Thursday, January 24, 2019

It can't happen here.....It already has


“He did not know how long she had been looking at him, but perhaps for as much as five minutes, and it was possible that his features had not been perfectly under control. It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face.....was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.”

George Orwell, 1984



11 comments:

MK said...

I'm fascinated by how white people pride themselves on self-flagellation to prove themselves being "fair". Even to the point of tossing their kids under the bus.

The future is upon us in America methinks.

Bruce Charlton said...

Given the camera 'shutter speed' (images per second); more exactly it means wearing what looks-like an improper expression on your face for a small fraction of a second; plus granting uncontradictable authority to the mass media and Establishment to tell everybody what this 1/10th second expression *really* means about you, and your inferred cause, and the future of humanity.

The Social Pathologist said...

@MK

I think that most of the Catholic and Conservative leadership have developed the habit of simply bowing on command to their leftist superiors. They've done it so many times that it is reflexic. What has absolutely appalled me is, given the obviously unfair treatment religious and conservative institutions have had at the hands of the media, how quickly they were prepared to throw these kids under the bus without even trying to substantiate the claims being made against them. The sense of a presumption of innocence has completely gone. Even after the facts were established, some still kept blaming the kids.

What we're seeing now is institutional failure happening in the U.S.

@Bruce

I'm increasingly of the opinion that the Journalistic profession needs to be regulated like the medical profession. Doctors have a duty of care towards their patients while journalist need to have a duty towards the truth. Breaches of this duty should result in dismissal. I think one of the weak points in Western Culture has been it failure to recognise the power of the press and therefore regulate it meaningfully for the common good. What's happening now is worse than what happened in the Soviet Union. In that situation a journalist had the fear of big brother regulating his behaviour, in the West they lie willingly.

This isn't going to end well.

Nate Winchester said...

What has absolutely appalled me is, given the obviously unfair treatment religious and conservative institutions have had at the hands of the media, how quickly they were prepared to throw these kids under the bus without even trying to substantiate the claims being made against them.

Ditto.
http://www.rottenchestnuts.com/in-and-out/

Jason said...

Glad that you're back to blogging doctor. I'd caution though, to say the least, about giving feds the power to regulate speech. In fact, I am wary of finding any panacea in politics generally for the dilemma we're in.

As an aside, you might pursue a recent biography by Julian Jackson on de Gaulle, which seems like the standard now on the subject (considering your affinity for the man).

Empedocles said...


Given the actions and attitudes of the Catholic authorities towards the children in this case do you still think the church is the answer? The church is happily gutting the principles and people of the West.

Why does the church so often have to be shamed into doing the right thing?

I do not think the church is the West.

If there is a solution it will have to come from elsewhere.

Bruce Charlton said...

@SP "the Journalistic profession needs to be regulated like the medical profession"

The medial profession is controlled by managers with a secular leftist agenda - and the same applies to journalists and editors, which is why they all think, say and do the same.

The only 'unregulated' 'profession' is managers - who regulate (i.e. sustain) each other, while controlling and sucking the blood from everybody else.

The Social Pathologist said...

@Jason and Bruce

I'd caution though, to say the least, about giving feds the power to regulate speech. In fact, I am wary of finding any panacea in politics generally for the dilemma we're in.

and


The medial profession is controlled by managers with a secular leftist agenda

You're absolutely correct, Jason, in that politics won't save us. Good laws don't restrain bad people and political solution administered by wicked people is going to be a failure. The thing is, though, not everyone is bad.

You might find this interesting Bruce. Here in Australia, because of our colonial origins, each state had its own medical board which was independent. My own state's medical board was completely pozzed but some of the other states still were bastions of sensibility. What happened is that by having multiple medical boards, it allowed for local variations in opinion to exist.

Several years ago, in the name of administrative efficiency, the boards were effectively merged into one. This made the progressive task so much easier as there was only one board to capture instead of multiple boards. As expected it's now pozzed.

There's no way I can guarantee virtue in anyone but I suppose I'm optimistic in thinking that there will always be some good people around. Decentralisation of power increases the opportunity that some of these good people will be in control and provide a beachhead for counterattack.

The principle of "one to rule them all" is dangerous and hence any regulation of the journalism profession needs to be done by multiple independent bodies, perhaps delineated by geographic region. There is no perfect system but the expectation of government by the virtuous only is utopian. We've got to work with what we've got.

Jason, thanks for the book recommendation but it's going to be a long while to I get to read it since the "to read" list is rather long at the moment.

The Social Pathologist said...

@Empedolces

Given the actions and attitudes of the Catholic authorities towards the children in this case do you still think the church is the answer? The church is happily gutting the principles and people of the West.

I hope to make some more in depth comments about this in the near future however I still think the Catholic Church, hopeless as it is at the moment, is the only show in town.

The Church is more than the priesthood. In my mind there seems to a good reservoir of faith among the laity who are disgusted with the majority of the managerial clergy. I see hope in them and some elements of the priesthood. As I've said before, the Trads and not the solution but Kumbayah Catholicism is dying.

The Social Pathologist said...

@ Empedolces

As I've said before, the Trads and not the solution but Kumbayah Catholicism is dying.

Should be.

As I've said before, the Trads are not the solution but Kumbayah Catholicism is dying.

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