Reaction to Wag the Dog

We finally finished watching Wag the Dog. There a lot of similarity in the book and in the movie. There a lot of concept between these two things, for example in the book the people believe what ever the Party tells them and in the movie you see the people believe whatever is on the news. We believe whatever is on the news because we assume that they are never lying and are telling the truth. For one thing, how do we know that what ever we see and hear are the truths? How do we know that the war with Iraq or any other war that happened throughout the past is even real or fake? In the movie they fabricated a war with Albania so that they can forget the scandal that the President did with a girl. And in the book they keep on changing war with Eastasia and Eurasia that the people didn’t even know who they are fighting against anymore.
By watching this movie it made me realize that we don’t ask questions and if we do, we don’t wait for the whole answer. We only listen to the part that is suited for us. We don’t really want to know what is really going on the world or that if our government is really doing their jobs. In a way the book 1984 and the movie Wag the Dog, made me realize that we shouldn’t ignore little facts or forget them because of something big is happening, because those little things can be the whole truth behind the whole picture.
I think this movie was interesting and I do recommend my friends to watch it.

Reaction to 1984

This book in my opinion was confusing and boring at first. But when it got to the end of part 2 and the beginning of part 3 it captured my interest. It’s like everything about the whole book was put into that section of the book. Winston getting caught by the Thought Police/Mr. Charrington whom Winston thought was a prole, facing his biggest fear at Room 101, and worst of all was his and Julia betrayal for each other when they both said that they will never betrayed their love for each other. When I think about it, you always knew that no matter what they will get caught. I always had my suspicion on O’Brien because since Winston bumped into O’Brien at work. He just gave me a vibe of someone you can’t trust. And at the end you see that it was O’Brien who was torturing Winston and still Winston thought that O’Brien was helping him. At chapter VI, you see whole new prospective of what Winton really thinks of the Party. What really caught my interest about this chapter is that in the end when they won a battle, Winston had a dream that he should be dead of what he did against the Party. I think that O’Brien was trying to tell Winston that in the end you will love Big Brother no matter what because in the end you will realized that all the things you done was wrong and you want to die so you’ll come back and beg us to kill you for it, which they will grant their last wish. I think I do understand this book better now because I finally understand how George Orwell writes.
George Orwell writes great science fiction books, which I might mention this one was great. Knowing that his wording and writing style was kind of difficult but although the whole book was excellent to read. In one way, 1984 did change my way of thinking of the world we live in nowadays. I am starting to ask questions to myself and my surrounding that the way of lives of Oceania, could it be true to our world and time as well. How do we know for sure that our government isn’t hiding things from us and manipulating us? When I think about it this way the three slogans they have it seem true in our world as well. War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength and Freedom is Slavery.

Part 3, Chapter III & IV

1. O'Brien is a member of the Thought Police, do you think he can actually read Winston's mind? Did O'Brien actually permeate Winston's dream all those years ago? Explain your answer.

I’m actually having a second thought of O’Brien ability to read Winston’s thought. Knowing that O’Brien is a member of the Thought Police, it seems like he knows a lot of things that going on or goes on Winston mind. But in other hand O’Brien could have been spying on Winston. Like O’Brien said he was watching him for seven years already. O’Brien has the ability to find out everything Winston was doing without him noticing. He is a member of the Inner Party and a Thought Police he has a lot of privileges than others Party member doesn’t have.

2. O'Brien has made it clear the Party will kill Winston at some point. We know they want folks to understand and believe before they die, but.....if they are not going to release these people back into society, why do they bother with the time and expense of the torture and "rehabilitation"?

O’Brien said that it is for Winston’s own good, he believes that this treatment it “cures” you supposedly. O’Brien and the other Inner Party member doesn’t want to just kill Winston they want him to Love Big Brother. They want him to confess that what ever he did to go against the Party was wrong, but not just saying it they want Winston to truly mean it from the bottom of his heart.

3. What's in Room 101? The most impressive answers will be those consisting of just one sentence.

Behind the door of the Room 101, there lie Winston’s biggest fears which are rats.

