Tag: george orwell
Politics and its Discontents: A Saturday Evening Thought
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Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Big Brother’s power is building, warns George Orwell biographer
Mankind, like the proverbial lobster in the pot, is becoming conditioned to losing rights and freedoms at an alarming rate. ‘Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning. He felt that if someone didn’t sound the alarm loudly enough, eventually a lot of the freedoms he cherished would be lost. -’CBC News
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Former Tory strategist Allan Gregg rips Harper Cons’ ‘systematic attack’ on facts and reason
A couple of old guys born just before the last King passed on, one of them your blogger, the other the pollster and former Tory strategist Allan Gregg. Below: Mr. Gregg in his iconoclastically Conservative heyday. Long-time Tory pollster and strategist Allan Gregg ripped into the Harper Government on Saturday
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Score Another One For Orwell
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. – George Orwell As always, the writer had exceptional clarity about where Western society was headed. H/t Steve Collett Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Stephen Harper’s Canada is reminiscent of Orwell’s Nightmarish “1984″ World
By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 18, 2013: Allan Gregg, a prominent media commentator, chairperson of polling firm Harris/Decima, and strategist for the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney, says Stephen Harper‘s Canada is reminiscent of Orwell’s nightmarish “1984” world. So he said in an impassioned delivered at Carleton University on September 5, 2012.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Orwell Day – Better late than Never
Orwell day was January 21st, and of course, I missed it. Media Lens did not miss the boat and has an article up laced with the sort of irony and breathtaking self-deception that Orwell fought against. “January 21, ‘Orwell Day’, marked the 63rd anniversary of George Orwell’s death, Steven
Continue readingAlberta Diary: About Stephen Harper’s ambassadorial timeshare: maybe he missed the lesson on the Statute of Westminster!
Canadian and British Joint-Embassy diplomats work out their timeshare arrangements. Below: The young Stephen Harper on the day he missed his history lecture after lingering too long over Atlas Shrugged; Perfesser Dave feeds lines to Opposition leader Tom Mulcair last weekend; Mr. Harper at the NCC. Like Sir John A.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Assault on Reason
Yesterday I wrote a post on the important role education plays in the development of critical thinking skills, skills that are crucial for anyone who aspires to being something more than a puppet of government and corporate propaganda. Unfortunately, as I noted, current education reforms under consideration in Ontario will
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Words, Words, Words
As a retired English teacher and a lifelong lover of books, I have always been fascinated by words, both what they actually mean and how they are used to influence and manipulate. As the years have gone by, I have become especially interested in the political uses and abuses of
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Orthodoxy is unconsciousness
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Seismic Activity Reported In Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England
In one of the best examples of doublespeak I have encountered in a long time, Ontario Finance Minister had this to say about wage freezes and bargaining rights yesterday: “Bargaining in good faith is not only the right choice to make, the Supreme Court of Canada requires it,” the finance
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