Blog #63 - Alan Shnir - Period 9 - 6/13/2020

Blog #63
6/10/20
Alan Shnir Pd. 9

Aim: How Are the readers of 1984 warned about the power of manipulation?



Do Now:

1. Yes, you can alter feelings by the force of your own will. My personal example of this is how I used to hate Tomatoes more than any other food and would avoid them at any cost. Eventually, I was able to will myself to eat more of them and now I eat them on a daily basis. Through simple willpower, I was able to turn extreme disgust into indifference. 
2. Yes, you can alter people's feelings in various different ways. The first way is through force, one example that is relevant to this book was how Stalin was able to turn vast 2 swathes of people into his most fervent supporters through fear tactics and labor camps. This can also be done through kindness as there are many stories and examples of interrogators, able to make any criminal snitch on others through simply treating the person getting interrogated like a friend. 

5 Questions for the Class: 

1. How do you believe the state will retaliate against Winston's actions? 
2. Is Winston even justified investing so much time into Julia? Would you do the same in a world like this? 
3. Would Rebellion with a populace so uneducated, and a government so powerful really be possible? 
4. Does every state and nation really need to fall? 
5. Do you believe we are headed more and more towards a World like 1984?
        I personally believe that a fifth of the planet already lives in a situation very close to 1984. In North Korea, 1984 would probably be a better system than what they 3 have but the biggest country that puts its citizens through a system like this is China. It is neither Capitalist nor Communist, same as Oceania. It has “Big Brother” Xi Xinping, and It has created a system of mass surveillance in which every emotion of the citizen is tracked. By the end of this year, the nation will roll out its social credit system to grade people based off of party standards (sounds very familiar). It also has a system of information that in order to please the public, releases falsified economic data. Finally and most similar, the Chinese Government has already detained more than 1 million people in Xinjiang Labor Camps off of the premise of “intent to commit a future crime”. 

Julia and Winston Evaluation:

Similarities:

• Both dislike the state (big brother). 
• Both have intent to rebel against the party. 
• Both like sex and see it as a means of rebellion. 

Julia:

• In Winston’s words, Julia is a rebel “from the waist down” and not much in the head. 
• She is very hopeless when it comes to there ever being a successful overthrow of big brother. 
• She is officially a very devoted party member, The Ideal party member. 
• Very ignorant and thinks on a smaller scale than Winston. 
• She is only 26 and she only thinks about the present. 
• She doesn’t really care about the overall state of humanity and is only interested in tiny acts of rebellion. 

Winston: 

• Winston- believes in the proles, and that they are the key to winning against “Big Brother”.
• Winston is 39 years old and he knows that he will eventually be evaporated either for his age, or because the thought police will catch him. 
• He is a dreamer and sees the big picture, he wants a rebellion on a massive scale against the party. 
• Winston thinks about the future because he is already 39 years old, and he knows that he won't have much life left. 
• He is worried about humanity as a whole and the effects of Big Brother. 

Winston and Julia from 1984 The Movie 

What did you do last Friday? 

     The reason it was so hard for many of us to answer this question is because the human brain is focused around very short term memory, or long term memory if something is important. For most of us, whatever we did last friday had no impact on us and was likely insignificant when compared with more major events in life. For these reasons we do not remember even what happened yesterday. Finally, we have been placed into a very repetitive schedule and routine due to our current quarantine, which has made every day seem almost the same, making it even more easier for us to forget. Forgetting will leave us vulnerable as it creates an empty space that can be filled by other people, to a possibly detrimental effect.


Reflection on Today’s Lesson: 
     Today I learned about just how easy it is to manipulate not only an individual, but an entire society. We discussed how manipulation and making people think what you wish for them to believe is perhaps the most effective way to control a society or a people. We learned how the governmental manipulation of its people in 1984 can be related to real life and just how possible a situation like Oceania could develop. We learned the power of manipulation and the vulnerability of our own minds in order to stress how important it is to keep your mental integrity. To show just how important being able to do something as simple as remember what you did last Saturday could prevent a world like Orwell’s. Finally, I can utilize what I learned to help strengthen my mind, and go to extra effort to sustain mental integrity, as we may never know if the future can hold in store a real life Oceania. It is also important to keep up your mental health in order to be able to steer clear of manipulation and unlock the full potential of your mind.