Chapter VIII

In this chapter, you get the feeling of how the Party and the Brotherhood are reasonably similar. O’Brien stated that Goldstein really does exist and he is the leader of their Party as know as the Brotherhood. How can they be so sure that Brotherhood really does exist and if they do how come they didn’t take a stand yet. What are they waiting for? If it is like O’Brien said that their others like them who are against the Party why don’t they take a stand and protest. In my opinion I don’t really see the difference between the Party and the Brotherhood. When you really think about it you see that they are so similar in so many ways. Winston would kill others, put acid on children face or kill himself if it’s necessary, just for what? It’s just like what the Party would have done as well. They kill if it’s necessary, the Party member suicide when they think they did something wrong. Isn’t it similar to what the Brotherhood is doing, they kill others if it’s necessary and they will kill themselves when they get caught. In the end they have to confess if they do get caught by the Thought Police, so where does their effort goes? It doesn’t go anywhere; YOU still DIE no matter what. Winston is too jubilated because he is finally taking a big step going against the Party to realize that what he is doing is wrong. He is jeopardizing his life to O’Brien, and I am still not sure to trust O’Brien or NOT.

Part II Chapter 7

Winston and Julia, meet up with each other at the room which is on top of Mr.Charrington store. This time, Winston had a bad dream about his past. He dreamt about his mother and his younger sister, which he assumed are dead. He blames himself for murdering his mother and his sister for his selfishness. He thinks that it was his fault that they disappeared because he ran away from home. With all this pain in side of him, he hates the Party more. Knowing that now he can feel emotions, he is slowly remembering other emotions other then love, hate and fear.

He thinks that proles are the only human beings there are nowadays at Oceania. He believes this, because they can feel any emotions but the only problem is that they are ignorant. They really don't care about what the Party is doing if it doesn't effect them. Julia and Winston knows that there little game of sneaking around behind the Party's back won't last that long. The Thought Police will find them soon and they will be killed, but this doesn't scare Winston, but he is afraid that when they will be caught he will be forced to stop loving Julia. But Julia states that no one can control other people emotions. Emotions are your inner self and no one can take that away from you if you don't want them too. After what Julia said to him he believe that no one can take away his love toward Julia and his emotions or what he truly feels.

Reaction to Chapter 6

Winston and O’Brien finally meet up with each other at work. This encounter wasn’t that of a big deal other that knowing that O’Brien might not be the person that Winston was hoping for. I think this, since it looks like O’Brien wants them to get caught. For example, O’Brien is mentioning Syme, but not his name, but what ever he is saying leads toward Syme being vaporized and him writing his address right in front of the telescreen. All of these events are leading my suspicious that O’Brien might be a Thought Police. Who wants to know what is Winston real motive and want to catch him in the act or just let him confess so that can be the end of Winston. Like Winston said when he meets up with O’Brien he had this feeling that when they meet again it might be at the Ministry of Love and that is where will be the end of him.

Response to Part II Chapter V

A lot of stuff happened in this chapter. Syme was vaporized, the Party members were busy with Hate Week which is coming soon, and Winston and Julia are still meeting in secret at a room which is on top of Mr.Charrington’s store. Julia and Winston are all ways in deep thought of conversation of what is really happening in their time. Julia stated that Goldstein isn't even a real person, she assumed that he is a made up figure which is to scare the people of Oceania. She thinks that the Inner Party and Big Brother just made Goldstein up, so that they can manipulate the people and try to tell them if they rebel against them, they are going to pay the same consequence, Goldstein paid. They also thought that the war that was going on is fabricated as well. They kept changing their target that Julia forgot who the Party was fighting which scared Winston because he thinks that Julia at least should know the truth and pay attention what is happening around them. He wants to make some kind of record of what they are doing so the next generation could carry on the stuff Winston and Julia left off. But Julia isn't really interested of the next generation. She was too caught up with what was happening now with her and Winston to worry about the future.

Political Act

I think that Winston is trying to state that in the olden days there was such things like love and desire but nowadays for him there is no such things. The only two emotions that is felt when your doing it is only fear and hatred. So them doing it, it's like saying that this is their first step toward rebelling against the Party. There Political Act for going against what the Party believes. "Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was blow struck against the Party." For Winston and Julia it could be a new beginning because they both started to have feel emotions other then fear and hate.

