2014 - A Journey Back To George Orwell's 1984

The things you are going to read may not shock you at all. At least nothing shocks me anymore. I feel the capacity for expressing surprise and shock is diminishing in me with every passing day. But, I feel the strong need to revisit George Orwell's classic 1984 and see my present reality through the eyes of those fabulous characters.

I was particularly fascinated by two conversations, one between Winston and Julia and the other conversation between Winston and O'Brien. I've taken the liberty of revising some of the original conversation in the movie with some new stuff.





Part 1: 

Winston and Julia first talk to each other secretly and agree to meet away from the Omnipresent eyes of the state. The state 'Ingsoc' has enforced strict rules of celibacy for men and women and civil marriages are prohibited to prevent development of emotional attachments to any person. The next generation is brought forth only through an impersonal artificial insemination system. All this is done to keep people focused on the party's interest and to avoid development of strong personal relations which may jeopardize the party's complete claim over the individual.

Under such terrible circumstances, the two rebels Winston and Julia get attracted to each other and fall in love. They slowly start living together in Winston's apartment.

It is 2014 now. the following conversation happens in Winston's apartment in the US in 2014. Winston and Julia are in some ways stuck in 1984 and are in 2014 in other ways.

Winston: Oh Julia, my love. Listen. There is truth and then there is untruth. The freedom to say 2+2 =4 is freedom.

Julia: Yes, why can't we talk such obvious truths that have been known for millenia? I see two completely contradictory worlds simultaneously existing with in an individual.  On the one hand, even school children are allowed to say all these truths.May be it is the way you say it. If you say any truth, however profound it may be, according to social conventions with out strong feelings about its value, people won't mind it. They just think you are talking about one of the billions of truths and untruths people post on Facebook and Twitter every hour. On the other hand, you are punished badly for being truthful. These two values of casually stating truths and at the same time paying heavy penalty for being truthful are confusing to say the least.

Winston:Yes, When you take the liberty of stating certain truths, there are attempts to turn your brain into  mashed potato with ridges? Constant confusing gibberish is played in to your head 24/7. Do you think they have stopped talking now? They are still giggling into my head as I'm talking to you.

Julia: I know that Winston. What do you want to do? Time heals everything, remember. Besides that, not many people care about these truths or freedom as they think they already know everything there is to know. Who are you going to talk to Winston? People don't want to hear you read out of your torture diary.

Winston: No, Julia. You are wrong. People are still interested in truths that have economic value. It gives enormous advantage in the rat race people are running all the time.

Julia: Then why do you think they are trying to white-wash your brain for saying things people have known for thousands of years.

Winston: That is the strange quality of human societies, dear. We don't have the freedom to say anything that causes disturbances to already established multi-billion dollar establishments. If what you say comes into conflict with already powerful, to-be powerful or rich folks, you can be crucified right in front of everyone with funny music playing in the background. People will just laugh at it as if they just watched somebody hit Tom with a hammer in Tom and Jerry. How different is this from offending a Ingsoc member in 1984.

Julia: Yeah, I agree to that Winston. What can we do about it? What about your efforts to mount a resistance?

Winston: There is no resistance Julia. I even forgot about it for the past one hour. People know everything we are talking right now. Resistance efforts are crushed even before it is born. They can see you through my eyes and hear every breath I breathe. You shouldn't be here if you want to live longer. There is no future for us and for me. It is all doomed.

Julia: Don't say that Winston. I know there is no future. I've already decided it. In fact they are watching you through my eyes and hearing every breath of mine.

Winston: Then what? How Julia?

Julia: There is still hope,Winston. They can't get to your heart. Hold on to that which matters most.

Winston: You are wrong. This is 2014, 30 years after 1984. They have already built a  micro-research station in my heart. It is not just my heart, it is actually every organ in my body. People can make whole labs on micro-chips. With a handful you can set up a micro-research station inside people's bodies.

Julia: How pathetic? Anyways I didn't mean your physical heart. There is more to us than our bodies.

Winston: With a set of electronic devices in the body and vocal cues, organizations can direct what people think and feel. When you feel sad for someone, these people with their gadgets can create pleasant mind states. They can distract you endlessly without letting you think what you want to think and feel what you want to feel.

Julia: Why are people silent about it?

Winston: People will care only if it concerns a large population or if it involves them. These organizations use such advanced tech only on targeted individuals and groups. The general populace don't worry about it as most powers since ancient times have used weird, powerful and horrible technology against targeted people. It is the way they frame individuals and convince others these organizations have the right to treat these people in any manner they deem fit. It is just frightening to think how powerless an individual is against the big machinery of state.

Julia: Yes, a state is a powerful tool that seldom hurts the people who wield it. Hence the aggressive competition for power. It is mightier than millions and millions of individuals taken altogether at a time. Most people are corrupted by that intoxicating power over millions and millions of individuals. What power does an individual or a small group has?

