something interesting that i read:
"When American Vice - President Dick Cheney said that the war on terrorism could last for fifty years or more, his words evoked George Orwells great prophetic work, 1984. We are to live with the threat and illusion of endless war, it seems in order to justify increased social control and state repression, while great power pursues its goal of global supremacy. Washington is transformed into 'Chief City of Airstrip One' and every problem is blamed on the 'enemy', the evil Goldstein as orwell called him. he could be Osama Bin Laden or his successors, the 'axis of evil'.
In the novel, three slogans dominate society: war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. Todays slogan, 'war on terrorism', also reverses meaning. The war is terrorism. The most potent weapon in this 'war' is pseudo-information, different only in form from that Orwell described, consigning to oblivion unacceptable truths and historical sense. dissent is permissable within 'consensual' boundaries, reinforcing the illusion that information and speech are 'free'.
The attacks of 9/11 did not 'change everything' but accelarated the continuity of events, providing an extraordinary pretext for destoying social democracy. the undermining of the bill of rights in the US andf the further dismantling of trial in Britain and a pleathora of related civil liberties are part of the reduction of democracy to electoral ritual: that is competition between indistinguishable parties for the management of a single-ideology state"
- John Pilger