The Australian: So much talk and so few people listening by Miriam Cosic[December 09, 2005]: "'Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power,' Pinter will say. (The text was published in London newspaper The Guardian yesterday.)
''To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.'
There is the rub. We hardly need to be deceived any more because people are so uninterested in politics, no matter how far-reachingly it affects their lives. Aldous Huxley's soma is working."
2 comments:
I thought soma was a drug, and that Orwell did the stuff on "black is white" "war is peace" etc. It appears in this update that you're saying the populace is drugged out by the verbiage of the politicians; Huxley, in Brave New World, would say that the people are drugged out by the drugs.
Well, I wish I had thought of the analogy but I am just quoting Miriam Cosic's comment on Pinter's observation of the condition of ignorance fostered by power we face today.
Although there is not one wonder drug in our context, I think the reference is adequate, because it appropriately illustrates a situation in which people are complacent with being manipulated consuming the products of the system to their peril, while kept ignorant of the truth.
Post a Comment