{"id":9113,"date":"2017-10-02T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/?p=9113"},"modified":"2017-10-02T10:00:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:00:56","slug":"revisiting-orwell-to-understand-our-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/revisiting-orwell-to-understand-our-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Orwell to Understand our Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When Big Brother is really watching you.<\/strong> <\/em><\/h3>\n

FrontPage Mag<\/strong>
\nby Scott S. Powell
\n9\/28\/2017<\/p>\n

Excerpts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just two or three generations ago, most Americans understood that George Orwell\u2019s classics Animal Farm and 1984 were written to explain how freedom is lost to totalitarianism and the intolerance that accompanies it. \u201cBig Brother,\u201d a term that many people still casually use to describe an all-knowing governing authority, comes right out of 1984. In the society that Orwell describes, all citizens are continually reminded that \u201cBig Brother is watching you,\u201d by way of a constant surveillance through the pervasive use of \u201ctelescreens\u201d by the ruling class.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

…………………………………………………..<\/em><\/p>\n

Many assume there is a long way to go before the American government has the power of Orwell\u2019s Big Brother. After all, the thinking goes, the press in the U.S. is not controlled by the government so Americans cannot be so easily brainwashed as they theoretically would be through state-controlled propaganda.<\/em><\/p>\n

But what if the universities and the educational system and the major television and print media institutions embrace the groupthink that ingratiates them with the ruling elite? What if the culture shapers in Hollywood and the advertising industry on Madison Avenue follow a similar path in participating in and reinforcing the same groupthink norms?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And what if the rise of social media, and specifically the dominant players like Facebook and Google, promote a kind of groupthink conformity that effectively marginalizes and silences opposing views? Could it then be that propaganda in a free democratic nation like America might be more effective in shaping thought and attitudes than state-controlled propaganda in totalitarian societies, which typically foster abject cynicism?<\/em> <\/strong>— (bold emphasis added in above 2 paragraphs)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Orwell\u2019s concept of Big Brother watching the people has certainly become a reality in the National Security Agency\u2019s tracking and recording all email, text and telephone communication in the United States. But Big Brother has a new dimension and counterpart now with social media and consumer giants, Google, Facebook, and Amazon knowing almost everything about people\u2019s thoughts and preferences through their artificial intelligence peering into peoples\u2019 \u201ctelescreen\u201d computers and smartphones.<\/em><\/p>\n

View the complete article including image and comments at:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/fpm\/267965\/revisiting-orwell-understand-our-times-scott-s-powell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Big Brother is really watching you. FrontPage Mag by Scott S. Powell 9\/28\/2017 Excerpts: Just two or three generations ago, most Americans understood that George Orwell\u2019s classics Animal Farm and 1984 were written to explain how freedom is lost … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9115,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9113\/revisions\/9115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}