Friday 16 July 2021

What George Orwell Didn't Realise

All manner of ambitious people are in the market for good psychological insight.  Businessmen, con artists, priests, politicians ...

'Smith!' screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.'

It's long been obvious that no legislation is required to force a large section of society to keep their telescreens on at all times.  

And now we have Peleton:  being shouted at remotely for not keeping up with your communal exercises performed in front of the telescreen.

Orwell was a pretty good leftie psychologist, and reckoned people could be made to love Big Brother (and keep those screens on).  He hadn't perhaps realised that plenty of people love Big Brother without any compulsion whatsoever - and are willing to pay to have him beamed into their homes & watch their movements.  Ah, capitalism!  -  always ahead of the game.

ND

18 comments:

E-K said...

He didn't predict bikini waxing either. (Going by the John Hurt film)

Timbo614 said...

And now we know big brother's name, and his name is Alexa Ring!

E-K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
E-K said...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15614601/covid-testing-firm-dumping-kits/

We are definitely creating an elite class. Friends of friends bought a £4 million estuary house on the back of this crisis.

Like Hancock, there are many people who have a very real interest in this going on and on.

Elby the Beserk said...

@EK "We are definitely creating an elite class"

Current reading...


The coming of neo-feudalism : a warning to the global middle class
Author: Kotkin, Joel, author.
ISBN: 9781641770941

Abstract: Following a remarkable epoch of greater dispersion of wealth and opportunity, we are inexorably returning towards a more feudal era marked by greater concentration of wealth and property, reduced upward mobility, demographic stagnation, and increased dogmatism. If the last seventy years saw a massive expansion of the middle class, not only in America but in much of the developed world, today that class is declining and a new, more hierarchical society is emerging. The new class structure resembles that of Medieval times. At the apex of the new order are two classes-a reborn clerical elite, the clerisy, which dominates the upper part of the professional ranks, universities, media and culture, and a new aristocracy led by tech oligarchs with unprecedented wealth and growing control of information. These two classes correspond to the old French First and Second Estates. Below these two classes lies what was once called the Third Estate. This includes the yeomanry, which is made up largely of small businesspeople, minor property owners, skilled workers and private-sector oriented professionals. Ascendant for much of modern history, this class is in decline while those below them, the new Serfs, grow in numbers-a vast, expanding property-less population. The trends are mounting, but we can still reverse them-if people understand what is actually occurring and have the capability to oppose them.

lilith said...

My Darling Offspring (who used to have a stratospheric IQ before becoming vegan) asked me why I didn't want a Peleton the other day...*sobs*

On a brighter note my brother greeted me with "I de-Googled my smart phone!"

dearieme said...

"a new aristocracy": but one that, unlike the old, wouldn't dream of risking its neck for its country.

Nick Drew said...

the new aristocracy takes pains not to have a country (for tax reasons you understand)

this Graun piece today provides background coulour

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/17/national-security-threatened-politics-in-thrall-to-cash

E-K said...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9798365/GRAHAM-BRADY-believe-real-purpose-masks-social-control-time-stop-fear.html

Graham Brady thinks what I think on masks.

It is the most sinister thing that has been imposed on the British public.

Matt Hancock liked them because it made him look hard for his mistress. I'm sure he looked for every detail to make them enforceable.

E-K said...

Jeez. We seem to be chucking links at each other.

Let's put it this way. Go on the You Guv site and you can get your landyard ... in fact you don't even need to have one - you can make your own Blue Peter version and they don't even expect you to see a doctor.

You can self certify... with almost the same abandon that you can wear your wife's panties on your face on a train if you want to.

Your wife's panties on your face on a train will suffice. What does that tell you ???

E-K said...

Lilith.

You need nothing at all to get extremely fit. A Peleton is a waste of earth's resources.

Some societies thrive on vegan.I don't know. I just know that I feel a lot better on a diet including chicken and sea food. I'm not so sure about red meat.

Elby the Beserk said...

Nick Drew said...
the new aristocracy takes pains not to have a country (for tax reasons you understand)

this Graun piece today provides background coulour

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/17/national-security-threatened-politics-in-thrall-to-cash

10:12 pm
====================================================

Chinese money in Uncle Joe's top appointments, it seems...

https://vladtepesblog.com/2021/07/17/brad-johnson-degree-of-chinese-influence-in-us-top-circles-is-dramatic/

Anonymous said...

@ He didn't predict bikini waxing ... Your wife's panties on your face on a train will suffice.

What is this den of depravity I have strayed into? (And what would I find at those links??)

*deletes browsing history*

lilith said...

Kev, just making a nut roast is dangerous...I got repetitive strain injury from all the chopping. Vegans spend so much time preparing their out of season, high food miles, oxalate filled diets and still they are pale and cross....By the time they have cooked their meal I have escaped to the hills, built myself a bender and dug a latrine...

Elby the Beserk said...

E-K said...
Lilith.

Some societies thrive on vegan.I don't know. I just know that I feel a lot better on a diet including chicken and sea food. I'm not so sure about red meat.

12:11 am
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No they don't. I can't think of any 3rd world inhabitant would voluntarily be vegan except for religious reasons. Its a 1st world luxury diet for the feeble minded (sadly that includes my stepdaughter) that is nutritionally shit (beef and nothing else will feed you FAR better than veganism) and it is very clear that vegans and veggies are far more prone to depression.

Take your time. Paper after paper attests to this - so we have a chunk of the population who are deliberately enfeebling themselves. Pen's gone carnivore, and I'm carnivore, eggs and dairy, and low carb (2 slices of my sourdough a day). We gave up veg months back, and both of us feel great. Pen ditched 2 stone and lost 1 stone, without trying. I wasn't overweight - 14 stone at big boned 6'6" - but what you lose on this diet is visceral fat, which causes such as a fatty liver. Veganism is for idiots.

https://carnivoreaurelius.com/vegetables/

E-K said...

Crikey.

So Popeye was lying then.

E-K said...

I've been on the Atkins diet and I hated the meat stage.

I utterly craved Weetabix for some reason.

Elby the Beserk said...

E-K said...
Crikey.

So Popeye was lying then.

11:13 am
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I'm afraid so. Another myth peddled to kids blown out of the water :-)