George Orwell
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Orwell, Hitchens, And The Hollow Self-Righteousness Of Anti-Communism
In addition to all of the propaganda pieces that anti-communists use to legitimize their position, they often utilize a more general rhetorical tool, which is the denunciations of communism that have come from two of the last century’s most prominent intellectuals: George Orwell and Christopher Hitchens. These figures maintain large cult followings and are widely seen… Continue reading
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The Omnipresent Surveillance State: Orwell’s 1984 Is No Longer Fiction By John W. Whitehead
Tread cautiously: the fiction of George Orwell has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state. Continue reading
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The Anti-Empire Report #121 By William Blum: The War on Terrorism … or whatever
All this barbarity piled on top of a greater absurdity – these Western-backed, anti-government forces are often engaged in battle with other Western-backed, anti-government forces, non-jihadist. It has become increasingly difficult to sell this war to the American public as one of pro-democracy “moderates” locked in a good-guy-versus-bad-guy struggle with an evil dictator, although in… Continue reading
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The Orwellian Paradigm: Killing You for Your Own Safety By Faisal Moghul
Almost thirty years ago, cultural critic Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death that television’s gradual replacement of the printing press has created a dumbed-down culture driven by mindless entertainment. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Eyes Like Blank Discs – The Guardian’s Steven Poole On George Orwell’s Politics And The English Language By David Edwards
January 21, ‘Orwell Day’, marked the 63rd anniversary of George Orwell’s death, Steven Poole notes in the Guardian. To commemorate 110 years since Orwell was born (June 25), BBC radio will broadcast a series about his life while Penguin will publish a new edition of his essay, ‘Politics and the English Language’. This essay, Poole… Continue reading
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Orwell’s 1984 Solution to Criminalize War: “If There was Hope, it must Lie in the Proles” By Prof. James F. Tracy
In George Orwell’s 1984 the Outer Party comprised a mere thirteen percent of the population and was subject to the ideological filters in play at the Ministry of Truth and the broader bureaucratic structure. A specific language and way of thinking were closely adhered to. Given their political import, Outer Party members were the most… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Mystery Of The Missing Clocks By David Edwards
The truth peeks out at us from the most unexpected places. It can be seen, for example, in the empty spaces where one might otherwise hope to find a clock in shops. The average retailer doesn’t approve of customers clock-watching – they might realise they have something more important to do and cut short their… Continue reading
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The sheep look down By William Bowles
The ability of ‘science fiction’ to extrapolate the future and it would seem often quite accurately, but one ignored by the priests of ‘high culture’ who consistently dismissed it as ‘genre’ writing, confined to a convenient niche where bug-eyed monsters live and bought where guys in dirty raincoats prowled. Continue reading
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US, UK: Targeting Syria: Looking back at: “frighteningly frank” plans By Felicity Arbuthnot
For anyone in two minds about what is really going on in Syria, and whether President Assad, hailed a decade ago as “A Modern Day Attaturk”, has become the latest megalomaniacal despot, to whose people a US-led posse of nations, must deliver “freedom”, with weapons of mass, home, people, nation and livlihood destruction, here is… Continue reading
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US, UK: Targeting Syria: Looking back at: “frighteningly frank” plans By Felicity Arbuthnot
For anyone in two minds about what is really going on in Syria, and whether President Assad, hailed a decade ago as “A Modern Day Attaturk”, has become the latest megalomaniacal despot, to whose people a US-led posse of nations, must deliver “freedom”, with weapons of mass, home, people, nation and livlihood destruction, here is… Continue reading
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Most Popular Books at Housmans in 2011
17 November 2011 — Housmans The following have been the bestselling titles at Housmans this year. Sales aren’t everything though, so look out for a list of Housmans staff’s favourite books from 2011, coming very soon. All the following books are available to buy online or in-store. For online purchases just click on the link Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: THE SILENCE OF THE BBC 100 – BBC TRUST CHAIRMAN RESPONDS TO ‘NEWSPEAK’
One of our readers recently took us to task for a serious omission in our new book, ‘Newspeak in the 21st Century’ (Pluto Press, 2009). He asked how we could possibly have failed to include the BBC’s Newsnight presenter, Emily Maitlis. In August 2008, Maitlis opened Newsnight with these words about the conflict between Russia… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 