No one cares if the boots exist…
1984 is MUCH more relevant than the more simplified versions we see in movies.
Catte Black
What struck me last time I read 1984 was how much I had missed in it. It’s much much more than the images of brutal repression we tend to remember.
I was struck by how familiar the Party’s mind control methodology now seems – with the emphasis on invented, irrational narrative and willing suspension of critical faculties.
The war doesn’t need to actually happen…
It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist.”
Emanuel Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism (George Orwell’s 1984)
No one cares if the boots exist…
…The Ministry of Plenty’s forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at a hundred and forty-five million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than a hundred and forty-five millions. Very likely no boots had been produced at all….”
Reality is whatever the Party says it is, as O’Brien tells Winston…
We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation—anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wished to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of nature. We make the laws of nature.“
You see, the Party has divined that events don’t need to have any physical reality in order to be effective as propaganda, they just need to exist in the minds of the people as a believed consensus reality.
In fact, O’Brien is aware that manipulating people into accepting a fictional ‘reality’ gives the Party even more control, since it divorces them from any possible check or balance. In this world O’Brien can float off the floor like a soap bubble, victories can happen and un-happen again, chocolate rations can get bigger while decreasing, boots can be created – just by saying so.
And even the subversives are lost in the matrix.
O’Brien is the real author of Goldstein’s book. Winston was ‘permitted’ to read it, while being watched all the while. His ‘rebellion’ carefully managed, monitored and eventually extinguished.
So, even the anti-establishment narratives are based solely on the fictions generated by the Party and can therefore only take the people reading them ever deeper into helpless delusion. They live and die without ever contacting veridical reality. They are all lost, even those who think they aren’t.
How close are we to living in this world? How many of our rebellions are already managed and cultivated?
Simpleminded binary narratives are now the currency of so much debate, a lot of them contrived so that both “sides” end up promoting the same establishment agendas. It’s increasingly hard to navigate them and more and more people seem not to even try, succumbing to the lure of that pre-packaged outrage and the easy sense of virtue and comradeship acquired by adopting the flavour of your choice.
Will there be a point of no return, where objective truth is finally snuffed out of everyone’s awareness and all we have is O’Brien’s curated “alternative news”, served up to us as a harmless little virtual reality entertainment for contrarians?
What must we do to hang on to those precious threads of real, organic resistance and real, unpolluted independent thought?
The narrative managers probably don’t intend to make that easy for us that’s for sure.
I think a small first step might be to go read Orwell’s book again.
If you’re like me you might find it surprises you and resonates more with you now, post-2020, than it ever did.
First published on Catte’s Corner on Substack
SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN
If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.
For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.
The boots and chocolate numbers which were fudged in 1984 are exactly what we have today. The stock market can go up and you can lose. It’s all a scam to keep people working harder for less and less in order to feed the “party” (wall street, military industrial complex, etc)
Humanity didn’t see it before, but Orwell wrote 1984 about his own experiences in british intelligence.
We are in whatever book comes after the system in 1984 is exposed to many.
Perhaps we will end up with a brave new world.
All they need to do is stop giving us crap toxic drugs. People will be happier and stop the incessant corruption of the middlemen bullshit jobs.
People well fed with entertainment and enjoyment of life. That’s how you control people….
“!984” is indeed visionary, I think. It is about a total loss of reality, for almost everyone. The only ones “having” some kind of “reality” still are the people of The Party – but their “compass of reality” is power. It is the means and the end in itself.
The only chance I see is reconnecting with our selves – our humble human selves, not the magnificent, almost godlike ones we (almost) all have been “sold” to in the past decades. The more we are distanced from our innate humanness and the direct experience through our senses, the more we are susceptible to any manipulation, to any version of “reality” that is “sold” to us: It then doesn’t matter which “side” we pick – we are “taken” anyway …
So let’s all rehumanise – as Erich Fromm (and others) put it, come back to the mode of being instead the one of having. The clue seems to be in the mode of (general) consciousness, or to put it with Iain McGilchrist: Let’s again cherish connected, direct experience (right brain-hemispheric) over the dominant left-hemispheric, re-presented way of seeing the world and ourselves.
