1984...you can mine it for suggestive material all day and all night:
The ideal set up by the Party was something very huge, terrible and glittering—a world of steel and concrete of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons—a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts, wearing the same clothes and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting—three hundred million people all with the same face. The reality was decaying, dingy cities where underfed people shuffled to and fro in leaky shoes, in patched-up nineteenth-century houses that smelt always of cabbage and bad lavatories.
Quico,
if X is true, not-X cannot also be true
You’re becoming quite the programmer
Fernando,
I'd *love* to take credit for that one, but Aristotle beat me to the punch by...oh...2400 years.
I realize I'm painting with a broad brush, but is Chavez's disjointed logic Orwellian, or simply Venezuelan? I've spent a lot of time in Venezuela over the past 15 years, and it seems to me that detours in linear thought progression are rather the norm culturally, and amplified in the political arena.
There's certainly something to that, anon2. What's different is the power dynamic surrounding presidential burradas. Not only do they get said, but they get a complete pass from anyone, and any appoint to note them makes you suspect of treason. It's a difference of degree...but a rather LARGE difference of degree.
Doublethink?
So that's where the term Disociados comes from!
And to add insult to injury he accusses us of being the Disociados which of course is a perfect example of the advantages of Doublethink.
If Chavez hasn't read 1984 he must know it instinctively.
1984 in Spanish is ISBN-968-5270-88-0.
I thought somebody would notice, but
Cantinflas trying to get his way through utter confusion, and/or explaining himself without explaining anything at all is more like it. 
That nobody takes him to task in front of his face is the sad thing. That he is insulated from such a thing ever happening, or pretends not to hear when somebody does so in the media because he is "President" is the sadly farcical thing.
Orwell? Why did you have to look so far? We are not yet in a closed totalitarian society, and doublethink is a mechanism to avoid cognitive dissonance in a society where such a dissonance is sure to be detected and "evaporated" with it's owner. And besides, he believes himself Little Big Brother (Big Big Brother is convalescing in Cuba).
I have wondered if it is actually doublethink in the sense of errors in processing information, or whether it is doublethink as in
an evil way of communicating.
I can't make up my mind.
And when you confront these people with this way of speaking, and try to get a straight answer, you only get a repeat of the same confusion.
One of the most frustrating and irritating things I have seen in my entire life.
"So when producers respond to high prices by increasing supply they're acting rationally, but when they respond to low prices by decreasing supply they're betraying the people."
... I was kind of shocked to noticed that some intelligent Venezuelans were buying Chavez story, that the price control has nothing to do with the shortage. Looks like Goebbels was right, say it many times and they will believe in it. It's good you are posting about this.
"but is Chavez's disjointed logic Orwellian, or simply Venezuelan?"
Interesting comment Anon 2.
The thing is that in another parallel world, Chavismo, Venezuela, Quico's blog, you guys, me, etc... are part of a very famous Orwell novel... I just don't know its name, maybe something like "1999"...
The Orwellian world is too scary, and too terrifyingly efficient. That is because Orwell supposed that the totalitarian state would function efficiently, and that it's terror-producing and dissent catching machinery could be fine tuned to a degree where no disagreement with the Party or Big Brother could ever escape punishment.
Chavez would wish in his narcissistic way to be Big Brother but comes out not much scarier than Cantinflas because he, Chavez, who illudes himself on knowing everything and controlling everything, finds that he does not know squat and that he is fed BS by those who should inform him. But the fault, as Quico aptly showed om his "jalabolas natural selection" post, is his and only his.
Maybe we belong to a Terry Gillian movie...
Doublethink is an everyday thing, guys. Don't make or take it personally. It just happens. It's a way of protecting yourself from.. uh... thinking and... all the rest...
What struck me in your post was the Chavez quote. "I know...I am aware...I am willing...I consider"
No, its not anything new. It just serves to reinforce that everything the government does is at the whim of Chavez, a proven mis-manager.
Any wonder nothing functions here?
Actually Quico if X is true, not-X cannot also be true is one of the main tools used in formal logic.
As a theorem it's called 'reductio ad absurdum' I would say that name fits quite well the whole of the Chavez regime.
Edgar,
If you notice
if X is true, not-X cannot also be true
is set up as a link. Click on it and it takes you to the wikipedia page where they explain Aristotle formulated it first. Which is a what makes it "funny" that asserting it makes you, somehow, a dangerous counterrevolutionary. My idea of a joke.
And feathers,
I just saw Brazil again recently...it's still one of my favorite films. Amazing!!
I think William's comment is the most realistic, and disturbing.
The great one himself, when he's not busy hobnobbing with Ahmadinejad and other worthies, is deciding how much milk will cost.
There are enough items on the grocery shelf to keep the great one very busy making these important decisions.
Poor man, what a herculean task he has set for himself, running everything, everywhere.
Don't know when he finds to ...oh well, never mind.
Ahh Quico, love Brazil too, it really is a top fav of mine as well. I love Terry Gilliam's crazy worlds... some Chavistas look they come from them...
I saw a documentary the other day about Gillian and Tim Burton. For me, it's clear that Gillian is a way, way, WAY better director. A real artist. A lunatic with something to say. Burton makes funny images, but there's really no depth to his movies at all. But the screwed up thing is how Burton "won" the battle against Gillian. There just isn't room in Hollywood for two directors making those kinds of movies. And Burton was more marketable, mostly cuz he didn't upset his audience with ambiguous endings or anything that might make them think about the world. Result? It's been years and years since Gillian got to make a big budget film, and Burton keeps grinding out the same old tired cliches again and again. Don't get me wrong, those movies can be fun...but next to Gillian? It's like putting Britney Spears next to Tchaikovski.
Quico, you're right of course. It's the threat of punishment if the logic of his in(s)ane ramblings are questioned that makes his short-circuited logic dangerous and not simply a charming tropical quirk.
Hey, it's no fun if you just agree with me. Sigh.
I think regular readers have figured out by now that my theory* is that people are everywhere and always the same, meaning relatively equally stupid. What changes from place to place and time to time is the structure of the public sphere, its discursive standards that underpin public debate. THAT's what interests me.
*when I say "my" theory I mean Habermas's theory...the guy's just right.
"It's like putting Britney Spears next to Tchaikovski."
LOL...
Yeah, I like Burton, but he is no Gilliam... I won't even compare them at all... Gilliam is way more more interesting. I agree with the Burton cliché... he has become kind of boring, at least to me.
Plus, Gilliam is one of the montypythoners!, c'mom...
Maybe Gilliam was the one who decide to step aside from "Hollywood" culture?
Hey, it's no fun if you just agree with me. Sigh.
I think regular readers have figured out by now that my theory* is that people are everywhere and always the same, meaning relatively equally stupid. What changes from place to place and time to time is the structure of the public sphere, its discursive standards that underpin public debate. THAT's what interests me.
*when I say "my" theory I mean Habermas's theory...the guy's just right.
Quico | Homepage | 02.19.08 - 7:45 am | #
And Chavez is so much like Bush, and like any other "Prince". machiavelli!
One problem though for Venezuela is that "the few" in our country come in with every change in power (los doce apostoles, los boliburgueses, etc.) and are relatevelly not well stablished elites.
So, what we have is a constant SAQUEO with no dolientes.
BTW, Quico your latests posts have been all excelent. Sadly people within the country are now hypnotised into doublethink and the scandal-after- scandal opium.
La ranita en agua caliente...
Quico, the CIA is recruiting in Miami right now. Their ads are running in the Miami Herald.
Commenting by HaloScan
