- Text - The dictionaries and definitions you are about
to see are real. They have not been altered in any way. The issues addressed
in this film are also real. The question is, what are you going to do
about it?
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- INTERIOR LIBRARY
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- Me - (sits down with pen and paper at a table with some
books. a Cambridge American English Dictionary, a Cambridge International
English Dictionary, a mock copy of 1984, and a copy of Emma Goldman's Anarchism
and Other Essays.)
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- Me - What a waste of time. English class. What's the
point? I took this stupid class for twelve years. Now I gotta PAY for
school, and they STILL make me take English? It's like I don't know enough
English by now.
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- EXTERIOR LIBRARY
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- In first person POV, we swoop from outside through the
doors, down the hallway, and into the library. We see Me sitting at the
table, and then swoop at the copy of 1984, crashing into the cover.
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- INTERIOR LIBRARY
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- George - I beg to differ.
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- Me - What? (looks around)
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- George - Over here.
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- Me - (looks down at the mock 1984 cover) Whoa.
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- George - As I was saying, I beg to differ. I speak English.
You speak American.
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- Me (is stunned)
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- George - George Orwell here, at your service
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- Me - But you're dead!
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- George - Obviously. But there's no need to be rude about
it. I'm here, and that's what matters.
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- Me - You're George Orwell?
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- George - Didn't I just say that?
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- Me: This is too weird. I must be dreaming. I read some
books you wrote when I was in high school, 1984 and Animal Farm.
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- George - I may have written them too well. They've stopped
teaching them in a lot of places. That's why I'm here. You need to wake
people up, because bad things are happening. Horrific things. Things that
happened in my time, and must never happen again. You've already seen the
beginnings of it, with Enron and Worldcom.
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- Me - What do you mean?
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- George - Do you remember what Newspeak is? From my book?
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- Me - I think so.
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- George - In my book 1984, Big Brother conceived of a
truly insidious method of control. He was in the business of cutting vocabulary
to the bone. Eliminating all the words they considered obsolete; nouns,
verbs, adjectives, all kinds of words. They invented a lot of new words,
and phrases as well.
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- Me - Kind of like Compassionate Conservatism?
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- George - EXACTLY like compassionate conservatism, although
I would probably have shortened it to Vampirism. But that's beside the
point.
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- When you take words out of the vocabulary, when you change
the meanings of words, and make some words synonymous with others when
those words are supposed to have two different meanings, it gets very difficult
for people to think about things like Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness.
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- Take the word Revolution for example. How could there
be a revolution if you take away the word itself? How is the thought of
revolution to form in the minds of people who've never conceptualized such
a thing?
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- Me - I think I see your point, but it's not like they
can remove the word revolution from the dictionary...
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- George - They don't have to. For there to be revolution,
there must be an ideology behind it. All you have to do is remove the
ability to properly shape and define a subversive ideology from the language.
No new ideology, no revolution.
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- Me - (puzzled) But you mentioned Enron and WorldCom.
How do things like Enron and WorldCom happen, and how do they relate to
Newspeak? Isn't it greed that makes things like Enron happen?
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- George - Yes, in part.
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- Me - Why only in part?
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- George - Because it's actually the American Way. You
see, Big Brother and the media have done some very interesting things with
the English language.
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- When I came up with the concept of the Newspeak Dictionary,
I never imagined they'd actually have the audacity to PUBLISH one until
they purged all the other dictionaries.
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- I suspect the reason behind it is, the government is
so confident of its control; they no longer care if people point out that
Americans no longer speaks English.
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- Me - We DO speak English!
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- George - Again, I beg to differ. Let's examine the fundamental
principle behind the economy of the United States. Capitalism. In the
English language, capitalism means one thing, but in American Newspeak,
it means something else entirely.
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- You see those dictionaries? Open them up to Capitalism.
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- Me - (opens the International dictionary to Capitalism)
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- George - In the Cambridge International Dictionary of
English, Capitalism is defined as an economic, political and social system
based on private ownership of property, business and industry, and directed
towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organizations
and people.
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- Now look at the other one.
