Somebody emailed me and pointed out that I might have somewhat predicted the "Peace President" label (thanks, whoever you are--I accidentally deleted the email--sorry for not responding). From my 2/14/2004 entry, Fight for Peace:
- "They fought for different policies. But for the same principles. For freedom. And the freedom to live in peace?" What the hell? You can fight for peace? War is peace? Damn that Orwell. He thought of everything. I'm starting to think that if he hadn't written that bloody book, then maybe people wouldn't think to make such reason-defying statements (it's the opposite of Newspeak--he gave us the language to think in such ways). I want to meet the person who wrote the text for this ad. The writer is probably a Winston Smith drone who sits in a dingy cubicle and who actually thinks that General Dynamics manufactures peace tools. Peace tools! I can feel the two halves of my brain pulling away from each other.
Things haven't changed much since the late 1980s. Now we have a "War President" (in neoconspeak, this means "Peace President") fighting for freedom and democracy in Iraq. . . fighting for peace. Well, not exactly fighting, but he is doing a damn good job of getting others to fight for him. . . fight for peace.
When I wrote the line about peace president, I was joking. I was in a what-ridiculous-thing-is-going-to-happen-next mood. When you throw something out there as an extreme absurdity and it actually happens, what do you do? Does it mean the end of reason?
If you consider the Big Brother government in 1984, and lay out a plan of how it could be realized today with our government, you would see that Bush's "Peace President" is one of the last steps. "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength."
Give us free.
Article comments
1 - Hal Pawluk
Nice call. And a super book list.
2 - Shark
Dirt, speaking of predictions, many months ago, I wrote that one could grow weary trying to parse the obvious newspeak of the Bush administration.
After "Healthy Forests" (ie more logging) and the "Clear Skies Initiative" (more toxins), I'm no longer surprised.
Our Big Bro President is double-plus-good at catchy euphemisms.
(Hope me ducktalk ain't a crimethought.)
3 - RJ
That's politics for ya.
John Kerry's "band of brothers" mostly hates him.
The Dem ticket engages in class-warfare, while being composed of a billionaire and a multi-millioniare.
Al Sharpton talks about "civil rights" while supporting government-sponsored racial discrimination.
"Newspeak" is the lingua franca of the political class. Both parties, I kid you not...
4 - Hal Pawluk
RJ: any substantiation for any of your claims? (Drudge doesn't count/)
5 - RJ
Which "claims"? These are all well-known and well-sourced "facts"...
6 - drew
But RJ, you're not really saying that a person can't be both pro-affirmative action and pro-civil rights, are you?
And I know a lot of poor people who are actually FOR larger tax cuts for the rich, so why can't a rich politician be for bigger tax cuts for the poor?
7 - Hal Pawluk
Which "claims"? These are all well-known and well-sourced "facts".
Only in the right-wing publications.