“The polls are even, but Trump is gaining because he sounds more insane every day, and Harris is circling the drain because she sounds more stupid every day. Early votes are favoring Trump, but that demographic is surely for Harris because she’s black, or something. It’s going to be close, the polls say, maybe a few hundred thousand votes, that’s all, which is kind of amazing considering there are about 280 million eligible voters. The main thing is, just vote. It doesn’t matter for whom, what matters is that you vote. Because of democracy or something like that. The more people that vote, the better the democracy, man.”
Because if you vote, they got ya.
In other news, the war OF terror continued today, because there is still terror, because they create it.
I don’t think I need to read the book again, we are now living it. Truth is always stranger than fiction.
“I KNOW NOTHIN !!”, that memorable exclamation by loveable Sergeant Shultz
is often brought to mind these days when talking to a Normie…
They Thought They Were Free. The Germans 1933-1945… Historian Milton Mayer:
https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
via
https://truthcomestolight.com/brace-yourselves-a-tsunami-approaches
I feel that there is something unreal about the Uktaine/ Russia war. However I feel sure that the massacres in Palestine are happening
In the 21st Century, you know a “war” is fake when there are hardly any images, still or moving. Where are the frontline images from Ukraine/Russia ? And so many still images are historical or photoshopped.
I remember being incredulous when viewing live images from the helmet cam of an Apache helicopter gunner as he strafed a bunch of Iraqi trucks/soldiers on a mountain pass – a real war from a manufactured threat
”It’s increasingly hard to navigate them and more and more people seem not to even try, succumbing to the lure of that pre-packaged outrage and the easy sense of virtue and comradeship acquired by adopting the flavour of your choice.” That was the only part of the article I disagreed with it. i am pleasantly surprised by the number of people who realise exactly what is happening and despair about the fact that we don’t know what to do to stop Big Brother.
1984 and Brave New World are two parts of a whole.
1984 describes the awakened soul that can see how
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of [their] own choosing.”
Brave New World describes the normies on their daily dose of Soma”:
“The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get.”
Though both books end in the defeat of the disobedient that’s just the authors’ take on the situation.
Can awareness and rebelliousness ever be truly stamped out?
Maybe rebellion can be stamped out if you manage to persuade the potential rebels that the evil people in this world are being defeated by the good guys / the resistance / the white hats and in a few days / weeks / months good things will come to those who wait – the patient (non-violent) rebels. That’s what a lot of people I have read online truly believe and quite frankly they might as well. What’s the use of worrying? If bad things are coming it doesn’t help to have wasted the better times worrying. And if they aren’t- same thing. Doom-mongering never helps.
Any Historical Event, such as super-duper hurricanes in The
Past that dont agree with The Science of Global Warming
(human-caused, that is) are dis-information…
Wikipedia has been tasked with updating such entries to
conform them with current The Science (TM) claim that
Things Are Getting Worser !!
But worry not, if Wiki is not up to the job, there’s always that
reliable stand-by Historical Amnesia (It’s very popular !)
Remember, Remember, The 5th of November ?
The grim reality of Reiner Fuellmich’s predicament.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/reiner-fuellmich-persecution-prison%E2%80%A8/5870070
Thank you very much for the post.I think I had heard of this guy before (funny surname! Fullmilk!). Poor bloke. hope he and Assange know it isn’t in vain. At least peole like them who are very brave let us know we are alive
It’s all a projection of mind. To imagine that there is anything outside the mind is pure delusion. All that has ever been and will be experienced is a thought. NOW what is a thought and where does it come from and go to?
My recently bought hard-copy dictionary contains the updated meanings
of ‘vaccine’, ‘pandemic’, ‘medical doctor’, ‘war’, ‘dis- and mis-information.’
‘terrorism’, etc… Helps me understand what’s really going on… The entry
for ‘democracy’ really threw me ! How wrong i was !! I thought the
description it gives was for an ‘oligarchy’ (There’s no entry for ‘oligarchy’
or ‘plutarchy’ – clearly i was dis-informed by conspiracy peddlers !!)
