Osama bin Laden = "Emmanuel Goldstein"

Wisdom Quarterly


Osama bin Laden is Dead
[Obama brags about ordering the kill]
(Politics Buzz) In a late Sunday night speech, President Obama will announce that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Breaking news, obviously. The big question: Is the $25 million reward still on the table? And who gets it?

The Fabulous Distraction
Donald Trump must have really been out of the loop and getting under the Shadow Government's skin if the Obama administration has to pull out the "Osama bin Laden card" to distract attention. One time Donald Rumsfeld "lost" 3.5 trillion dollars. But before anyone could ask about it, 9/11 happened. Such efforts are well orchestrated by clandestine services, including Israel. Barry Obama knew before the press club dinner when he was making all those jokes about the fake Moon landing footage (we have been to the Moon, but the footage shown on TV was clearly faked either because what we found there had to be covered up or simply to make a better propaganda/public relations reel for posterity) and Roswell (which the FBI memo release seems to admit it was aware of, unless it was a similar incident in Aztec, New Mexico), and even joking about Tupac Shakur. Why risk being distracted by any potential Space Shuttle launch problems, a launch repeatedly rescheduled to control the news cycle and mute embarassment of not being invited to the royal wedding?

Anyone who reads the book 1984 is struck by the similarities between Osama bin Laden and a government's need for a pretext for constant war, homeland spying, and social control.

Who is Emmanuel Goldstein?
Wikipedia (Wisdom Quarterly edit)
"Emmanuel Goldstein" [a.k.a. Osama bin Laden] is a character in George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Despite being a key part of the story, he is only actually seen and heard on the telescreen [computer monitor, television, phone, the ubiquitous screens used to present propaganda and to spy on us], and may in fact be nothing more than a propaganda fabrication of the Ministry of Truth (shortened as everything is by 1984, "Minitrue").

In the novel, Goldstein is rumored to be a former top member of the ruling (and sole) Party. He had broken away early in the movement and started an organization known as "The Brotherhood" [Al Queda, "the list"], dedicated to the fall of The Party.

The novel raises but leaves unanswered the questions of whether Goldstein, "The Brotherhood," or even "Big Brother" actually exist. More likely, they are fabricated to control the population.

Each member of "The Brotherhood" is required to read the book supposedly written by Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Each person is said to have three or four contacts at one time which are replaced as people disappear [a collective network, much as we find amorphous "terrorist" cells and sleeper organizations], so that if a member is captured, he can only give up three or four others.

Goldstein is always the subject of the "Two Minutes Hate," a daily, 2-minute period when a purported image of Goldstein is shown on the telescreen (a one-channel two-way television-camera with surveillance devices in it that cannot be turned off) [much like a camera on a computer screen or iPhone].

Readers may surmise that a political opposition to Big Brother -- namely, Goldstein -- was psychologically necessary in order to provide an internal enemy. This "enemy" posed a threat to the rule of the Party and a handy pretext for perpetual war.

The constantly reiterated ritual of the Two Minutes Hate helps ensure that popular support for and devotion towards Big Brother is continuous.

It is never revealed whether Goldstein really exists. In fact, Inner Party member O'Brien adamantly refuses to reveal whether The Brotherhood truly exists when asked by the book's protagonist Winston Smith in the torture room:

• Winston: "Does the Brotherhood [Al Queda] exist?"
• O'Brien: "That, Winston, you will never know. If we choose to set you free when we have finished with you, and if you live to be ninety years old, still you will never learn whether the answer to that question is Yes or No. As long as you live it will be an unsolved riddle in your mind."
  

Although O'Brien claims to have collaborated in writing the book himself [making it a fake and showing that it has all been a ruse and a fraud], his statement still leaves the questions of Goldstein and the Brotherhood's existence unanswered. It could have been an untrue statement made by O'Brien in order to manipulate Winston's thinking and break his spirit [and the spirits of all revolutionaries].

Or, more likely, it could have been Orwell's understanding of the cynicism of how a police state works. He lived in Burma at the time and was very familiar with England and Germany's monarchy and dictatorship. More

• New Afghan war leader helped nurture Sunni awakening in Iraq
• US Gov't anticipates bin Laden election tape

World Health/Happiness Statistics Released

Elaine Ganley (AP, 5-4-09, HuffingtonPost.com)

French dining and sleeping most (destination360.com)

 

PARIS — The French are living up to their image as lovers of food and can add a new love to the mix, sleep, according to a survey released Monday. In fact, the French excel at the two leisure activities, spending more time at table and in bed than many other nations.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development looked at the use of leisure time among 18 of its 30 member countries.

Norwegians spend the most time at leisure, just over a quarter of their day, while at the low end, Mexicans spend just 16 percent of their time having fun.

The French still win in the sleeping and eating categories, spending on average nearly 9 hours a day in bed. For the French, leisure continues in the waking hours, with more than 2 hours a day spent eating and drinking — nearly twice as much time at the table as Americans, Canadians or Mexicans.

Americans also like their sleep, spending some 8.5 hours a day doing just that.

Despite the moderate amount of time Americans spend eating each day — about an hour and a quarter — U.S. obesity rates are the highest in the 30-member OECD with 34 percent of the American population with a Body Mass Index, or BMI, over the critical 30 mark. The lowest obesity rates are found in Korea, followed by Japan, with less than 4 percent of the population with a BMI over 30.

The Koreans followed by the Japanese clock in at the low end of the sleep spectrum, getting 7.8 hours a day with the Japanese not far behind.

The profiles on the use of leisure time were constructed by the OECD using 2006 data from the 18 member countries for which up to date surveys on use of time were available.

Television ranks high among leisure activities in Japan — where it takes up 55 percent of free time, compared to a low of 25 percent for New Zealanders.

The Turks are the most sociable population. They spend more than 35 percent of their time entertaining, compared to an OECD average of 11 percent. Source