War is scary.
I thought about making that the
entire blog post, but I figured it wouldn’t be satisfactory. I didn’t want to
let you down. No, war is more than scary, it’s terrifying and destructive and
hellish. It started with the Neanderthals probably, smashing each other with
rocks. Since then we’ve evolved through blades of all sorts and big machines
and biological weapons.
As we move toward the future,
weapons are becoming craftier. George Orwell may have seemed delusional and
inaccurate when people first read 1984.
There is a whole section in the book
(You know what I’m talking about—the
book, but not the book 1984)
which outlines “rules” for continuous warfare, one of which details the
advanced weaponry. At the time, such inventions seemed outrageous. “Larger and
larger rocket bombs, more and more powerful explosives, and more and more
impenetrable armor-plating; other search for new and deadlier gases, or for
soluble poisons… as to destroy the vegetation of whole continents, or for
breeds of disease germs immunized against all possible antibodies; others
strive to produce a vehicle that shall bore its way under the soil like a
submarine under the water…” (194).
Feeling depressed yet? I bet as you
read that, you realized that some of these things do exist in our world today. It’s
not just a creation of Orwell’s imagination, it’s reality. Consider the recent issues
in the Middle East. What weapons did we use in places like Pakistan and Libya?
Drones. Unmanned aircraft capable of killing someone from 20,000 feet in the air?
Are you sure Orwell didn’t make that up too?
Unfortunately, it’s a serious peril
to enemies of the United States. If you read this handy article right about here,
you can see how similar our society has become to Oceania. (I wouldn’t recommend
reading the whole thing. It’s long and you could probably better use your time
to stop global warming or save the tigers or something.) We have invented a
machine that remotely kills whoever we perceive as a threat to our society
without getting our own hands dirty. That sounds familiar, like the Thought Police
and Ministry of Love who kill the intelligent, thinking individuals in 1984 society.
What right do we have to murder possibly innocent people? It happens all the time in war, though. Civilians die as "collateral damage" and it doesn't mean a thing to us. Innocents are caught in the crossfire all the time, if not targeted because of some wrong information or perception. It's all very dystopian, this situation that we're in and we need to stop and look at the great destructive effects that our technologies are causing.
But weapons don't kill people. People kill people. With the use of weapons. So I guess directly that weapons are the main cause of death, but people are the main ones at fault.
It should serve as a warning. In
the near future we may resort to brainwashing and killing of people who simply
don’t comply with our standards, even if they’re not a serious threat to us. We
could be holding Two Minutes Hate and training our kids to be killers. And
perhaps worst of all, we could be stuck wearing overalls for all eternity.
Clever clever clever. Please tell me your looking into writing as a career, because that was a joy to read.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this! It really made me think about the book and the way you wrote it made it really interesting to read and made me think.
ReplyDeleteI think that this was an awesome way to relate a serious topic to something really funny. While not all of 1984's predictions have come true, George Orwell had an uncanny knack for predicting the future. I LOVE READING YOU BLOGS!
ReplyDeleteYeah, those drones are scary. It doesn't take much to imagine them flying over American cities, targeting "domestic terrorists." Or anyone they want to get rid of. This makes me want to wear a tin foil hat.
ReplyDelete