Afghanistan History and George Orwell

Paul Simon has one more goat, butting angrily against any suggestion that the US is like Orwell's Big Brother: "Someone seems to have missed Orwell's main points in 1984. I suggest re-reading his book within a book, "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism". His nightmare superstate rested on several foundations: The ruling class preferred power over material wealth, and power was defined as forcing people to do things against their will and contrary to human nature. The purpose of war was to use up the surplus produce of human nature because keeping down the masses involved keeping a constant shortage of all material goods. HARDLY sounds like the United States; let's not stretch metaphors!"

My bleat back: Paul is right, but "Big Brother" is now used in a more generic sense. The fact is that much of the world now views the US, perhaps unfairly, as Big Brother. For evidence, look at "Paul Wolfowitz, velociraptor" in The Economist (2/9-15/02). "His fingerprints, not Colin Powell's, were all over the State of the Union address. He is every timorous European's worst nightmare". For me he is typical of those who should have some feeling for the rest of the world, but he does not. He is a mathematician by training who served as head of Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies and Ambassador to Indonesia. Strange.

Ronald Hilton - 2/12/02