Question – is Substack the digital age ‘Winston’?
SUBSTACK: A Ministry of Truth ProductionHow did SUBSTACK get away with not censoring?
How is it that when every other news and social media platform was forced to censor all negative Covid and Covid vaccine articles and comments, Substack was able to tell the Ministry of Truth to shove there censorship up their ass?
When the DOD runs an operation and their minions at the Ministry of Truth politely ask media owners to censor, you damn well censor, unless you have an army bigger than the DOD’s. If you refuse the asking becomes a demand, then a threat. They have the power to end your venture.
With respect to Substack, there is no advertising so the Ministry of Truth can’t demand that advertisers pull their banners. However Substack does use payment gateways accepting credit card payments, so the site is extremely vulnerable.
The Ministry of Truth could have easily justified shutting down Substack on the grounds of publishing disinformation related to Covid resulting in the sheeple not injecting the deadly life-saving Rat Juice and endangering public health.
Kind of how like they stripped doctors of their licenses if they advised patients not to inject the experiment. We are talking serious power, total power.
Why is Substack Necessary?
I picked this up in the comments section of an article on Substack the other day:
Janet
Jun 17
Sometimes I scream in my car. Substack plus that and prayers are all I have.
Substack serves multiple purposes.
It provides a platform for Anti Vaxxers to form a community and blow off steam ensuring that they never take any action that might upset The Extermination Plan. Rather than turning to violence, which is what one would expect when your government is hell bent on killing and maiming you, Substackers instead hang out chatting on Substack and high-fiving every time a new study drops demonstrating the Rat Juice is deadly.
They do nothing because they are lead to believe that the Vaxxers surely must be waking up given the deluge of studies. But the Vaxxers remain fast asleep because they are not seeing the studies. The Ministry of Truth knows that there is no danger of these truths infecting the Vaxxers because they trust only bbccnn. If they are sent links to Substack articles they delete them and howl ‘conspiracy theories!!!’
Substack is a pile of dog shit attracting all Anti Vaxxers who are then corralled into into a holding pen. The Ministry of Truth logs the IP addresses and opens a file on every user of this site. They monitor every single key stroke and watch for signs that a member is contemplating violence or organizing what might be an effective form of protest.
Fortunately nobody has attempted anything that gets on the radar of the Ministry of Truth because that would result in the anti terrorist squads being mobilized.
Who wants to be shot in the head or thrown in a Super Max prison when you can just moan and complain on Substack believing this will result in a revolution.
Ministry of Truth Agents on Substack
https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/substack-a-ministry-of-truth-production
Sub no longer accepts subscription payments using de identified gift cards
Clearly it’s one big data harvest
Very interesting! I have a rubbish dumbphone. Bluetooth is on it. Apparently it tracks us all the time even when off ( if I understood a talk given by Tom Oliver Regenauer on his ‘ the Truman show’ talk recently). I was looking at mobile phones in a big dept store today. There was only one dumbphone and you have to speak to the salesadviser if you want it; I reckon it’s all the better to track us.
In Oz they r talking about needing ID to use the internet so i guess we will have a choice soon whether to keep handing over the data harvesting
The fact that Orwell was so accurate in his predictions … makes me wonder if Orwell was not in The Club…. and if 1984 was a collaboration between him and the Ministry of Truth.
Kinda like …
The Utopia TV SeriesWere they hinting at what was to come?https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/the-utopia-tv-series
? It’s so obvious Orwell loves humans and individualism and freedom.
By the Numbers
Russia had 360,000 ground troops before the war and has suffered 315,000 killed and wounded since February 2022, according to newly declassified intel shared with Congress. Source
Start Date of the War: February 22, 2022 (less than 2.5 years)
Population of Ukraine: 36,744,636
The U.S. National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers were killed in action and 150,000 were wounded in the Vietnam War Source
Start and End Dates US Troop involvement Vietnam War : 1965 – 1973
Population of the USA in 1968: 195,743,427
Summary: Ukraine, with a population 1/5 the size of the US population during the Vietnam War, has suffered 360,000 casualties in 2.5 years of war vs what the 58,000 that US endured in 8 years of fighting in Vietnam.
