Hegemon wrote:cthia wrote:Hegemon, I really really enjoyed this, but admittedly I didn't catch the reference to George Orwell's 1984, though I recall doing a book report on it in Junior High, but that was many many eons ago. What was it?
Well, the reference to George Orwell's 1984 was "we were always allies with Eastasia, ahem, I mean Manticore"
You see, in 1984 there are three rival totalitarian states that control the Earth: Oceania (to which narrator belongs to), Eurasia and Eastasia. Eurasia and Eastasia seem to be continuously at war with each other and Oceania periodically but constantly changes sides, being allied with Eastasia and at war with Eurasia, and then the reverse, then again allied with Eastasia and so on.
However, given that their state workers must practice 'doublethink' (I tend to think of it as something akin to auto-hypnosis) on the pain of torture and death, Oceania's Propaganda Ministry (fittingly named the Ministry of Truth) can persuade everybody but the heretic 'oldthinkers' that the current state of alliances was forever and Oceania's alliances never shifted.
Now, the parallel I was trying to draw was that President Pritchart should understand that for military reasons alone the Republic's relations with Manticore must shift from war to that of good neighbors, or, better still, allies. Once that goal was set, it would be advisable to start a pro-Manticore and pro-Alliance PR campaign now, rather than hoping your own citizens are mindless drones that would accept the sudden announcement of normal or friendly relations with the Alliance without battling an eyelid (and that, like in 1984, they would forget they fought two wars against the Alliance and were taught to hate Manticore).
Thanks, Hegemon. No way was my book report as intense or in-depth, but then that was 7th grade, where we also had to cover Animal Farm - many prolongless years ago. At any rate, I didn't catch the reference, or remember it.
Thanks again.
