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...In [George] Orwell's 1984, [Emmanuel] Goldstein is the shadowy,
possibly-fictitious-but-possibly-real former Party official whose
betrayals of the State, ongoing treason, and array of other
incomprehensibly evil acts make him, in the lore of State
propaganda, the Prime Villain, the Root of all Evil, whom Good
Citizens blame for all societal evils and on whom they exclusively
focus their rage. His image is regularly paraded before the
citizenry during a Two Minute Hate Session, accompanied by an
authoritative narration of his evil, and mass, inebriating rage
results (see the video version here). The ultimate benefit of this
ritual is it enables the citizenry to ignore their own plight and
the violence and oppression of their own government (political
parties use a similar process -- endless focus on marginal, hated
figures in the other party -- to keep fear levels high and party
loyalty strong). Thus can the debate over whether Julian Assange
should be executed or merely imprisoned for life resume among all
good people.<br>
<br>
Speaking of Emmanuel Goldstein, he was the putative "author" of the
Party manual published at length in 1984 that describes the Party's
means of control and manipulation, entitled "The Theory and Practice
of Oligarchical Collectivism." In the chapter entitled "War Is
Peace," one finds what is easily the best essay for the
10-year-anniversary religious observance of 9/11 upon which we are
about to embark:<br>
<i><br>
In one combination or another, these three super-states are
permanently at war, and have been so for the past twenty-five
years. War, however, is no longer the desperate, annihilating
struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth
century. . . .<br>
<br>
This is not to say that either the conduct of war, or the
prevailing attitude towards it, has become less bloodthirsty or
more chivalrous. On the contrary, war hysteria is continuous and
universal in all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, the
slaughter of children, the reduction of whole populations to
slavery, and reprisals against prisoners which extend even to
boiling and burying alive, <b>are looked upon as normal, and,
when they are committed by one's own side and not by the enemy,
meritorious.<br>
</b><br>
But in a physical sense war involves <b>very small numbers of
people</b>, mostly highly-trained specialists, and causes
comparatively few casualties. The fighting, when there is any,
takes place on the vague frontiers whose whereabouts the average
man can only guess at, or round the Floating Fortresses which
guard strategic spots on the sea lanes. . . .<br>
<br>
To understand the nature of the present war -- for in spite of the
regrouping which occurs every few years, <b>it is always the same
war -- one must realize in the first place that it is impossible
for it to be decisive</b>. . . . The primary aim of modern
warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this
aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the
directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of
the machine without raising the general standard of living.<br>
<b><br>
What is concerned here is not the morale of masses, whose
attitude is unimportant so long as they are kept steadily at
work, but the morale of the Party itself. </b>Even the humblest
Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even
intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he
should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods
are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. In other words
it is necessary that he should have the mentality appropriate to a
state of war. 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.<br>
<br>
The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its
members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of
war, is now almost universal, but <b>the higher up the ranks one
goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner
Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.</b>
In his capacity as an administrator, it is often necessary for a
member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war
news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war
is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for
purposes quite other than the declared ones: but such knowledge is
easily neutralized by the technique of doublethink. Meanwhile <b>no
Inner Party member wavers for an instant in his mystical belief
that the war is real, and that it is bound to end victoriously,</b>
with Oceania the undisputed master of the entire world. . . .<br>
<br>
War prisoners apart, the average citizen of Oceania never sets
eyes on a citizen of either Eurasia or Eastasia, and he is
forbidden the knowledge of foreign languages.<b> If he were
allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are
creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been
told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives
would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on
which his morale depends might evaporate. . .</b><br>
<br>
The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous
wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between
certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that
they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal
it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods,
and it <b>helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a
hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a
purely internal affair. . . .<br>
</b><br>
In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they
might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the
destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the
victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are
not fighting against one another at all. <u><b>The war is waged
by each ruling group against its own subjects</b></u>, and the
object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of
territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.<br>
</i><br>
There are certainly people with genuine power who understand exactly
how this process works and are conscious of the propaganda it
entails, and there are many ordinary citizens, paying only casual
attention to political matters, who blindly ingest it. But it is
the high-ranking Inner Party members -- the D.C. cadre of think tank
"scholars," government and academic functionaries, and journalists
and pundits who fancy themselves sophisticated political junkies and
insiders -- who are the True Believers. They cling to institutions
of political power and officialdom, plant their careers,
self-esteem, self-importance and social circles in its belly, and
are thus the most incentivized to believe in its Rightness and
Goodness and the least able to critically assess it. Intoxicated
with supreme loyalty to the organs of political power and societal
institutions which support it, they become its most ardent, faithful
evangelizers. The more they gather together in their insular royal
court realm, the more they reinforce each other's trite convictions.<br>
<br>
These pseudo-sophisticated, pseudo-intellectual nationalists may
"know that this or that item of war news is untruthful" or may even
know that the entire "war is being waged for purposes quite other
than the declared ones." But no matter: they are Washington's most
loyal denizens and thus "never waver for an instant in their
mystical belief that the war is real" or in the propaganda that
sustains it. At the heart of this propaganda -- and of their
worldview -- is the unquestioning conviction about the unmitigated
evil of the State's designated Enemies, and of their own Good.
Observe how WikiLekas is now discussed, and especially observe the
waves of self-praising moralizing over this next several days, to
see this dynamic in all its glory.<br>
<br>
[From <i><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html"><http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html></a>.</i>]<br>
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