1984

Key Concepts From George Orwell's 1984 Suggest Why It's Amazon's Best-selling Book In The Age Of Trump

... election. Even without evidence, such statements on repeat can create an “alternative” reality for citizens who haven’t read the stories that debunk his claim. Orwell also has a term for this strategy: “Reality control” consists of the slow erasure of history and its replacement by government-approved stories in the minds of the people governed. Coloring the historical narrative happens in every nation and community, but seems particularly abrupt on display in the new US president’s bombastic tweets. Says Winston to himself. The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’. On science. On Nov. 24, Trump ...

Alternative Facts:' Why The Trump Team Is 'planting A Flag' In War On Media

... a flag, saying they're not going to tolerate this," a longtime Trump aide told CNN on condition of anonymity. The aide blasted alleged media "obsessions," using some of the exact same language Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus used on "Fox News Sunday.". "I'm saying there's an obsession by the media to delegitimize this president, and we are not going to sit around and let it happen," Priebus said on Fox. "We are going to fight back tooth and nail every day, and twice on Sunday.". The administration's view, according to the source, is that journalists have seized on Trump's popular vote loss; intelligence community findings regarding Russian interference in the election; and inauguration crowd size counts, all in order to "delegitimize" the new president. Newsroom leaders strongly reject this suggestion. "The president may feel he's at war with the media. 'The media' is just honest men and women trying to do ...

Here Are 4 Eerie Similarities To Trump's America

... followed by a message from Big Brother. Winston was never comfortable with these meetings but eventually gets pulled in. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. Distracting the Proles. Winston often envied the life of the proletariat, also known as proles, because they were able to live in a state of blissful ignorance. They were not taunted by the truth and were left to their vices, unlike ...

1984' Tops Amazon Bestseller List After Trump Aide's 'alternative Facts

... the list. And now the classic dystopian novel "1984" is number one, as NPR's Lynn Neary reports. LYNN NEARY, BYLINE: The Amazon bestseller list is updated hourly, so it can swiftly track a surge in the book's popularity. A spokesman for Signet Classics, which currently publishes "1984," said sales have increased almost 10,000 percent since the inauguration and moved noticeably upwards on Sunday. That's when Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway appeared on "Meet The Press." When host Chuck Todd challenged the Trump administration's assertions about the size of the Inauguration Day crowd, Conway responded with a phrase that caught everyone's attention. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS"). KELLYANNE CONWAY: You're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving - Sean Spicer, our press secretary, ...

Why Orwell’s ‘1984’ Matters So Much Now

... after “1984” was first published, Orwell suddenly feels doubleplus relevant. Considering the New Trumpmatics, it’s impossible not to remember Winston Smith, the hero of “1984,” who predicted, “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.”. Orwell biographer Gordon Bowker is not at all surprised by the renewed interest. “The continuing popularity of ‘Nineteen Eighty-four’ is a reminder,” he said via email, “of the threat to democracy posed by those with power who proclaim ‘alternative facts’ and deny objective truths. Big Brother’s pronouncements are treated as absolute truth by his acolytes, even when they defy rational thought — so Black is White, 2+2=5, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.”. [ ‘George Orwell Diaries,’ edited by Peter Davison ]. Born in 1903, Orwell lived through two world wars and saw the rise of totalitarian regimes on an unpresidented scale. In a ...

1984 Tops Bestseller Charts; Alexa Pleases Trekkies; Hp Extends Battery Recall

... the news. Orwell’s classic tops bestseller charts. Fears of a dystopian future have driven George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 to the top of Amazon’s best-seller lists since the weekend, when a TV host sparred with President Trump’s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, over the definition of the word “fact”. Conway told NBC’s Chuck Todd that White House spokesman Sean Spicer had used “alternative facts” when falsely asserting to reporters that the crowd in Washington DC “was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration – period”. Penguin Books told CNN: “We put through a 75,000-copy reprint this week. That is a substantial reprint and larger than our typical reprint for 1984.” At the time of writing, the book was the number one bestseller on __link__ and number three on rel=”nofollow”> __link__. Beam me up, Alexa. If you’re in the Venn diagram where Star Wars geeks and home assistant enthusiasts interface, rejoice: Amazon has just added a new “wake word” to its Echo and Echo Dot home assistants that you’ll like. Sophos Home. Learn More. The default word to alert your device that it should ...

