I know that by now you've all heard about the high school teacher from Aurora, CO, who got suspended for puting Bush and Hitler in the same sentence. Here's a little more in a column by August Keso at the Progressive Daily Beacon.
Irony and More "1984" - America's Children Are Becoming Orwell's Children
by August Keso, March 4th, 2006
The whole column is kinda long, but well worth the read. Good rant. Link is at the bottom.
"With those children [Winston] thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party." -- George Orwell, "1984"
The irony should be lost on no person: A high school teacher in Aurora, Colorado, told his class that there were similarities between Bush's State of the Union rhetoric and things Hitler used to say. The teacher's name is Jay Bennish and he was immediately placed on administrative leave. Yet, the irony is dwarfed when compared to the ultimate Orwellian circumstances surrounding Bennish's personal nightmare.
Sean Allen, one of Bennish's students and a sophomore at Overland High School, recorded his teacher's comments and brought them to a local radio station. In Orwell's classic "Big Brother is watching you novel," children are taught by "Big Brother" and the Party's adherents to inform upon society. They are actively indoctrinated in the act of spying on and reporting parents, teachers, friends, and neighbors that speak unflatteringly of "Big Brother" and the Party's political constructs. In "1984," the children would report this "unpatriotic" behavior to the government and the "guilty" would soon disappear.
Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, FOX News, and Christian groups implicitly encourage students to report on their teachers' so-called transgressions. O'Reilly, Hannity, and FOX News encourage this behavior by incessantly reporting, covering, and providing moral support for this deviant and anti-freedom-loving behavior. Groups like Dobson's "Focus on the Family" believe it to be an almost religious duty for children to inform parents whenever a teacher or a school fails to recognize the Christian faith in accordance with their preferences.
"All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which the 'Times' did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak -- 'child hero' was the phrase generally used -- had overheard some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the Thought Police." -- George Orwell, "1984" ... more
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5 comments:
Grandpa Eddie, this is really frightening. The minute I heard the teacher story I thought about how creepy the kid was who taped him and how creepy his Dad was for raising him to be this way and for turning the teacher in to the thought police. Reading the Orwell excerpts just confirms my gut. And now, O'Reilly gets pissed off at a radio caller for saying "Keith Olbermann" and warns the guy and all of the callers that "We have your phone number and we are giving it to Fox security who will call the local authorities and someone will pay you a visit." So disagree and you will be stalked by some degenerate Fox news muscle man. This is all going way too far.
One pissed off veteran ran with this today as well. He mentioned that the photo of the kid looked remarkably like a ad for Hitler youth except for the jackboots (I'm paraphrasing here). I replied, don't forget the stiff armed salute.
Karena,
The Mrs and I were talking about this kind of stuff today...how bad it's gotten here and how much worse it's gonna get, and if it gets bad enough there won't be any gettin' it back.
I've even seen where bloggers are talkin' about leaving. I think we're almost at the point where an insurection is the only way things will change. I hope it doesn't come to that.
Granny,
If you've got the link to that, could you leave it in a comment for me?
Thanks, dear.
Oh I'm sure Hannity, O'Lielly, Limbaugh, Coulter and their ilk's hearts are bursting with pride that the student was a good lil Bushler Youth... well... if they HAD hearts beating in their empty chest cavities that is.
Tina,
I'm sure the all were "bursting with pride" when they heard about the "good little Nazi"....well at least Lintball, anyway. He dedicated a whole show to the brainless little fascist.
I think we should slap a uniform on the fucking little prick as soon as he turns 18 and ship his Nazi ass over to Iraq so he can give up his youth and his life for his dictator.
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