1984- Chapter 1

When growing up, I really didn't care what really happens in the world, like most or more then half of the people in this world, who really don't give a second of thought about it. So many things happen right in front of you but we don't care, WHY? Because it doesn't effect us in anyways, so why should we care. Reading part 1 in 1984, made me realized that there is so many things we don't even know if it's true or false. In the book it says that Winston can't be sure if the books are correct about the past life, when common people were treated bad, because he knows that people like him who works for The Party changes everything so it could match what Big Brother is saying. Do we even know that in our historical text book or the books we read, the facts are realistic or fabricate. There is another question to be consider, In the year of 2007 is there any one in our society willing to stand up to the government and make a difference? The answer is a simple NO! No because like I said before no one will stand up if it doesn't effect them in their personal life. Human are the most ignorant and selfish people anyone will meet because we don't do anything about stuff that truly matters, we just let it slide past us. There are only few people who are out in this world who are willing to stand up so there voice could be heard. But do we even listen to those people who are trying to help? NO again because we are afraid of changes. When you really think about it, you now for a fact that our life in this society isn't any different then in 1984.

Reading part 1 has helped me open my eyes to see what is really happening in this world. It also made realized that even doing little things, like helping out in our community, reading books to little children or helping out in the hospitals, it could effect our society in a great amounts of ways.

I think as the story unfolds Winston is going to find out the truth about the past and is going to try to make sure that people of Oceania knows it as well. Winston will also try to over throw Big Brother and The Party. He will try to open everyone eyes to see what's really happening around them and is also going try to get the people to ask questions to themselves about, How they live is a fantasy or realistic or that do they want to live under Big Brother and The Party rules with fear of asking question or standing up against them.

Are We Proles?

In 1984, Proles are common people at Oceania and it's made up of 85%. Proles are middle class people who lives their life normal and they wont go against the Party because they are bribed into doing things that the Party wants. The Proles are pretty much ignored by the Party and the thought police, but they do have common police to check on them once in a while.
We do have some similarities like the Proles, but we are not the Proles. The similarities that we have in common is that we argue with our neighbors, we go out to see movies and we hang out. The reason I think that we are not Proles because there are always some people who will always stand up to government or higher authority. If it wasn't for those people we would be living the life that Winston lives and the Proles.There are always some people who will think or investigate really deep to know the truth. We (United States) in other hand have much more freedom and the rights to go against our government while the Proles have to listen to one person only and that is Big Brother.

Vocabulary in Our Society

Re-read the pages involving Winston's lunch with Syme. Syme was talking about words being removed from the language, so people wouldn't be able to label their thoughts. Do you think our society is heading in this direction? Think about the way you spell words on IM, etc. Are we already living in a place Syme would like?

I don't think that our society will be headed toward the direction of what Syme would like it to be. We do shorten words in IM when we are chatting but that because we want to make our simple and easier. But in the book Syme is changing or getting rids of words so that Thought Police could have easy time finding people who are thinking. We are already using words like lol which actually means laugh out loud and technically we know what it means when we are chatting in IM.

In reality we don't use this word other then IM, but mostly when we get older and mature we don't use those slang's words we use mature words. In Winston society they're trying to get rids of words like bad cause they think its pointless to cause if you have good why not say ungood but that doesn't make any sense. So in our society we won't use words like ungood or unhappy when we know that's not the proper way of saying it. So yeah i don't think words that we use will be easily forgotten if we have people who knows what's right form wrong.

Planet in Peril

It is amazing to know what is really happen in the world and knowing that no one is trying to help prevent it. There are so many things are going around the world, but if everyone opens there eyes and see what is really happening, we can try and safe our future for our self, our kids and our grand kids.
But in reality no one is really cares what is happening if it doesn't concerns them. People who lives in United States really are selfish when you think about. We only care about what is happen to us and get really mad if the president or the government didn't fulfill their goals or if they couldn't protect us. But when you look around you see there other countries are being treated way worse then us. Take example form China, people from China are drinking dirty water that looks really nasty. But the villager that lives near by can't do any thing about cause they need to live and have to support their family as well. One part that caught my interest was when CNN crew approach a guy to ask him why do they have to use dirty water and everything but the guy got a phone call and i bet you it was someone from Mine or the government to tell the CNN crew that they are trying their best and it's is improving, which is all fabricate.
Also knowing that the animals are being treated badly makes me so mad because i mean they having feeling too/ Just because we can express our self and understand doesn't mean the animals can't. They are being taken away from their habitat and being sell in Black Market. There are probably 60-85% of animals in the in dangered species lists. Also knowing that government can't do anything, it's like we have all the power to set everything right but there always a way to stop us from doing it.
We might not realize it now what is happening but am certain in few years we will. But by then it might be to late to safe anything.

