In George Orwell's allegorical novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” the picture of “Big Brother” appears constantly in the adoring media.
Perceived enemies are everywhere – supposedly plotting to undo the benevolent egalitarianism of Big Brother. Citizens assemble each morning to scream hatred for two minutes at pictures of the supposed public traitor Emmanuel Goldstein. The “Ministry of Truth” swears that the former official Goldstein is responsible for everything that goes wrong in Oceania.
In Orwell's Oceania, there is a compliant media that offers “Newspeak” – recycled government bulletins from the Ministry of Truth. “Doublethink”means you can believe at the same time in two opposite beliefs.
America is not Oceania, but some of this is beginning to sound a little too familiar.
Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment:
Click on the logo above for the rest of this thoughtful piece. Thomas Jefferson said the whole of government boiled down to honesty. Buckminster Fuller focused on the importance of integrity in its broadest meaning, encompassing all possible feedback loops without information asymmetries or data pathologies.
This website was originally constructed as www.freeobama.org, until we realized that what we really need is the rescue of the entire political and governance process. This is not about Obama–a major domo with no real power–nor is about Bush–a village idiot with an amoral vice-president. This is about the FACT that government polcies are not based on appreciative inqiuriy, deliberative dialog, or any sensible triage among the core questions: what is the threat, what should our strategy be, what whole of government capabilities do we need to achieve our objectives, and how do we fund all that while assuring the taxpayer a stable socio-economic environment within which to raise a family and enjoy the fruits of a good society?
Public Intelligence in the Public Interest–needed now more than ever before.