Winston: I just don't know how things will turn out.

Julia: I've no idea either.

And they slip in to a dull sleep after a few minutes of silence out of helplessness and a persistent feeling of weariness.


Part 2: 




Winston works at the Ministry of Truth rewriting history according to the Party's mandate. He is a rebel as we know it. He has secret rebellious thoughts which he puts it in his diary. He is deceived by an Inner party member O'Brien who acts like a rebel and leads Winston to reveal his rebellious thoughts to him. The party forces capture Winston and Julia and are put on a process to vaporize their persona and unperson them. The process involves physical and mental torture to break their love and belief in everything. All that remains after this process is a bag of bones and flesh that can be programmed according to the Party's wishes.

O'Brien and Winston have this conversation in a torture table shuttling between 1984 and 2014.

O'Brien:  What is 2+2?

Winston: 4.

O'Brien: What if the party says 2+2 is 5, What is 2+2 then?

Winston: 4

O'Brien : Nope. Three thousand volts please After a few moments of silence. "How does one person exert power over another? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation on a person for there to be no person at all. Then you build them back by putting them into shapes of your own choosing. That is power Winston."

Winston: Nope.

O'Brien:  "Why is past prohibited?  When you cut a man from his past, you cut him off from his family, children and society. For him the present and future is just the party. There is no loyalty besides party loyalty. There is no love for anything except the one he holds for the big brother"
Imagine a boot stomping on a human face. That exactly is the future of humans. "One who controls the past controls the future. One who controls the present controls the past". That is what it is.
An individual is just an insignificant cell in the whole organism. Not important at all. Why bother about the memory and experience of an individual if an individual is not valuable. It is only useful as much as it is to the party.

Winston: This is sheer evil. This hatred against humanity. Against what makes people, people. "You are just spreading hatred. The world needs love. I feel something will defeat you. Life will defeat you. "

O'Brien: "We control life at all levels. There is no life beyond our control."

Winston: "No, it will defeat you."

O'Brien: What will?

Winston: "Something like a spirit that cannot be overcome will defeat you. The Spirit of Man."

O'Brien: What spirit are you talking about Winston? Do you think you are a man?

Winston: The Spirit of Man is the Spirit of the Universe. For some reason or another it is asleep. When that great spirit wakes up to its full splendor, it will defeat and overpower you. This arrogance of yours will lead you to your fall.

O'Brien: Huh, It is a shame you call yourself a man after blabbering some irrational nonsense. Man is the pinnacle of reason. There is no reason whatsoever to believe in any great spirit powerful than the state. What are you, a prophet of doom for Ingsoc? You brain just got fried and your crazy brain is wishing for freedom when it is dying. All this spirit nonsense is just your brain conjuring up a fantasy to make your miserable existence less painful.

Winston: I don't know. I can feel it in my bones. The Spirit of Man.

O'Brien: Yes, sure. Now take this. (Another three thousand five hundred volts to silence Winston).



The conversation ends for the day.

From Freud's Paradise To The 'Real' Paradise

Analyst: What is your ulterior motive to post this status message?

Me: I think I just want to call them neurotic and psychotic in an online page, with the hope they will feel a sense of shame and stop doing their sick thing. 

Analyst: Do you get that they are very powerful and much more effective at using humiliation tactics. And you are not an expert. What if they feel pride at being called psychotic? You are writing all this in English. By their definition, you will be calling them barbarian hordes no matter what they do. You are only inviting more trouble for yourself by calling them all these for which they feel nothing. 

Me: Yeah. I get that. I know they are humiliation experts. But still this is all I can do today. I just don't want anyone to know I'm giving up the fight, even though every one knows I'm losing on a daily basis. It is just that there is overwhelming attention on the one side. There are signs that even luminaries of several fields are paying attention. There are these goons who are doing this whole humiliation and other attacks on the other side simultaneously. And then there are head masters of the world watching me and want to discipline me. 

I just don't want to fall into the habit of sleeping in a school uniform with full make up on just because the head masters are watching me. It is just a daily act of rebellion to keep my sanity. Yeah they can hire world experts and all that. But you don't have to be a specialist to know somebody is sick and what sickness that is. We just need to know what is sick. I'm not writing prescriptions or even giving professional counselling to people to feel like a quack. I leave it to certified professionals. So it is ok I guess. 

Analyst: Ok. You can instead focus your time and energy on realizing your inner powers. You are creating for yourself a false sense of putting up a fight, when in reality all this is just some entertaining rant at the max. 

Me: Yeah. Hmmm.. True. I guess I'm becoming neurotic just like them. Oh no...But it relieves every day tension to some extent that I can focus on other things. May be all this is just rationalizing. May be I can be much more stronger and focused. 

