Two Thousand Thirteen

We live in a very different society to the one portrayed by Orwell through the character of Winston in Nineteen Eighty-Four as the United States prides itself as a country on promoting the idea of freedom. To me, this means the freedom to express our humanity through how we choose to live out our lives. However, these freedoms should never be taken for granted and need to be carefully guarded. We need to be aware of groups that demand conformity, be aware of attempts by groups to control language, and be aware of grabs for power as these are the key weapons in the arsenal of the Party.

The character of Winston loses his humanity to the Party in the novel. Throughout the first two sections of the novel, he tries to hide his humanity by attempting to conceal his personal relationship with Julia and writing his private thoughts in a diary. He even tries to join a secret Brotherhood that works against the party in a clandestine manner. However, in the end, the inexorable, all-powerful Party owns him and he is no longer free to even think about defining himself through relationships, preferences, and passions (Orwell). This matters in our society because many believe we should be free to define ourselves through our relationships, preferences, and passions, as long as we are not hurting anyone else.

Although our society is not at all similar to the one portrayed by Orwell, we are not always free to define ourselves through our relationships. A group that has made this difficult is, in this case, the federal government. The Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits (Liptak). This act rewards heterosexual marriage but disadvantages those who do not share that orientation, devalues their relationships, and provides an example of one group attempting to have another group conform to an arbitrary norm.

In our society, we also need to be aware of how groups attempt to control language. A current example is the debate on gun rights. The language used by the NRA includes words and phrases such as “Ring of Freedom,” “freedom fight,” “right,” “firearm,” and “King Pinocchio” (referring to the President) (NRA). The NRA appears to avoid words used on the other side of the debate by the White House, such as “gun violence,” “wrong hands,” “background check,” and “mental health” (The White House). As Orwell makes clear in his ideas on newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four, if a group can control the language used, it can control the message and ideas about an issue, as each of these groups are trying to.

We also need to be aware of grabs for power. In recent history, one of the most incredible grabs for power in the United States must be the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act), of which an extension was signed in 2004. This post 9/11 legislation broadened the discretion of law enforcement in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts indefinitely, significantly reduces restriction in law enforcement agencies gathering of data, regulation of financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals, and expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism. The extension in 2004 includes roving wiretaps, searches of business records (including library records), and conducting surveillance of “lone wolves” (107th Congress; “Patriot Act”). The USA PATRIOT Act gives the federal law enforcement powers to observe citizens and immigrants alike without permission from the courts in many instances.

Orwell’s novel contains these warnings for humanity but I go to bed every night safe in the knowledge that members of U.S. society would never put up with any serious imposition on their freedoms. They would never let apathy and taking freedoms for granted to allow any one group to hoodwink them into the kind of slavish devotion to it that Winston experienced. Right?

Works cited:

107th Congress Public Law 56. Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools                Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act) Act of 2001. Washington: GPO,      2001. Web. 12 April, 2013.

Liptak, Adam. “A Look at Issues in the Defense of Marriage Act Case.” New York Times, 27 March 2013.Web. 12 April, 2013.

NRA Digital Network. National Rifle Association of America, 2013. Web. 12 April, 2013.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel. Orlando: Harcourt Brace, 1949. Print.

“Patriot Act.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 8 April 2013. Web. 12 April, 2013.

The White House. The White House, n.d. Web. 12 April, 2013. 

Picture credits:

qeisecurity.com

fixthispcnow.webs.com

A Funny Thing Happened During Allocated "Procrastination" Time...

I'm going to take a quick step out of my ordinary blogging style (An angel, the Devil, and MJ), and discuss something quickly that I found particularly interesting.

As a frequent online role-player on Dreamwidth, I find myself bombarded by a variety of role-playing games where one can do pretty much anything with their characters that they could possibly want at pretty much any time. There are games for horror, games for sex (not that I would ever join one of those or anything) and the like. I frequent a place called bakerstreet, that is a "meme" community, specializing in short, one-shot game threads for people to play in. There are usually topics one can use from (or use a random generator to get a random number for) and character options to keep your character in the "world" of the meme when tagging (aka: playing) with other people.

I have been playing in a long-running "thread" for the last few weeks in a particular meme, and it wasn't until today that I realized something. This meme is a Dystopia Meme. The word "Dystopia" is so frequently used in fiction for me that I didn't even recognize until now that it relates directly to this class and what we're working on. I don't think that an actual "Utopia" meme has ever appeared in this roleplaying community, perhaps because Utopia would not mean drama, and unless you're a PWP writer without a life, that's no fun at all.

