Top-down Bureaucracy and the Regimentation of Human Lives
In Orwell's 1984, the protagonist, Winston, works at the news agency--where he edits the newspaper so that it reads in the precise way that the top bureaucrats want it to read.
Stories may first come through with precise or truthful language, so Winston's job is to alter them so that they no longer reflect reality, but that they reflect (to the public) the prejudices of the top bureaucrats instead.
Even the language itself is restricted to only those words which signify the ideas which the top bureaucrats find acceptable. Other ideas--such as the ideas of "freedom" and "objective justice"--are made illegal by bureaucratic decree.
The story in Orwell's 1984 is dystopic, and it illustrates how the human spirit is crushed or stamped-out by collectivist bureaucracy. Though it seems so extreme that it couldn't possibly apply to our lives, it serves as a warning on what human beings should try to avoid.
So when the New York Times alters its headline regarding comments made by the President about a tragic public shooting**--so that the headline no longer reflects reality, but the prejudices of top bureaucrats, instead--we should become very concerned.
Let's not create the world of Orwell's 1984. Let's avoid it, instead--by returning to core principles and by restoring foundational American values such as truth, liberty, and justice for all.
Just say "No!" to the current, top-down regimentation of human lives, understandings, and feelings in America-- especially by the radical leftists (e.g., politically-correct, social-justice warriors) whose influence has recently grown at an unprecedented rate.
Image Attribution
Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:News_stand_-_southwest_corner_St._Andrew%27s_and_Spadina_Avenue.jpg
Attribution: City of Toronto Department of Public Works [Public domain]
**[nypost.com/2019/08/06/new-york-times-amends-front-page-headline-after-intense-backlash/]
Facing intense criticism, the New York Times changed a front-page headline about President Trump’s response to the back-to-back mass shootings that claimed 31 lives in Texas and Ohio.
“TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM,” read the original headline, which was slammed by members of the public, journalists and a number of Democrats, including several 2020 presidential candidates.
About an hour after the headline went viral in a preview of Tuesday’s front page, the Gray Lady announced that it had been amended.
“The headline was bad and has been changed for the second edition,” a Times rep told the Washington Post.
Later editions of the print edition carried the headline: “ASSAILING HATE BUT NOT GUNS.”
The original version began to gain widespread attention at about 9 p.m. when it was posted on Twitter by FiveThirtyEight editor-in-chief Nate Silver. ...