Thursday, September 18, 2008

Quote for the Day


I found this quote on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish. I've been obsessed with his pithy little thoughts lately, even when I don't agree with him.

"Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban … At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals ... If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear," - George Orwell, from his proposed preface to "Animal Farm."

So what are some of the things we do not want to hear right now?

I know one of the things I am thinking is:

So, with all of the talk about stimulating the economy and tax cuts, what ARE we going to do with the national debt? How much is it right now? Does it not matter any more?

Another is: I believe that one of the best hopes for this country is to resurrect and re-invigorate the promise of citizen democracy. Early on, I thought that Barack Obama's theme, "Yes, We can" might represent that post-partisan promise. But, being a citizen is hard work. Maybe "Yes We Can" sounds good, but is really too difficult to do. What do you think?

What are some other things you aren't hearing anyone saying?

6 comments:

Lori said...

I think "Yes we can" should be "Yes we will".

And we need to resurrect daily use of:

personal responsibility (but without a lawsuit at every turn)

common sense

moral outrage

civility

.....among other things. George Orwell's prescience is proving itself a bit too much these days.

June Butler said...

Some folks say they are not going to vote, because they don't like either candidate. Others say things about Obama that I won't repeat here. Still others talk the Muslim bit about Obama, but I have a gut feeling that, for most of them, it's racism and not really that they think he is a Muslim. They just won't say outright that they won't vote for him because he's black. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

Not very cheery, is it?

Law+Gospel said...

Are we prepared to live in ways that are sustainable, for our economy, for our environment, for the global community? Is "Yes we Can" " Yes I Can" easier to say than "Yes I Will"? Are we prepared to think about long-term change, or is our focus more finite than that?

Fran said...

Yes- George Orwell may have written about it, he did not want to see any of it happen.

Yet it is happening.

I really love how PG puts it when summing up what we need to see more of, what we need to be and do.

Terri said...

Not enough people are talking about how some folks get away with telling outright lies and distorting the truth in such a way that they become the believed norm- which of course is the point of Orwell's statement....sigh

I'm really tired, frightened, worried, about a lot things in our would today...and would be content to never watch the news again...if only burying one's head in the sand was a useful response....

Lindy said...

That's a powerful question.

For me it's about whether or not I am willing ot live into the things I say I believe. I think it was Teresa of Avila who said something like Many people would be happy to endure trouble and affliction, if it just weren't so inconvenient. I often wonder how far I am willing to go towards doing no harm to the planet, I often can't go a day without hurting someone I love. How can I even consider the planet? How inconcenienced am I willing to be?

As for our nation... It's beyond my pay grade to contemplate that but I do wish we could talk about charactor. I know Obama is inexperienced. But, I really believe that can be remedied. I think McCain is just hell-bent on winning and I don't know that there's a good remedy for that.

This question deserves a lot more thought. Thank you Diane.