Just a little something to go with your morning cornflakes:
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.
We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.
We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
George Orwell – “1984”
Where communication depends on accurate reportage, we are woefully slipshod in our use of language. In an online forum… in general everyday life, no biggie.
In a SHTF EOTWAWKI situation, on the other hand, it could mean the difference between living or dying, (although the word “lightning” and “lightning bug” have the same root, not many of us, given the choice would opt to be hit by lightning over being hit by a lightning bug).
This blog is not meant to lecture anyone but to, as gently as this grumpy old man can be gentle, suggest a self-assessment of the way we use language, (which is, at best, an inexact method of communication). It is my intention to communicate as accurately as possible and cut through the fog of falsity with which we find ourselves surrounded.
“the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
-George Orwell