Analyst: Why are you giving yoga reference? Are you trying to convert people to another religion?

Me: Nope. I don't convert people. People can hardly call me religious in the widely accepted sense of the word. Anyways, yoga is not a religion. It is just a collection of philosophical ideas and psycho-physical practices to realize the truth expounded in those philosophies. The point of giving this particular reference is to share that there are/were world renowned psychologists who feel/felt that there are higher mental planes people can reach. 

Ok. Go ahead..

Post: 

During these 30 years, I've only moved from Freud's paradise (a region with neurotic and psychotic tendencies to power) to Adler's paradise ( a little bit cleaner, but still after the same power grip). I even have this noble goal of exploring levels above Jungian 4th level of the 7 levels. Long way to go... 


References:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Psychology-Kundalini-Yoga-Jung/dp/0691006768

Letter To Lincoln, Gandhi & King - The Only Holy Trinity of Democracies

Dear Lincoln & Gandhi,

When I woke up after a dreary sleep on a beautiful morning, the world hit me again. Yes, it hits me hard enough that I can spend the day longing for the dead remains of the spirit of freedom and dignity. By the time the sun sets, my spirit is dead for another long night. It is in one of those dead moments, I'm writing this letter to you three.

Yes, many have built secret and public temples for you three. But the powerful wants to make sure your spirits are locked up in those temples. They are afraid that your spirits when let loose may challenge the status quo and end up doing some real good. It is only a matter of years before people put a halo around your pictures and make you gods. The Gods of democracy who can never be surpassed in their visionary powers and embodiment of the spirit of democracy. It is only a matter of time anyone resembling you will be shot or beaten up for the offense of trying to imitate the only gods of democracy.

Yes, you won us the freedom to voice our opinions and to exercise our god given rights. But all that remains is a loud nonsensical clamor that drowns one in to an abyss of hopelessness. Can we blame the people when that is the only right they have? To make loud noises in the blame game that goes on everyday but remain absolutely powerless to do anything about it. It has become a part of our culture to play this blame game with every government and every politician. There are rumors that even this holy democratic right is being taken away from them.

People are feeling empty without the ability to make pointless noise. They are only going through the motions of a highly effective democracy, but the spirit is dead. These numerous zombies (some with enormous artificial intelligence) are being coerced and manipulated into believing obnoxious crimes and overt violations of rights as justified acts of reason. Such is the clever genius of deception these democracies have produced.

Nobody has the power in a democracy in front of everyone. But right in front of  the ever scrutinizing eyes of the public, there is a magical screen behind which a thousand people run the big system of enormous complexity. The magical veils of media are a significant power in themselves worthy of trillions of dollars of investment.

I'm writing all this at politically tumultuous times that many people wish I join you guys there where ever you are. That is the magnificent beauty of your living legacy. Even though high school kids know much more and talk politically sensitive things than I'm writing here, once you are marked as a troublesome person, you can't utter 'AAAHHH' before the secret police shuts you down.

I'm writing all this with the knowledge that you might have heard all these laments a billion times over your dead years. You are probably bored in death listening to all such nonsense. But who else do you lament to about democracy, but to the gods of democracy. I hope that one day your true spirit of democracy will once again shine forth on earth. Hope the earth holds on until then. Wishes to you and don't forget the new earmuffs for the spirits. Much louder laments are on the way.

A Mind Gone Wrong

There are ant parasites that hijack the ant's brain and make the ant commit suicide. Are people turning in to parasites of the world driving it towards suicide? Now, what does it mean?

What if your mind is connected to everything in the universe and every wish of yours eventually comes true? A connected mind create its own reality in a powerful way.

Are these thoughts just something right out of cyber-punk novels and hold no basis in reality?

Desire drives people's actions says Freud. This is talking about desire at just one level. Philosophers from the East tell us that desire birthed the universe.They believe that consciousness/mind precedes all matter and it is desire that birthed this creation and people's intentions and desires determine their ultimate destiny over long eons. This desire is not an equivalent of human desire. It is not like desiring 'I want an orange' and creating an orange. It is more like 'Eros' in greek philosophy, an evolutionary force in the universe. In humans this 'eros' is experienced in its various expressions of desire, some seemingly antithetical to progressive evolution.

Is there any truth to this? We live in a time with prevalent tendencies towards self-destruction. Several scientists have warned about this tendency of our modern technological culture. What if this self-destructive tendency is communicated to a deeper level of primordial substrate and becomes true over time?

Who will be held responsible for such an eventuality? Are we seeding our own eventual fate at a deeper level.

A world gone wrong may just be a mind gone wrong....