I call bullshit on the Ukraine numbers. If their numbers are accurate then this is a slaughterhouse like no other in the history of warfare. It would be impossible to convince or force Ukrainians to fight. And there would be nobody left to fight, and no work force left to operate the country.
Does anyone think Ukrainian men would be willing to fight and die for this clown?
https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/the-ukraine-war-is-fake
I make a point of reading 1984 every so often.
As Catte says, it is more scary each time.
Actually, I found it a bit clunky when I first read it some 40 years ago and a bit of a stretch of the imagination.
Why did Winston love BB at the end ?
I’ve never undersood that line.
Was it just a powerful line to end the novel or did Winston own nothing but was happy ?
Was the clunkiness due to trying to get the message over rather than writing great literature ?
If you want to go full on, you could mention that Huxley was Eric Blair’s French teacher and both were contempories, and possibly friends, with H.G Wells, the author of “The Time Machine”
Just saying………
Contemporaries
I find it a bit annoying that you cant be “friends”, join a party with, or talk frequently with someone you dont agree with.
I have several friends I like, but think they are far out childish in their political views and lack insight in the intellectual basics of life. Nevertheless I like some sides of their personalities: It means:
“I forgive them because they dont know what they are doing”, “I Love my neighbour as much as myself”.
“Mohammed Ali shake hands with the President of Zimbabwe why Mohammed Ali is also in favour of Dictatorships”???
Winston love BB in the end because he was subdued and conquered. The Stockholm syndrome was not labelled at that time, so Huxley had to explain the phenomena in another way.
You make a good point.
Did Eric describe Stockholm syndrome ?
Who Eric, Eric Fromm? I havent read that much of Fromm.
But the Stockholm syndrome is contested, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome .
But whatever we call it, it is known that tortured people similar can develop a dependency emotional relationship with their tyrant.
So I just think that Orwell was quite precise in his description about Winston in the end of the book, which just make it an even better classic.
if you read the details of the botched bank robbery in Sweden that gave rise to this bit of jargon, “Stockholm syndrome”, as well as the case of the kidnapped Hearst heiress, one of the first to which the label was applied by media pundits, you have to be struck by the insight that this is yet another example of the mainstream branding as “insane” any genuine human sympathy for rebellion against authority
the hostages in the original incident, over the course of the siege by the police, came to see things from the point of view of the bandits, little guys with quixotic hopes of re-expropriating riches from that vault of fat cats’ deposits and ultimately at the mercy of the behemoth of the forces of order, subjected to veritable torture tactics by the SWAT teams surrounding them
and naturally any offspring of the ruling class whose eyes have been opened to the revolutionary strivings of the oppressed, like that young woman choosing to throw in her lot with the SLA zealots, must have been brainwashed in some sinister, mysterious manner, explicable only by recourse to high-grade psychotherapeutic gobbledygook
He loved him at the end because he had been completely destroyed. Bleak. I think we’re all gonna love BB pretty soon. We’re at the stage where we’re drinking in the café where the reprobates go. Next step is …torture and death when they can be bothered to get round to us
BB wasn’t a person, though. It was the system.
I would like to think that I would never love the system.
I appreciate that some people do.
I wonder if I could be forced to love it.
I wonder if I could be forced to love anything.
Hmmm…
Surely reality of today surprises more than Orwell
History is critical to understanding what is happening in the world today because those who controlled the past now control the present.
But history doesn’t provide a SOLUTION to a world being systematically driven into a cul-de-sac of submission by a force that has prevailed since Roman Times and before. This force (the ENEMY) is attacking us on all fronts (P5) primarily facilitated by technology.
Zbigniev Brezinski (co-founder of the Trilateral Commission) stated in 1970 (P41), that the Technotronic Age (to paraphrase) would ultimately control life on Earth. He failed to mention transhumanism which incorporated the ability to control our minds.
