George Orwell
Yesterday, following an impasse between the Senate and the House of Representatives in Washington, much of the United States government shut down. Meanwhile, in Florence, Italy, the third trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher began.
What do these two seemingly unrelated and non-comparable events have in common?
They are both based on an alternative view of reality.
Our regular readers know our position that Amanda and Raffaele were charged and initially convicted as the result of a police and prosecution theory that had no basis in fact. There is not one scintilla of credible evidence, testimony or logic that ties either of them to this horrific crime. The so-called confession that Perugia police coerced out of Amanda after many hours of depriving her of sleep, food, comfort and the dignity of basic bodily needs is so absurd and illogical that no experienced investigator could take it seriously and it is a black mark on the Italian justice system that anyone at her first trial did. And to cap it all off, the actual killer, Rudy Guede, against whom the evidence is overwhelming, has already been convicted and is in prison.
So what’s the problem here? We have written many pages about this in Law & Disorder, but to net it out, the story prosecutor Giuliano Mignini spun was better and more titillating than the truth, at least as far as the media and public were concerned. In other words, an alternate view of reality.
Turning to Washington, you can think whatever you want about Obamacare. As a freelancer who has always struggled to secure effective health insurance, I don’t yet know what I think about it and won’t until I have a chance to compare what I now have to what is on offer.
But I do know this: The Affordable Health Care Act is law, it has been so voted, it has been challenged and passed a Supreme Court challenge and it is about to go into effect. For a cabal of hard right Republicans to try to thwart it at this stage is unprecedented. Democrats might not have liked the Bush tax cuts, but they never threatened to shut down the government over them.
The Ted Cruz faction claims that the government shut down because the Senate was unwilling to compromise, unlike the completely reasonable and considerate House. The Cruzies first wanted to rescind Obamacare; that didn’t work. So they said, “Okay, let’s just not fund it;” that didn’t work. So then they compromised yet again with, “Okay, let’s just postpone it for a year.”
This is not compromise; this is negotiating against yourself. This would be like the liberals saying they wanted a complete ban on guns, but they would be willing to accept licensing and background checks, and then falling back on, “Okay, we’ll just accept a ban on assault rifles and large magazines, but if you don’t give us at least this, we will shut down the government.”
In either case, it would be based on an alternative view of reality, because neither would reflect the actual conditions. It is what the great visionary and prophetic British writer George Orwell called “doublethink.” In his dystopian world of 1984, citizens believed what their leaders told them to, and “truth” was manufactured for the good of the state. If Senator Ted Cruz or House Speaker John Boehner tells us that the House has compromised and the Senate is rigid and unreasonable, we are supposed to believe it.
In this Internet age when all news sources seem to be equal to a large percentage of the population and opinion masquerades as fact (start with Michelle Bachman and move on from there), this is all highly distressing. I certainly suspect that Orwell, whose views were so nuanced and profound that both conservatives and liberals take him as a hero, would be appalled, yet not surprised.
Because whether we are talking about the trial of two innocent young people half a world away, or the machinations of a near totally dysfunctional Congress here at home, facts and truth matter.
Or at least they should.
I think Orwell would say….we at least don’t have a totalitarian government (yet)….but we do have….’the memory/ fact hole’….down which we throw away and burn facts and truths for some peoples political interests. We also have the ‘propaganda department’ also known as the internet to be misused to mislead/ brainwash people. We have virtually no real investigative journalists/ journalists at all now to inform on real facts truth/ reality.
What I find distressing is…an alternative (I mean made up and false)…view of reality for the young people. As a p/t university educator I encounter them starting university or last year high school. I’m often SHOCKED by how many of them have….intolerant closed minded beliefs…. in a reality, facts and history….that has never and does not exist!.. Someone had to school them in it, and of course their selective ‘surfing’ of the internet enforces their prejudice and false reality.
The number of them that think ‘reality’ is up to their ‘opinion’ chills me.
Or perhaps he would comment of the Kafkaesque similiarities between his novel “The Trial” and the Knox/Sollecito case?
The news media today, with “news” channels strictly dedicated to partisan propaganda and with investigative journalism having been all but abandoned in favor of posting literally whatever press release or soundbyte they are provided, resemble nothing more than a search engine. Whatever your existing views are, you just google what you want to hear or turn the channel to whoever agrees with you. Someone needs to set some standards or enforce them if they exist about news programs and internet blogs calling themselves news. There needs to be a standard met, maybe a rating system put in place.
It is nearly impossible to find any place whose news reporting you can trust anymore.
Why is it Blue Cross/Blue Shield can tell me in 5 mins my coverage options and price – and for all these years Obama and the govt cannot. Anyone who trusts our govt to do the right thing – when we yell about corruption daily is – well – the situation
The end – they just should have upped Medicaid contributions or whatever – told the crammed waiting room hospitals – how about build another – helps the economy – unemployment rate dwindle. American steel and concrete – and had a worthwhile presidency where they can say they’ve done something – maybe require security measures in high target areas but as abroad and inside this country – they do nothing. And you say the republicans shut it down – it’s been shut down last 6 years
I went to the ear nose throat just yesterday – free allergy shots on Monday & Fridays – free preventative screenings – all walks of life were in the waiting room – walgreens – free shingles and flu vaccines. For ten years that’s been going on. Then the free hospital – where uninsured get surgeries etc – nobody is suffering in the waiting rooms here – as much as they would with private insurance. Competitive rates being a plus from Obamacare – I was going to get coverage from blue cross/blue shield high deductible as I’m young still – and it was the same price I had to pay shortly after my mother died at 17 years of age bc I was no longer on her insurance. Same price over 20 yrs. I say some states must be fouled up – but that’s the states concern.
Free meds – not mess
‘Smartphone lol
My view of the healthcare crisis is this – I have been uninsured and insured and there was no difference in either. I still went to whatever doc I wanted and so on had to pay 30 bucks as uninsured – got free mess even – so we pay for Medicaid already – so I mean …
The govt especially this one will pay everyone’s premiums and student loans off to release debt everywhere but in the govt – but is that smart when they print our dollar? So either healthcare is a state problem elsewhere or it’s just absurd all around – the uninsured can get boob jobs in mississippi.
Amanda Knox and Obama same sort of societal folklore – that’s why in 5 6 whatever it is – year if a Presidency he still has to voice out that he is the commander in chief – bc he knows nobody thinks that in public really.
Orwell might say that the Italian supreme court is the Ministry of Truth and the Perugia police station is the Ministry of Love.
I also wonder what Kafka would say.
Perhaps he’d write a long, discontinuous train of thought about consciousness awaking to its own irrelevancy?