These posts write themselves..
– ya throw in the Kundera: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
and the Orwell; “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
And then you link to a relatively benign (i.e. light on liberal sneering) interview with Eduardo Galeano in the Grauniad.
And round it off with Pilger in fine tub-thumping mode –
I have known my postman for more than 20 years. Conscientious and good-humoured, he is the embodiment of public service at its best. The other day, I asked him, “Why are you standing in front of each door like a soldier on parade?”
“New system,” he replied, “I am no longer required simply to post the letters through the door. I have to approach every door in a certain way and put the letters through in a certain way.”
“Why?”
“Ask him.”
Across the street was a solemn young man, clipboard in hand, whose job was to stalk postmen and see they abided by the new rules, no doubt in preparation for privatisation. I told the stalker my postman was admirable. His face remained flat, except for a momentary flicker of confusion.
In ‘Brave New World Revisited’, Aldous Huxley describes a new class conditioned to a normality that is not normal “because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does”.
Surveillance is normal in the Age of Regression – as Edward Snowden revealed. Ubiquitous cameras are normal. Subverted freedoms are normal. Effective public dissent is now controlled by police, whose intimidation is normal…
All the while a cat on its back trying to nuzzle the keyboard… And getting a throat tickle and nuzzle-right-back-at-ya for her efforts…
PS As so often the case, I have cited male (and white) authors. I really do need to get out and about more. The fact that I don’t have June Jordan, bell hooks, Arundhati Roy, Vandana Shiva etc etc etc at my fingertips the way I do these guys above says more about me and my limitations than it does about the inherent quality of their work!
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