50 years on we are now experiencing the fulfilment of Brezinski’s prophecy. Our controllers, the ENEMY, are now closing in for the kill. The ENEMY’s well-publicised intent on eliminating 90% of the world’s population has only been awaiting their complete electronic control over us, thereby assuring we can be dispatched without the fear of them encountering undue resistance or relatiation.
My basic question is why has humanity seemingly failed to generally recognise the underlying threat that has been creeping up on them for 50 years? Many, assume 10%, can see what’s going on and have immersed themselves in the endless analysis of the latest ENEMY manoeuvres – but none of these erudite media practitioners have produced a tenable solution in the form of an effective Counter Attack Strategy.
Without such a STRATEGY we are doomed. Unless we coalesce as a species to fight and defeat this Force of Evil, there can only be one outcome.
I can only suggest one option, based on historical and contemporary evidence, that is capable of saving us from eradication, this option provides a solution that enables everybody to play a part.
https://icedrive.net/s/8A7z58gxD8RTkWfuSN8S513PFNT2…
Note One: Imagine a world where EVIL was kept under strict and vigilant control – a world where peace and cooperation prevailed between all Nations and people. This is the ultimate objective of the proposed strategy, something that enlightened leaders from Benjamin Franklin to Kennedy aspired to achieve but were thwarted by the evil forces in play against them.
Note Two: No one individual can deliver the complete package, it requires everybody to recognise the ‘Theatre of War’ that has enveloped them and that their strength and survival rely upon their ability to create a sense of unity in pursuit of a common objective and outcome which hopefully should inspire ALL.
What if “simpleminded binary” is a simpleminded binary :-)?
This aspect of 1984 would seem to address the main thing that I believe allows all of it to exist, persist and grow, i.e., the mindset and temperment of the vast majority of regular people. The mindset and aims of the ownership class aren’t all that interesting or mysterious, but hose of the thundering herd, even those that have stepped out of the column and are watching it pass back and forth now, are fascinating and, I suspect, the key to everything.
Even among the freedom and truth communities, which largely and increasingly overlap, the people sincerely seeking those goals with open minds and civility, which are found here at OG in both the writers and the commenters in greater ratio than I’ve ever found on any any other site or news source, remedies are rarely discussed. The latest evidence of the phenomenon and problem is stated and commented on, bemoaned and elaborated on, but that’s it and on to the next story.
There are always newcomers to the info, but many open minds looked behind the curtain without flinching a LONG time ago, some because of the American assassinations in the ’60’s, some because of Vietnam and subsequent and several recent imperial military actions, a huge number because of 9/11, others because of a dawning awareness of fiat currency and the generally irrational and corrupt basis of finance and taxation and then the related 2008 financial implosion, and most recently a big group has peeked back because of the c19 social experiment, still ongoing.
That’s a long time, and a lot of stuff. The jury came in a long time ago. So we also know now that no matter how much evidence is presented and verified, people can’t bring themselves to the next step of what they would and could do, have done about it (and excluding the verifiably futile actions of voting, lawsuits, street marches, et al).
We’re at the Solzhenitsyn line, and got there a long time ago. The problem is minutely and starkly defined, but the logical next step, and possibly the only available remedy, of widespread non-compliance and withdrawal of material support is just not palatable to almost anyone, no matter how much they know or how ineffective the accepted ‘remedies’ of voting, demonstrating and litigating.
Ultimately, I think the problem as outlined by Orwell and Solzhenitsyn may come down to this factor.
Great comment. I agree. The thing is we’ve passed the point of the enemy being definable and approachable. If we could line up against them, fields of Bannockburn style, I think millions upon millions of us would, as evidenced by the incredible numbers of protestors globally during the scamdemic.
The problem why we can’t and don’t and possibly never will, is twofold. The masterminds are embedded into the system of our modern world, hidden and insulated behind myriad layers, many of which we ourselves are entangled. And secondly, even if they were right before our eyes, lined up and clearly labelled, they aren’t directly physically attacking us. Our decorum and humanity and sensibilities tell us that we can only resort to violence and complete revolution if compelled as a last resort by their overt violence and oppression. They are using that against us.