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- Me - (opens the American dictionary to Capitalism)
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- In the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, the
Newspeak version, Capitalism is defined as an economic system based on
private ownership of property and business, with the goal of making the
greatest possible profits for the owners.
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- Me - Wow.
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- George - Amazing isn't it? You see the problem. In
the rest of the world, capitalism means private ownership where success
is financially rewarded. Using America's Newspeak Dictionary, capitalism
means private ownership where the OWNERS, and not the company or the employees
are the ones entitled to capital, regardless of how badly the business
does.
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- Success doesn't even come into play. In America, the
owners are entitled to the greatest possible profits, period.
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- Me - You weren't kidding about this Newspeak stuff.
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- George - No, I wasn't kidding. And it's not funny.
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- Look at some more examples. Look up Nationalism.
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- Me - (opens the International dictionary to Nationalism)
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- George - Nationalism, as defined in English from the
same International Cambridge Dictionary, is the desire for and the attempt
to achieve political independence for your country or nation. Nationalism
is also a great or too great love of your own country.
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- Me - (opens the American dictionary to Nationalism)
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- George - In the American Newspeak dictionary, Nationalism
is the feelings of affection, loyalty, and pride that people have for their
country. Nationalism is also the desire for political independence in
a country that is controlled by or part of another country.
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- Gone is the talk of 'too great a love' of one's country.
The American description of Nationalism is similar to what we in my day
knew as Patriotism.
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- Now take a look at Communism.
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- Me - (opens the International dictionary to Communism)
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- George - The English definition is the belief in a classless
society in which the methods of production are owned and controlled by
all its members and everyone works as much as they can and receives what
they need. Now check the American version.
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- Me - (opens the American dictionary to Communism)
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- George - Americans define Communism as an economic system
based on public ownership of property and control of the methods of production,
and in which no person profits from the work of others.
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- No mention of classless society, or each working as they
can and receiving according to their needs. The English definition is
based on Marx's description of Communism, as it should be. The American
version is not.
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- Me - That seems like a fairly minor change. I don't see
this as being as bad as the others.
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- George - That's because I'm not finished yet. Look at
how both dictionaries define Socialism.
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- Me - (opens the International to Socialism)
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- George - Any economic or political system based on government
ownership and control of important businesses and methods of production.
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- Me - (opens the American to Socialism...looks back and
forth)
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- Me - They're the same! And they sound a lot like the
American English definition of Communism...
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- George - Yes, they do, don't they? You see, for our
world to function properly requires clear communication. When two people
have two different meanings for the same word, we have a communication
breakdown. Neither one is clear what the other is talking about. So now,
to many Americans, Communism is synonymous with Socialism.
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- Me - But why would they do this?
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- George: There are three reasons. First, there's confusion.
The more confused the masses are, the harder it is for them to form organized
opposition to tyranny. The majority of people schooled in the United States
quite literally can't read. They can read, but they're unable to comprehend
what they're reading, because they don't have the same vocabulary as other
people. It's all mixed up.
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- It's also done for purposes of isolation. By making
these changes, the Government isolates Americans from the rest of the world,
because what the average American sees as Patriotism, others see as Nationalism.
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- That's why in Newspeak, Nationalism is the feelings of
affection, loyalty, and pride that people have for their country. By taking
out the 'too great a love' from the definition, it's no longer understood
that nationalism can be a bad thing.
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- Me - I never thought of it that way before.
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- George - They're trying to move the definition of Nationalism
as close to the definition of Patriotism as possible. Eventually, the
words will become synonymous. For many Americans, they're already synonymous.
Many people are incapable of distinguishing between Patriotism and blind
Nationalism.
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- Me - You're right. I've seen it happening since September
11.
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- George - Quite. What a tragic waste of life. I can
only hope you'll learn from it. I'm here to see that it doesn't happen
again.
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- The third reason why Newspeak is done is for simplicity's
sake. Propaganda, as Hitler taught us, must be kept simple. It must cater
to the lowest common denominator. We know that America hates Communism.
So by painting Democratic Socialists with the same brush as Communists
in the Newspeak dictionary, we demonize the Socialists before they get
a chance to speak for themselves.
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- Me - I see your point. But it doesn't exactly explain
Enron, does it?