Alternative Facts' Seem To Boost '1984' To Best-seller List

... "1984.". Related Story. Spicer Pledges To 'Never Knowingly Say Something That's Not Factual'. As  The Guardian  pointed out Tuesday, the book has become a  bestseller on Amazon. It reached the number 3 spot by Tuesday afternoon. Orwell didn't use the phrase "alternative facts" in his book. But the phrase reminded those who have read the book of the term "newspeak.". Merriam-Webster's definition  of it is "propagandistic language marked by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings." The dictionary didn't tweet out that definition to Conway. But it did  tweet the definition  of the word "fact.". The concept of "alternative facts"  even came up  in the Senate confirmation hearing for President Trump's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget. "Are you comfortable as you proceed as a key budget adviser presenting falsehoods as simply an alternative fact?" Sen. Jeff Merkley asked Mick Mulvaney. We probably shouldn't expect the phrase "alternative facts" to go away any time soon. If the first White House press briefing ...

George Orwell's '1984' Is A Best-seller Again. Here's Why It Resonates Now

... be altered or documents rewritten. Stansky sees echoes of this in Trump’s false claims this week of voter fraud and larger inauguration crowd sizes. “The question is, when somebody is looking that up 10, 20 years from now, will they say,  ‘Oh yes, there were more people at inauguration,’ because Trump said so?” Stansky said, a question he is also fascinated by as a historian. He cites a famous line in “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” a party slogan: “Who controls the past, controls the future.”. But Stansky and other historians also say that to a certain extent, Orwell’s fears about a mutable past have already come true with the rise of the Internet, where anything can be rewritten or deleted. And John Rodden, who has written 10 books on Orwell, said this is not the first time sales of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” have surged since it was published. He remembers when sales went up in the early 1980 s , which Rodden says was not just about the approach of the year 1984, but also driven by “similar anxieties about a new administration”–when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he “was looked upon by many liberals and radicals ...

Six Of The Best Books To Read In Trumpian Times

... a field day with the Trump phenomenon. An erstwhile Bolshevik, Zamyatin brilliantly looked to Swift in dissecting the follies of totalitarianism. His astutely disparaging depiction of the fraudulent inevitabilities of a bogus paradise built on lies is a perfect and  perceptive antidote to Trump’s fake promises of a new Utopia. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865). Trying to find Trump’s alter ego in literature is tricky, as usually the bad guys are at least dignified. He’s not Milton’s Satan from Paradise Lost, and not dastardly clever like Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. He is not Sauron, the Dark Lord from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955); he’s not even JK Rowling’s Lord Voldemort. He is best compared with Carroll’s petulant Queen of Hearts. She too resides in an absurdist alternative universe. Damn it, there’s the word “alternative” again. You may wish to re-read Kafka’s The Trial (1925), written as the Austro-Hungarian ...

On ‘1984,’ Alternative Park Service Tweets And Half An Onion

... News Services. Updated 4:50 pm, Wednesday, January 25, 2017. Photo: Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press. Image 1 of/1. Madonna performs on stage during the Women’s March rally Jan. 21 in Washington. Photo: Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press. On ‘1984,’ alternative park service tweets and Half an Onion. 1 / 1. Back to Gallery. These wacky Trump days. A Texas radio station bans Madonna. George Orwell’s “1984” briefly tops Amazon’s bestseller list. A “resistance” team from the National Park Service comes out with its own Twitter feed. And half an onion in a plastic bag has passed 500,000 Twitter followers as it continues to tweak President Trump. Yes, Trump’s first few days in office have been particularly active on social media. The radio station went after Madonna for her lack of “patriotism”; Orwell’s book features a Ministry of Truth that offers up, uh, alternative facts; and the unofficial Park Service feed came because of a crackdown on some official ones. As for Half an Onion, it tweets things like, “For the record, I’m not gonna show you my tax returns either because, well. I’m a half-used piece of produce in a bag. Not the ...

It’s 1984 All Over Again

... TTP trade deal, one was a freeze on federal hiring, and the third was a block on federal funds going to NGOs that helped provide abortion services for women overseas. The Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, was first put in place by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Its reintroduction drew condemnation from abortion rights and reproductive health campaigners. And people were quick to point out that Trump signed this executive order, which could impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of women, surrounded by men. The Huffington Post said that under the administration of Barack Obama, which rescinded the ban in 2009, US funds helped 27 m women access contraceptives. The US government spends around $600 m a year on international assistance for family planning and reproductive health. In the Oval Office, Trump was surrounded by White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, National Trade Council adviser Peter Navarro, Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, policy adviser Stephen Miller, and chief strategist Steve Bannon. Vice President Mike Pence, known for his strident opposition to abortion ...