#658 by MadIce - 8/6/2003 2:45:17 AM To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone - to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink - greetings! -- George Orwell / Nineteen Eighty Four (1948)

I remember when I first read 1984... There was so much hype about the book and usually when I read a book that has been hyped it is usually a disappointment…not the case with the book 1984.

We all live with the belief that we have complete and inalienable rights in this country and other countries that could become a dangerous misconception. A place such as Orwell’s Oceania would not be possible without the rapid development of technology.

While I feel that rapid advance in technology is a great for society I often Question whether or not social values have advanced in stride with the technology, the answer is clearly no. The same technologies that allow for the delicate model of freedom have the same capacity to be abused by the powers to harm or enslave a population if not respected.

Just recently a chip was invented that could be implanted into skin making persons movements traceable, all that is required is the motivation for abuse, and history has shown a great abundance of this trait in mankind.

I used to think 1984 was simply a great work of fiction with little chance of actually becoming a reality, but as years pass I think this novel may turn out to have been a prophetic glimpse into the future of the world, a world that most likely will become a government controlled police state.

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In 1987, for the first time in our history, our universities graduated more lawyers than engineers. Our days as a first tier world technological power are now numbered." author's ID not remembered.

"Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is nothing like Shakespeare." — Blair Houghton.

patience is the thing the person sitting on the other side of the bathroom door seems to always have in huge amounts
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Time flies like an arrow

Fruit flies like a banana

HUM

"Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff"

"Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff"

"Essentially or by nature, what man wills is good, since he can only will something to which he is inclined, and “every inclination is to something good.” (Aquinas 2002) But every inclination takes a form, whether natural or apprehended. The form that exists in the nature of things appeals to the natural appetite, while that apprehended or perceived form appeals to the sensitive, or the rational or intellective appetite. In layman’s terms, a person can only will something, which he perceives to be or do him good, but that idea of what is good can be entirely subjective and altogether incorrect or even evil."

--Thomas Aquinas

Emotional antipathy is not a valid reason for voting one way or the other. -- Isaac Asimov / The Bicentennial Man (1976)

"These are the times that try mens souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in crisis, shrink from the service of their country- Thomas Paine "

If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.

- Aristotle Onassis

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I wasted time, and now doth time waste me

In the face of pain there are no heroes. -- George Orwell / Nineteen Eighty Four (1948)