Wednesday, January 12, 2005

or, well

At the end of Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore quotes Orwell:

The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.

But he left out this, also from 1984:

practices which had long been abandoned, in some cases for hundreds of years--imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and the deportation of whole populations--not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.

Then again, I guess they really don't consider themselves enlightened or progressive, so it's not that applicable after all. What a relief.