Update Regarding Virus 
     With everything that is going on in the US, it feels like the media has completely forgotten about the fact that we are still in a pandemic with nearly 2 million people infected. Infections in New York have slowed tremendously since the last time I blogged but, other areas of the US are starting to see a surge in cases. Worldwide cases are now past 7.5 million, 3 times what they were since my last blog. In news outside of the US, Brazil became the world's second most infected country with nearly 900,000 cases. President Jair Balsonaro described coronavirus as a “little flu” and has refused to do any extensive lockdown like nearly every other nation. To his credit though, a lockdown in Brazil would likely have more negative effects than good ones as Brazil has one of the most fragile economies in the world and President Balsonaro has acknowledged that a lockdown would basically destroy the economy. Also, Brazil has some of the, if not, The Densest cities in the Western Hemisphere, and going into a lockdown would not yield as good results as going into a lockdown for a more developed nation like the US. Other than this, many states in the US have partially reopened.


Working From Home 
     I overall still enjoy the ability to work from home but my opinion has changed somewhat since my previous blog. I still really enjoy my shortened commute as now I am only 6 feet away from school, not 11 miles. I also enjoy the fact that I have a great deal more free time now than I did before. However, I was wrong when I said schools have lightened the workload, as even though I might be too biased, I feel the workload has increased since the end of APs. Many of 8 my classes have required more extensive homeworks and presentations for homework. Some teachers have also given tests and exams on a very short basis. However, In general, my opinion has not changed greatly on workload, because I still feel I have more time than during school. The most important thing that has changed is that I now start to miss my classmates more. I enjoyed being able to see my friends almost every day of the week, but now that school is over, I no longer have that privilege. Working from home has been a very mixed experience.

Personal Feelings On Current Events 
     Before whoever is reading this might get very offended, I want to point out the first amendment guarantees my Freedom of Speech. My personal feelings on George Floyd is that his death was very tragic and he did not deserve it, and that all 4 officers are right in going to trial, and I hope that our judicial system will do what it is meant to do. However, I am incredibly disappointed in the society we live in, and the media, in how it portrayed George Floyd. George Floyd was a 5 time convict, in 2007 he committed armed robbery, in 1998, he was charged with firearm robbery, and he served 3 jail terms in between relating to illegal possession of cocaine, in total, he was arrested 9 times over the course of 20 years (https://thecourierdaily.com/george-floyd-criminal-past-record-arrest/20177/#George_Floyd_Gun_Pregnant_FirearmGun_Robbery_Conviction_Theft_Criminal_Career). George floyd also had a lethal dose of Fentanyl and a Lethal dose of methamphetamine in his blood during the time of his autopsy (https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/residents/public-safety/documents/Autopsy_2020- 3700_Floyd.pdf), although I want to make it clear that these were likely not the causes of death 9 and according to the state and private autopsies, the cause of death was likely Chauvin suffocating Floyd. Let alone his criminal past, George Floyd had a funeral service better than most presidents and was buried in a $25,000 gold plated casket. For a 5-time criminal to be buried like a martyr really shows just how lost and ignorant society and people have become, to know that people barely read past headlines or even check facts or the history of a person. To be clear, I am not defending any of the officers and Derek Chauvin also has a very disturbing record too, including shooting 3 people and having been investigated at least 17 times throughout his service in the police force. What I also feel is very disturbing is that now we have large movements that are generalizing hundreds of thousands of people such as (ACAB: All Cops Are Bastards) simply for the actions of 4 police officers in a state 1000 miles away. I thought we were supposed to be fighting against generalizations? Also there is a new movement about defunding the police, my personal beliefs on this topic is that it is possible to defund police and government in general, however the method to do this would anger the very people who want it to happen. It is through a limited privatization of police in safe areas as private police operate at nearly half the cost and 6 times faster for response time than conventional police. However, a full privatization would not be safe or possible in NYC, as current legislation is set up in a way such as through Program 1033 to ensure that public police will be much better equipped than private units. There are countless other recent movements that have resurfaced such as pushing a ban of the SHSAT which I believe is absurd, but I feel that I have already written enough of my opinion pertaining to the topics at hand.