.
While the United States has never cared about the wishes of other nations when
pursuing international diplomacy (see Israel), the sword has now been pulled
from its sheath. These unilateral demands are now being enforced by the
military. Where are the cries for rationalism? Sadly, they only resonate from
other states; within the United States herself, all such cries are drowned in
the river of patriotism that rages through every valley and threatens all who
would stand against it with the terrible might of its force. Meanwhile, the
list of suspects grows daily. The list of states involved in terrorism
lengthens with every new speech by the American President. In the Universities
now, even voicing opinions that are against the interests of
American "security" is enough to have one fired from their job (this happened
in Florida). I am eagerly waiting for John Ashcroft to announce the newest
measure in safeguarding America: the introduction of thoughtcrime as a
punishable action.
Mr. Bush asks why people in other countries hate America so much. How can they
hate us? Do they not see that America is really a genteel parent who, although
at times needs to chastise the child, still does all in the best interests of
him or her? When we obliterated Iraq in 1991, it was in her best interests; she
had transgressed and she must be punished. Should she throw out Saddam Hussein,
all would be forgiven. When we annihilated the Taliban, it was in the best
interests of the people of Afghanistan. When we force other states to open
their doors to global capitalism via IMF and World Bank and bring "McWorld" to
all people in all lands, do they not realize it is out of love for them that we
do as such?
It is not enough that the rest of the world obeys us. It is not enough that
nobody is willing to challenge us. It has gone beyond that. It is now a matter
of love. They must love us.