Future Lives: Short Fiction

It is someday in the future from now. I don't remember the date. I think I'm lost in love. I woke up to the sounds of heart beat, my own heart beat relaxed and alive.Somehow it felt it was no longer just mine...I couldn't fathom the connection...Is it from the depths of another soul? I don't quite get it...

http://www.womenembracingbrilliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/heart-cords.png

7 years later:

So I started searching for the connections in this whole wide world...And found it hidden in some underground corporation's secret locker.They literally stole my heart. Secret waves link my heart to their console and it beats according to their whims.What is this strange connection to the underworld? It took several decades to realize my other organs were also on sale, a discount closed sale for the corrupt and the elite.Whether I like it or not, my whole being is in a love/hate relationship with these organ thieves, who fondly call themselves  'the heart thieves'.

It is hard and I need to accept this strangeness. There is nowhere to go and nothing else to do. Some poets say, all true love ends in death/dissolution. I hope I experience the bliss of dissolution in this life and dissolve the hatred along with that. It sounds tragic to hope for dissolution. I don't glorify suicide and dissolution is not suicide It is the end of a courageous fight that makes your stolen heart swell with pointless pride.

What appears as tragic to other's eyes appears as victory to some.The victory of a soul that didn't give up its honesty, courage and love, come what may, even to the destruction of this fragile body.There in lies the joy and exuberance of a tragic life, my friend, a triumphant soulful life.The point is not pride or victory. It is the longing and the journey itself that matters...the longing for freedom,fairness and goodness...Some call it the experience of God and some call it the experience of  a good life. But all have this longing at its core.

Who am I? A future citizen of this earth....

Social Reality For Dummies

1) There are two human civilizations that exist in parallel in all countries on earth... One is a very advanced civilization with great power and resources...The other one is an advancing civilization, a major fraction of non-elite civilian population fall under this category....The stuff the advancing civilization is thinking as advanced was there in the advanced civilization several decades back...


2) When something new happens, the first ones to know are Military/Intelligence,Criminal empire/Power structures (Political & Corporate) b'coz they are the ones creating and making it happen. The second ones to know are the other elite ones in societies likes artists,story writers, media leaders as they are always on the watch out for new things and are mostly well connected with the first group...After that other elites in the society like chancellors, Professors and other huge brains get to know...Then the general public gets to know through news media..It is mostly a distorted story, but has germs of truth in it...

The last ones to know are a terrible strain of humanity called graduate students...They are the lowly slaves who keep themselves busy searching the world for free food and truths that were found long time back...The funny thing is they bought into the lie that PhDs are changing the world....Since they are of above average intelligence, they had to be told that lie to make them work for the real bosses...What they meant was they are slowly improving the advancing civilization step by step...Go tiger, change the world!!!!..The advanced civilization at times get compassionate and picks some bright sparks in to their own and initiate them in to the wide world...With a hint of sadness I've spent several years in the last category with several more to go...When you accept this social truth \
whole -heartedly, you can live with some peace in your heart on earth.....

3) The folks in the advancing group can slowly fight for rights and get some autonomy in governing themselves by begging to the advanced folks...But never question or challenge what the advanced folks can or cannot do... They say their wrath is worse than the wrath of gods... People say God has one judgement day when you die... But these folks can make every single one of your day her into a judgement day... That comes to thousands of judgement days right here on earth...Better to avoid it unless you are so much into it you know.... 

An Epiphany

I believe, based on brief moments of direct experience, that in the deep stillness of mind, a new insight, a new perspective and a new love for the world is born... It is this moment of freedom I was and am still seeking.... It is available to me right here and now under grossly imperfect circumstances...It is the reality of my time that has led to this frustrating moment...

Everything is in a grid lock...People, societies, socio-political systems, inter-personal relationships and the different value systems - all these entities and processes with different degrees of influence on the whole are all in a grid-lock. The reason being their different ambitions, values and a strong tendency to force the other to move in their own direction... This has stalled several things and has made movement difficult...But the moving force of desire and grand ambition is still there waiting grudgingly to erupt in to action and flow in each of these entities.....

Space, my friend, allows movement with out blocking the flow of others eros...Rights as an ideal and a social property guarantees this... But such a luxurious property of great value like Rights is almost non-existent for many in a world of desperation, greed and inequality of wealth and power...Grand ambition and a strong sense of group identity have placed various groups fighting with each other...Strong sense of social identity means clinging on to conception of who we are, one's own cherished ideals,perspectives, ways of living with great force that can at times,when it attains great strength in numbers, get the whole world in a grid lock. This strains the movement of people's ambitions and desires which are expressions of eros itself...

People have faced such times of great ferment at several points in history...I can only hope no one develops a hatred for any specific group which when combined with ambition and a strong sense of social identity led to the gross disasters of world wide conflicts of the past...Enmeshed in this complicated social reality is my great desire and ambition for transcendence and freedom...It is partly the answer to my problem and partly the reason for my predicament....Some kind of conflict awaiting resolution....