Dystopian Visions of the Future: Where are we heading?
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There has been renewed interest and talk about George Orwell’s classic 1984. I have been reading it and I’ve been attempting to make a logical conclusion about it in how it reveals more about what we are witnessing today.
Orwell’s dystopia is far beyond the scale or the scope of what is happening today, so many might just dismiss the similarities. In Orwell’s account, everyone is essentially brainwashed and by-so-being rendered unable to argue or disagree with the government/media. And if they choose to question anything they are essentially killed or imprisoned.
In 1984, the government and the media are essentially one entity, and there is a totalitarian, collectivist state that controls all dissemination of information including how history is written.
The state is essentially God (all-seeing and pervasive). What Orwell accounts is very similar to what exists only in North Korea and what existed under Stalin in Communist Russia. The dystopia that existed under Stalin was one where millions of Russians were killed in prison gulags if they didn’t accept and believe obvious falsehoods and a fictional account of history and economics.
Orwell believed that the entire west would become something like his dystopia. That would only happen if our First Amendment (of Free speech) was slowly eroded and eventually removed.
We are witnessing a collectivist ideology taking root in the United States, which is essentially attempting to remove free speech– this goes under a couple of names: “Cancel Culture” or “PC Movement — Politically Correct Movement.” And it is especially pervasive on the campuses of Universities and in the most liberal big cities.
Under a large part of leftist ideology there exists a rigid adherence to maintaining a pure form of thinking, speech and thought: woke thought and thinking: where if someone (such as an academic) decides to challenge, question or argue this ideology (even with facts), this person can be removed from their associations and essentially ostracized.
Recent examples of this: And anyone listening can do their own research — Are Dr. Jordan Peterson, speaking out again a Canadian measure called Bill C-16, which would have enforced transgender pronouns to the degree that someone could be thrown into jail for not using them. Bret Weinstein– A professor at Evergreen State College questioned transgender activists ability to gain such a platform to take over the campus was far too extreme and uncalled for; And more recently Dr. Steven Pinker, who simply stated a statistical fact: that black people are not any more likely to be killed by police officers than white people. The result of his actions resulted in him being banned from the Linguistic Society of America.
Other more popular names who have fallen to a degree victim of cancel culture are Podcast Superstar Joe Rogan for listening to the likes of Alex Jones; and late night TV talk show host Bill Maher for speaking out against and joking about the Clintons.
None of these men are willing to toe the line and maintain an undiscerning, completely biased point of view concerning the growing leftist movements in politics. Nor are they willing to completely ignore that there is another side to every argument.
If Cancel Culture wins, essentially anybody who questions will be silenced. This would in effect end the entire point of the First Amendment and the right to free speech.
If we allow this to go on, then we will amputate the right leg of the greatness of America. The health and wellbeing and greatness of America has always been our right to openly question authority, debate; and hold truth to power. If we remove this ability by allowing personalities and businesses to fall victim to cancel culture, then we are setting up ourselves to realize this dystopia of corporate/bureaucratic Marxist mechanisms to simply take over.
The right leg of what makes America a great country is our right to free speech, which includes our right to freely assemble (which we have seen attempts to remove); The left leg of the greatness of America is our Second Amendment: the right to bear arms. The reason we have this right is not so we can hunt animals. There is a very clear reason why this is in place: it’s so that We can assemble ourselves, if needed, and protect ourselves from tyranny. I think the measures taken to stop people from carrying assault rifles, is, of course, justified, if it targets those who should never be allowed to handle or carry weapons like those: the mentally ill, minors, and essentially psychos. But there is no reason why law-abiding citizens shouldn’t have the same weapons that criminals carry. Naturally, in 1984 there is no right to bear arms, so uprising is next to impossible.
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I believe in Civil Disobedience and the right for people of every stripe, color creed, opinion, and religion to get up and speak. Everyone should be allowed to speak, especially those with whom we disagree.
Why should we silence those with which we disagree? Why should we not instead listen to them and use our rational logic to either concede our own opinions or find arguments that superseded theirs? The only reason why one group would be opposed to this is because they are aware of being on the losing side of the argument. There is no other reason.
Cancel Culture is only about attempting to make vulnerable and less educated people fall prey to accepting an inferior ideology by silencing the other side, or by making attempts to criticize or demonize anyone who doesn’t fall in line. This practice is nothing new. It’s what religions do to keep their believers in line. With the decline of religious communities, this way of thinking seemed to have become essentially the new religion and tribal in nature.
Anyone who is actually interested in truth doesn’t think this way. Anyone who puts truth on the highest pedestal wants to have their ideas challenged; wants to listen to the other side. Wants to gain a greater understanding by truly hearing the opposition. This is also a large part of what has made America and the west such a great place: Our constant striving to gain “the truth”. But if now truth takes the sidelines to tribalism, then we will all lose.
We are seeing that the strongest proponents of leftism are taking the most extreme measures possible to silence people. This is because they aren’t interested in creating a public forum for finding truth and finding solutions. They are only interested in gaining power. For these reasons, Cancel Culture needs to be wiped out.
If it’s not wiped out, our freedom of speech will be eroded. And too many of us will be too afraid of standing up for fear of being canceled. Orwell’s Dystopia could become a reality. We could all become subjects to the power of Marxism, whereby the state controls everything.
I applaud Steven Pinker, Jordan Peterson, Bill Maher, and Bret Weinstein.
A few others I know about who have stood up for reason over tyranny include Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro. These men have received a label: They are known as part of the Intellectual Dark Web. Because of their willingness to essentially not fall prey to party politics and the mostly leftist movement to conform or die. Instead, these men are seeking to find the truth, as well as point out clear falsehood when they see it.
I believe the United States still possesses the strength to overcome the onslaught of what many leftists want to use as an opportunity to topple our established systems and produce a new Marxist revolution. We as news consumers; we need to open our eyes and see what is happening — It’s clear that the efforts to defund the police; and welcome tyranny and anarchy; are essentially mechanisms to roll out the red carpet for a new way of thinking to take control. If this new way, means more our basic Civil Liberties are removed then we better start speaking up now.
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