Strange contemplations on the visit of a President


Airplay - 05/10/2003: Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and contemporary America has been playing on the Australian ABC Radio National for the last four weeks. It's scary given that I've been told by friends living in the USA that they fully appreciated Sen. Bob Brown actually standing up and calling out to President Bush when he spoke to the Joint Houses of the Australian Parliament last week because it was the first time in their experience that a protest of any sort had been made where the apparently tender sensibilities of the American President might actually hear the protest.

There are times when I consider Orwell's "1984" was both prophetic and wide of the mark. Prophetic in the way that language is gradually being bent to no longer describe the way in which the world goes, but how those in power want to convince us that it goes; Wide of the mark in that in some ways we seem to be replaying both the "rise of the Roman Empire" and "the First Crusade" all rolled into one. And neither of those historical periods of history were very comfortable for those who asked questions or had a difference of opinion with those in positions of power.