Now, some of the options chosen by the meme's creator, steahl, are very interesting. There is a subject of "Class" as one of the options to be chosen. S/he gives options from "High/Royalty" to "Transitory", with everything in the middle from "alien" to "pariah" to "created". I find the fact that class is such an important issue very interesting in this meme. It reminds me of Plato's "The Republic", and the importance of the class within the city Socrates had created. This sort of a topic is almost never seen in memes, since "class" isn't something most Americans think of. Even in historical or "royal" AUs (that is, Alternate Universes), class doesn't come up, but steahl sees is as an important part of the meme. In #22 of the "Prompts" section, s/he even mentions "the City". An interesting mention, probably relating back to "the Republic".

The next section, the one I just mentioned, is the Prompts section. It's fairly standard fare for a meme, from "mix and mingle" to "SCIENCE" and "Brave New World". They throw in little references to all sorts of different utopian and dystopian books and movies, which, again, I didn't even think to relate to a class on Utopia until just now. There's even a subtle nod to Firefly, which I have always seen as one of the ultimate dystopian stories.

The most important thing in this meme to me is that this is all set in a futuristic setting. Unlike Plato or More, who see Utopia as something that can be achieved now, this meme sets up utopia (or, in this case, dystopia) as something that has to be made in the future.

Just FYI: My thread involves a "created" character living in a futuristic New York that is blotted out by pollution and riddled with crime and drugs while the elite sit on their high towers. In other words: Standard Dystopian fare. What do you think makes this "standard" for Dystopia? Why do you think I failed to notice that this was so intimately related to this class?

What are your thoughts on this? Besides the fact that I am clearly a huge loser.

Also, if you work out which character is mine, DO NOT EVER TELL ME THAT YOU KNOW.

Also, standard disclaimer: I haven't read all of the threads, some of them could very well be NSFW (that is internet speak for Not Safe For Work/School).

The Girl Who Never Grew Up

MJ was out flying with Peter Pan above Neverland. It was the perfect time of day, the sun was warm against their backs, and the clouds were fluffy little puffs of aerated happiness for them to bounce on.

"This place is amazing!" MJ exclaimed, hopping from one cloud to the next.

"That it is!" Peter replied, tossing a cloud in her direction. She caught it and took a bite. It tasted like candy floss. Normally, MJ would be very grossed out, as candy floss is far from her favorite food, but here it made sense and was ultimately delicious, so she ate it.

"It's a utopia!" she further exclaimed.

"No it isn't," Peter said. "Utopias are perfect, this place isn't perfect." Peter was acting very knowledgeable, but MJ was very aware he didn't know what the word 'utopia' meant until about five minutes ago when MJ first mentioned it. He had also forgotten MJ's name at least six times since the beginning of this adventure. But he was very handsome and MJ had always had a crush on Peter, since she was a wee little MJ hearing Peter Pan stories from her mother.

MJ shook her head as she dived under a cloud to avoid another cloud-ball Peter threw her way.

"Perfect isn't everything about utopia. Utopias are nowhere places somewhere in time and space."

"But that's everywhere," Peter says. "To me, Frederick is like a nowhere place in time-space."

"Time and space," MJ corrected him. She tucked clouds on her feet and they looked like big, fluffy shoes.

"That's what I said," Peter said, huffily. "And besides, Neverland is so much better."

"That's what makes it a utopia," MJ said. "It's better than the society I live in is."

Peter flew under her cloud and gripped her hand, spinning her around. MJ giggled, her heart all twitterpated by this magical boy who would never grow old.

"Of course, any utopia could go bad," MJ said. "To someone who feels differently than you and I do."

"What does that mean?" Peter demanded.

"I mean, if someone thought that the bright sunlight and the big jungles were too bright or too scary, this place could easily become their dystopia."

Peter blinked at her. MJ was very aware this meant he did not understand what she meant by 'dystopia'. But it was true, she thought. What is good for one may not be good for others, and things could go very wrong very fast if things started to change. What if Peter decided that all the Lost Boys had to find mothers, or a new leader took over and wanted them to become someone else, someone they thought would be 'better'?

"This place is better," Peter said, mirroring her thoughts.

"Better is subjective," MJ replied.

Peter laughed. MJ was very aware this meant he did not understand what 'subjective' meant. All the same, he took her by the hands again and spun her around and around in the clouds, while the sunshine shone down on them and the warm, happy presently-a-utopia Neverland sat below them, waiting to be explored.

This was when MJ woke up. She sighed, stretched, and padded out of her bedroom to the kitchen. Her personal angel, who had presently taken the form of MJ's biggest celebrity crush, Benedict Cumberbatch, was already making breakfast.

He turned around and gasped in horror, and then threw the pot he was cooking with down to the floor.

"You hussy!" he cried. "You were dreaming about that boy again!"

MJ looked down in shame. The cloud-shoes were still on her feet.