Have we been asleep? Have the last 30 some years all gone to the back of our minds, even if we weren’t alive then. These puzzle pieces do not fit, but we so casually just go along with the story that we are being fed. There is no room for improvement; we are taught that the discontent is the content. Our generation is a generation lost, and no one to stand up for it. I've watched over the last few years how things have gone in Washington DC. Ever since I was 18 I have longed for a true change, what I didn't know. Now I stand here at 21, and I see how dysfunctional things really are. After reading the book 1984 last year, I started seeing way too many connections with modern society, but no one really agreed with me.
For those who do not know, 1984 is a dystopian novel written in 1948 by George Orwell. The plot in the story revolves around a man named Winston Smith who is dissatisfied with his current living conditions under "Big Brother." This mysterious figure that is "Big Brother" is a totalitarian dictator that controls everything that goes on "Oceania." Smith is a high middle class individual, and is forced to work with the government editing news headlines so they read how the "Party" wants them to read. Throughout the book, Smith tries to find what is called “The Resistance,” which is supposed to be an underground group waiting for the right time to over throw “Big Brother.” "The Resistance" however, is not real, just a manifestation created by the "Party" to find outsiders and "cure" them.
Within the last 10 years a lot one sided politics has occurred. This country has been dragged further and further right by extreme Republican politics. It's not just political agendas that the right has pulled at, but also personal vendettas. Need I say more of the abortion rights of women, and the no taxes for the rich. We went from being a country of liberties, and a chance for all, to a country of oppression for the middle and lower classes, while the top two percent can prosper and thrive. It was said it a movie released by HBO recently, "Too Big To Fail," Hank Paulson. former US Treasury Sectary said after being asked about why there were no regulations that could have averted the 2008-present recession, (for good measures I'm going to call it the Depression two, or DII because that is what it is. And yes, I know they said the "Recession ended in 2009, 76% of American don't believe that though.) and responded with "we were making too much money." They may have been making money, the money they were making was off of the plight of the middle class because of a theory proposed by the banks, which destroyed America, take out a second mortgage on your house because if you house is valued at $500k, you have $500k to spend. Now that planned totally backfired.
There's some build up to my points.
I just spoke of how the top is meant to prosper, now in 1984, those who were on the top had all the opulent things, while the middle and lower groups were to be quenched with sub-standard products and be happy with it. I continue on.
Let’s talk tax breaks shall we.
In 2001 President George W. Bush enacted one of the worst policies in the United States history. To shorten the context if of it, taxes were lowered for those making egregious amounts of money. At this point in time the country was sitting on a budget surplus, and small national debt, (all countries are going to have debt, and no debt is bad for countries, weird... I know.) That changed, Bush, and his Republican congress went on a spending spree, started two wars that were unfunded, and not approved by the American people. The entire time this was all going on, there was no revenue coming into the country. We shifted from being an exporter, to almost primarily an importer. Simple logic. if you don't make money, you can't spend money. Now these righties believe that they can keep zero taxes fro rich and companies at next to zero, and just cut everything. Even things that this country relies on so much, like Social Security, and Medicare. Economists have said that cutting will not help the country, but rather hurt it. We have been hemorrhaging for ten plus years, and the best answers that our government can do is put a little dot band-aid on a slit throat. They do it over and over again, and get the same results.(Wait.. Is that the definition of insanity? Why yes, yes it is.)
Where we come in. The Resistance.
There is none.
Yes, that is right. There is no resistance to stand up to these oppressive forces. In 1984, everything was monitored closely by surveillance, and resistance was futile. That is what we face today. The generation that has a chance to stand up, and take back what is ours is either too timid to actually stand up, or have been brainwashed that it is useless. I would like to believe that we can make a difference, but so many have been sedated and don't even know it. We are told to accept authority that we are given, and bow to them. We are tackled because we are thrown into perpetual debt because of school. We are told that the discontent is the content that we will have to contend with for the rest of our life and there is little, to nothing that we can do about it. We are bound by what have been told. The television has destroyed us too. If you have read the book, what runs their life? The Tele-Screen. If you include cellphones, laptops, and computers in the television status, they are our Tele-Screens. Don't believe me, think about it. It is a perfect medium for an authoritarian society, like the one in 1984, and our current living arrangements.
Next time you go to think that everything is okay. Realize that you are discontent with the world around you, but too clueless to realize how your mind has been programmed that way. We always talk about being the generation to stand up, and take back what is ours that is not the case. We will be the ones to sit down, and turn a blind eye to it. Why? It is just how we have been taught, how we have developed as individuals. Can we change it, and take an actual stand, I have no clue. The Resistance that we thought we could be is not true. There is no resistance. We just are somehow going to have to accept the fact that it is over, and wait for the proverbial bullet to enter our skull.
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