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- George - No, but there's something else that you should
look up. Look in the Cambridge International English Dictionary under Profiteer.
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- Me - (opens the International dictionary to profiteer)
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- Me - OK just a sec...here it is...profiteer - noun, DISAPPROVING.
A profiteer is a person who takes advantage unfairly of a situation in
which other people are suffering to make a profit, often by selling at
an unusually high price goods which are difficult to obtain. a war profiteer.
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- George - Now look up Profiteer in the Cambridge American
Dictionary.
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- Me - (searches American dictionary for Profiteer)
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- Me - OK. hmm...profit...profitable...profitability...profitably...profits.
HEY!
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- Wait a minute! There's NO LISTING in the American dictionary
for Profiteer!
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- George - (Sighs) You realize you people should be paying
me royalties for this.
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- Me - This is crazy.
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- George - No, it's fascist, not crazy.
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- Me - No wonder Enron and Worldcom did what they did.
According to the American dictionary, they're actually entitled to act
in like this aren't they?
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- George - Precisely. In their eyes they did nothing wrong,
because what they did is in fact the very definition of Capitalism, according
to the American Newspeak Dictionary.
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- Me - No WONDER everyone looks confused when Bush talks.
His mouth opens, words come out, and everyone walks away thinking he said
something different.
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- George - EXACTLY. Now you're getting the idea. Language
can be used in different ways to influence everything from comprehension
to the very fabric of history itself. Consider the word Anarchism.
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- Me - I know this one! You're talking about the Anarchist
movement at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, where Emma Goldman
and her colleagues were pushing for a free society.
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- George - Yes. Look it up.
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- Me - (opens the International dictionary to Anarchism)
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- George - Anarchism is defined in the English language
as the political belief that there should be little or no formal or official
organization to society but that people should work freely together.
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- Leon Czolgosz, an Anarchist, assassinated President McKinley
for drawing America into the Spanish American war on behalf of the Skull
and Bones friendly United Fruit Company. In the end, United Fruit ended
up owning almost all of Latin America and the Caribbean. First, they staged
the attack on the Maine.
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- Me - I learned about that in school. The Maine was never
attacked. But in the end, the Spanish American war helped win Cuba and
the Philippines their freedom.
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- George - Bollocks. Imagine if Mexico was a superpower.
Imagine they took part of Texas away from the United States, and made it
into a military base. Would you consider America to be free?
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- Me - No, but -
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- George - Cuba DID win its freedom, but the US State Department
turned around and took it back. They took Guantanamo Bay, where your Camp
X-Ray is now, and kept it, even though they were asked to leave. Cuba
has been under military occupation ever since, on top of the economic blockade.
The Philippines was under military occupation until the 1990's, and it's
been re-occupied since 2001.
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- The Spanish American war was why an Anarchist assassinated
McKinley. Anarchism is opposed to empire building. They propose personal
freedom for ALL people. Try looking up Anarchism in the American Newspeak
dictionary...
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- Me - (looks for Anarchism in the American dictionary)
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- Me - The word Anarchism isn't even there! The only definition
is for Anarchy: a lack of organization and control in a society or group,
esp. because either there is no government or it has no power.
- (agitated) After that, it skips to Anarchist, and there
no definition for the word. There's just a statement that contradicts
what the Anarchist movement represents. Personal freedom.
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- It says, 'Belief in freedom doesn't make you an anarchist.'
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- (looking up mad) They've completely reversed the meaning
of Anarchism!
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- George - Good man. Now you see. It's like the Anarchist
movement never even existed, when in reality, it's almost as old as Marxism.
Emma Goldman was fighting Big Brother for women's rights, and minority
rights, fifty years before the civil rights movement. She was jailed,
then kicked out of America for proposing equal rights, fifty-six years
after the Emancipation Proclamation.
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- Newspeak is a clever way to marginalize today's anti-globalization
movement isn't it? Present them as a new breed of nuts that want to cause
global chaos, when in fact Anarchism has nothing to do with actual chaos
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- Me - Man. you're starting to scare me.
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- George - We haven't even got to the bad part yet. When
you work for four generations to create a population as dumbed-down as
the American public, there must be an underlying reason for such action.
What do you think that reason is?
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