George Orwell

George Orwell was an British author, pen name for Eric Blair, was born on June 25, 1903. By the time he died he wrote nine books and 700 essays. He mostly wrote about what the government will do to this world. His fear, what will happen in the future and trying to stop or prevent it from happening. His best book he wrote with inspiring thoughts and belief of what might happen is 1984. He wrote about how government had powers to control the way the citizen thinks of the world and narrowing their imagination with lies and bewilderment.


http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/

Big Brother vs. Real Life

Big Brother is a show about a group of people who are individual and trying to live with each other, but the best part is they are being watch. That person or people who are watching their every move is known as Big Brother. The people who are in the Big Brother show have a contract that says that they can be watched and be viewed by millions of people.

To have video cameras every where, on the street, at your house and at the place you work. That will be like your an open book to everyone. If this happens then we, as the People of America, wont have rights. Then what does the our Bill of Rights and Amendments counts towards, it's like we made those laws for no reason if we don't even have a simple rights to speak. For example, the incident at University of Florida, when Andrew Meyer was asking a simple questions to Kerry about "why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential elections and why there wasn't any move to impeach President Bush" he was pushed to the ground and was tasered of something he didn't do. Meyer, didn't even threaten or do any thing to show that he was going to harm Kerry. It's like that our rights is started to be taken away by the governments. If they can taser a college student for just asking question. Then imagine what they can do if they realised what we really think about the governments.

In my opinion, if we have cameras every where for the governments to see our every steps. Then we have to live in fears because I don't think any one wants to be arrested or tasered by the police if the governments listen to our truth of what we think of them.

I don't think the government will go into that deep like the reality show Big Brother and video tape every citizens moves. But I do think it could happen and we might never know that something is wrong. We might live in a Utopia society just like the book "Giver" and the movie " the Village". No body knows what is going on and everyone lives in harmony but there is always some downside to it. But i guess we have to wait and watch to see if our world does turn into Utopian Society.

The Biggest History of Lies...

The biggest history of lies...
1. Richard Nixon and the Watergate.
2. African Americans having the same right and equality as the White Americans.
3. Iraq War is really about the oil indusrty or is about the fact what happen in September 11, 2001.
4. Catholic Church is selling indulgences for money and the people are buying it because it's a free entry into heaven, no matter how many sins you do.
5. Pligrams at peace with the Native Americans.

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In my opinion I think that the Catholic Church selling indulgences as a free passage way to heaven was the biggest lies in history and in religious belief. It’s like saying that whatever crimes you did, for example, murder, stealing, or anything that against the law, you’re forgiven just by buying a piece of paper that states that whatever crime you did the God have forgiven you in His mercy. Everyone made mistakes but by making them you learn from them so you don’t repeat that mistake again.
But as priest in the Catholic Church they should have known that it was really a cheap way of forgiving people by making them buy indulgences. They should be appreciative that many people listen to their every word they say to them. To those Catholic people, they think that if a church said something is wrong it’s wrong. They had the power; they mostly control the people on the land and the ruler. But as always it comes down to money. Without money there is no power and no wealth. It wasn’t really that the God was forgiving you; it was only for the money. The church needed money and that was a cheap way to get some because they knew that a lot of people did sins and that they will do more, so by selling indulgences they easy money and people thinks that no matter how many crimes they do they will be forgiven.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07783a.htm

Real World vs. Harrison Bergeron

Can government control our society that we don’t know what the difference are? Well the answer is simple, yes, the government can control us and we won’t even know what the difference is going to be. Everything is all ready changing, the government is withholding the truth now and they aren’t really telling us everything. In the future maybe the government is going to know what our every move or thoughts going to be. They are withholding a lot that I can be slightly sure that government can or will control us. They are already doing things that we aren’t even really sure about and why wouldn’t they do something like that. Nobody is sure what the future holds but best thing we can do see sit and watch what it unfolds.

Government withholding the Truth

Pooja Kar 9/11/07
English 3/Mr.Spikin Period 1
Homework-
How would it be possible for a government to keep the truth from its citizens?
It would be possible for the government to keep the truth from its citizens because they can just tell us what they think we want to hear. They go on conference, that technically kind of trying to show us that they have the problem under control. But the truth could be that they don’t. The news people could be telling the truth or telling us what they heard from the source. In general the governments tells us what they think is going to happen but not what is really going on.
For what reasons would a government want to control or manipulate information?
There are many reasons that the government wants to manipulate information:
· They don’t want to be over thrown by the people.
· It’s centralized and they don’t want their power to be out of control because it’s balanced.
· To keep them and us in a good side so we could vote for them again in the next election.
· They don’t want the people to be scared so the economy doesn’t fall.