A very smart and kind man I know says a lot these days that he has no idea how people aren’t running on their capitals, tearing the buildings down, and forcibly restructuring and renewing the fabric of our societies and economies. I wonder the same. But I think the answer is in the ideas I’ve proffered above. We are all too soft, too distracted, too entrenched.
I hold my hands up in this regard. I am staunchly against tyranny. I did not lockdown, wondering happily around a deserted central London during April to June 2020. I did not wear a mask, including on flights. But do I have an iPhone? Do I have a Tesco club card because I need the savings afforded by it? Do I not not shop at all the mainstream supermarkets that have now rolled out the cameras on each till, even though I’ve tried speaking several times to shop managers, asking where my data goes, seeing if according to GDPR, I can instantly have my data deleted, which I can’t, obvs. You get my point.
The only option a person would have left to completely and utterly disengage from the system would be to go and live in the hills. But this isn’t 1,000 years ago, or even 100 years ago. This is 2024. Every blade of grass is tracked and known and governed. And even if at best, a few of us could go and live as outcasts, what good would that do? Everything would still roll on, and once full tyranny was unmasked and unchecked, we’d just be hunted down and eradicated anyway.
So I think you’re spot on. I think we’ve passed a threshold some time ago.
However, the one caveat is this. This is no way means I’m convinced the only end destination is doom for us all. That would be completely arrogant and presumptuous. I believe in God. I believe in love and light. I believe that often we need to be pushed right to the brink before we come to our senses. Maybe that is what it is going to take with the trajectory we’re on. Perhaps it will take things getting really really dark before a critical mass of the world will say, hang on a second, no no no, and commence the revolution. Who knows.
Thanks for the competent article and advice.
I read 1984 when I was in the 20’es, surely it would give it a completely new perspective to read it today. today experienced. The answer:
Are you old and experienced, Have you ever been experienced, not necessary stoned, but beautiful? https://youtu.be/b3ckZD7I4yI Go out in nature be eaten by what exist man.
A qualified quote from the present confirming your quotes from the past. Thumbs up.
We also have the power to create reality for ourselves.
I kid you not,, my response to the lockdown announcement was to download an audiobook of 1984. I listened to it at work the next day, wearing blue overalls.
It seemed so much more real than when i read it as a teenager.
And from the dream team:
Well if we can’t get folk to get jabbed to protect against a non-existent bug, perhaps a miracle cure for fatness will provide an incentive:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxgqp1nd1jo
I confidently predict that the next move will be a jab to increase the size of your dick.
All to sneak something else entirely into your system.
The next move have already been here George. A plastic Lolita for your tiny, and a big dildo for your female. You didnt catch the 1984 train either. Hopelessly living in the past.
:-D.https://youtu.be/3WK8B5Y1Wmc
Talk about invented, irrational narratives… like scam psyops to promote more military police state because $800B is not enough to protect us from Costco drone spys or even 20 ft long drones flying over Langley for two weeks? They must think we are so gullible we cannot add 2 + 2… Ya can’t make this stuff up… Only THEY can…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mystery-drones-swarmed-a-us-military-base-for-17-days-the-pentagon-is-stumped/ar-AA1saqAu
I read it too a couple of weeks ago again after about 20 years. The part about the war in Goldstein’s book struck me as well.It’s a real eye opener and I cannot believe how well it corresponds to the current events.
I first read 1984 in what was then called the ‘Fourth Year’ of High School back in the late 70’s. The book intrigued me then in my mid-teens and I borrowed a copy from the library a couple of years after leaving school. I eventually bought my own copy and have read it several times, April 2020 was the last time I read it because actual current events at that time reminded me of it and still do. I’m off up to my attic now to retrieve and read it yet again. It seemed like a futuristic, dystopian novel in 1979 and scarcely believable back then, now it seems like a modern government manual, who’d have thought it!
To think we were made to read this in school in the seventies !