Friday 15 July 2011

Our Two Minutes' Hate

I am exhausted, yet peculiarly refreshed. I have just finished my daily Two Minutes' Hate.




In George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Two Minutes' Hate is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting The Party's enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them and their principles of democracy.




At last we have a demonic Goldstein figure, the embattled press baron (the adjectives and nouns are de rigeur) Rupert Murdoch . The media, TV , radio, newspapers have non-stop devoted every loving minute to expressing venom for this eater of babies, this cannibal, this mass murderer, this.. I am lost for words.




No matter that the United Kingdom is descending into economic misery, that our armed forces build aircraft carriers with no aircraft to carry, that our Parliament has been shown to be a den of corrupt expenses cheats. No matter that the Eastern Mediterranean is aflame with revolutions in Tunisia and Libya , as well as Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East; that a thousand have been murdered in Syria, that the Sudan is approaching ominously to a war after partition,..we can forget all of this.




We have at last a focus for our frustrations, our hatred; poor Rupert.




Don't worry, Rupert. If it wasn't you it would be someone else. We need you; and in serving as an outlet for the outpouring of our venom, you provide a greater service to our great nation than your newspapers ever did.

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