Goldstein is a Goner
So, at long last, "The Most Wanted Face of Terrorism" is dead. It's "a good day for America." ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42853419/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/?gt1=43001 ) But, let me guess ... there are legions more just like him now so we mustn't let our guard down just yet ?! Uh - huh. ( lest we might miss out on our "two minutes of Hate" exercises going forward - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate .... and be without validation for that "no end in sight" line they love so much ) It sure is easy to see why Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is so often called "prophetic" ! (remember, this was written in the 1940s)
"As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had flashed on to the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience. The little sandy-haired woman gave a squeak of mingled fear and disgust."
"Somewhere or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps somewhere beyond the sea, under the protection of his foreign paymasters, perhaps even — so it was occasionally rumoured — in some hiding-place in Oceania itself."
"And all the while, lest one should be in any doubt as to the reality which Goldstein’s specious claptrap covered, behind his head on the telescreen there marched the endless columns of the Eurasian army — row after row of solid-looking men with expressionless Asiatic faces, who swam up to the surface of the screen and vanished, to be replaced by others exactly similar. The dull rhythmic tramp of the soldiers’ boots formed the background to Goldstein’s bleating voice." "Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. The self-satisfied sheep-like face on the screen, and the terrifying power of the Eurasian army behind it, were too much to be borne: besides, the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other." "But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police." "He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State." ...
From Nineteen Eighty-Four - (1948) pages 12-14
Nineteen Eighty-Four is still read to this day by high school and college students. Paperback sales of Nineteen Eighty-Four today average about 65,000 copies monthly and the book is in its 70th printing. It has been "translated to more than 65 languages" ... "In 2005, Time magazine included it in its list of 100 best English-language novels since 1923." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four under "History and Title") Further, In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Nineteen Eighty-Four 13th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.' " ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four - third paragraph )
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