"And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except the endless present in which the party is always right."
Here are some passages from Notes on Nationalism:
>But secondly – and this is much more important – I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.
>
>Having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him. Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also – since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself – unshakeably certain of being in the right.
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>History is thought of largely in nationalist terms, and such things as the Inquisition, the tortures of the Star Chamber, the exploits of the English buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake, for instance, who was given to sinking Spanish prisoners alive), the Reign of Terror, the heroes of the Mutiny blowing hundreds of Indians from the guns, or Cromwell’s soldiers slashing Irishwomen’s faces with razors, become morally neutral or even meritorious when it is felt that they were done in the ‘right’ cause... Whether such deeds were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection.
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>A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one’s own mind.
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>When one considers the elaborate forgeries that have been committed in order to show that Trotsky did not play a valuable part in the Russian civil war, it is difficult to feel that the people responsible are merely lying. More probably they feel that their own version was what happened in the sight of God, and that one is justified in rearranging the records accordingly.
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>Since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakable fact can be impudently denied.
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>Some nationalists are not far from schizophrenia, living quite happily amid dreams of power and conquest which have no connexion with the physical world.
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>One prod to the nerve of nationalism, and the intellectual decencies can vanish, the past can be altered, and the
> Wind of change: Scorpions’ power ballad was the sound of the iron curtain’s fall – but a new podcast explores rumours that it was propaganda
https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/
https://youtu.be/n4RjJKxsamQ
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/15/wind-of-change-did-the-cia-write-the-cold-wars-biggest-anthem
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/klaus-meine-says-rumor-that-cia-wrote-scorpions-wind-of-change-shows-how-powerful-music-can-be/
https://www.openculture.com/2020/07/did-the-cia-write-the-scorpions-wind-of-change-one-of-the-bestselling-songs-of-all-time.html
http://www.openculture.com/2017/10/how-the-cia-funded-supported-literary-magazines-worldwide-while-waging-cultural-war-against-communism.html
http://www.openculture.com/2018/12/cia-helped-shaped-american-creative-writing-famous-iowa-writers-workshop.html
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/simple-sabotage-field-manual.html
I wish Apple would adapt George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” into a TV series. Not only is it relevant in today’s world, it’s also wonderfully and thoughtfully written. Apple even released an iconic ad in the ‘80s referencing the novel and the film. I’m surprised they haven’t considered this at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/30/george-orwell-birthplace-motihari-bihar-india-museum
George Orwell was Bihari.
