Ross Ruthenberg: When "War is Peace" !

Considering the current state of world peace and NATO's Responsibility to Protect (R2P) policy and to maintain a proper sense of balance, George Orwell's book "1884" should be reviewed periodically. In the spirit of the NATO Summit in Chicago, I present a few quotes from that textbook-for-tomorrow. "If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened-that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death." "Don't you see that the whole aim of New-speak is to narrow the range of thought? Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." "All rulers in all ages have tried to impose a false view of the world upon their followers." Then the face of Big Brother faded away again and instead the the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals: WAR IS PEACE, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance is strength! Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep people frightened'. This was an idea that had literally never occurred to him." The object of waging a war is always to be in a better position in which to wage another war. The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.