Guest Writer for Wake Up World
Many of the layers and subtleties in Orwell’s 1984, though fixed for the sake of fiction, so perfectly reflect the non-fictional world – the impulses of totalitarian institutions and the spirit of individuals – that it has become a near timeless representation. Arguably the most significant political fiction ever written, 1984 begins with the daily Two Minutes of Hate during the time period “in preparation for Hate Week.”
Orwell knew…. Hatred is a control mechanism.
The more repressed a society the more hateful all within must be. In order for oligarchical collectivism to take hold – in order for the few to benefit over the many without recognition or revolution – hatred must be infused. Hatred leads to the “us and them” mentality which drives clever reasoning to convince people to kill and be killed in the name of an institutional godhead. The more repressive and evil an institution, the more hatred they will drive and instill.
During World War II, from which much of 1984 is derived, hatred was used amongst all sides so as to enable the killing of others. During World War I, both sides believed they were fighting for liberty and freedom, and believed the others were evil to enable the killing of others.
Today hatred is used just as it was in 1984 to stagnate society and keep our minds closed. Hatred results in close-mindedness and being closed to our own power.
Buddha taught compassion and became an enlightened being by meditating on it. Compassion is the opposite of hate and has the opposite effect on our body, mind, spirit and surroundings. Hatred allows us all to be tricked into not seeing the brotherhood of man. Hatred allows institutions to promote war and killing. Hatred leads to closed mindedness and closes one off to healing spiritual energy.
The reason many spiritual or energetic practices will not allow certain people to learn them is because our energy is closed, blocked off and littered with hatred, so much of it we sometimes don’t realize it’s there sometimes.
There is no way to reap the reward of spiritual energy if you are closed off and have hatred within. There is no way to begin to heal yourself and surroundings if you hold hatred for any of god’s creatures on different paths. If you have hatred and are inspired by hatred, you have been convinced like some Outer Party shmuck in 1984 to serve institutional interests.
The only way to be open to energy, the only way to be open-minded, is to be completely open to compassion and forgiveness. That does not mean to accept foolishness or violence, but accept that every one of god’s creatures is on a path of ascension, and that we were all fools at least once – perhaps many times – and are capable of being fooled at any time.
Esoterically, being open to compassion leads to open access to energy. Exoterically, being open to compassion makes it so we cannot be fooled into taking action on behalf of violent or exploitative institutions who promote hatred – as a control mechanism.
The Complete Patriot’s Guide to Oligarchical Collectivism: Theory and Practice
Ethan Indigo Smith’s book The Complete Patriot’s Guide is an insightful exploration of history, philosophy and contemporary politics of today’s heavily institutionalized society.
An inspiration for positive, peaceful individual action, The Complete Patriot’s Guide is pro-individual in its perspective and, although political, discusses our society and its institutions from neither left-wing nor right-wing perspectives, and explores metaphors and symbolism relative to the fictional work of George Orwell through real history, philosophy and contemporary politics. Layered with insight, it is in part a literary exploration of the themes raised in Orwell’s 1984, and provides theories for individual and collective empowerment.
The Matrix of Four
Matrix of Four: the Philosophy of the Duality of Polarity is an exploration of our consciousness, and presents a formula to develop our consciousness and surpass the limitations of traditional political and social constructs. In this work, Ethan relates and explains correlations between the four seasons, the Om, and a myriad of esoteric and exoteric ideas on consciousness to inspire creative thinking and being. He also explores mathematical and philosophical concepts to engage a higher thinking and being, verified using universality and human traditions beginning with the four operations of arithmetic, referencing the four archetypal characters in Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, and much more.
Matrix of Four: the Philosophy of the Duality of Polarity is available here on Amazon.
About the author:
Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity and humanity, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful, blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique sense of humour.
For more, visit Ethan on Facebook or Ethan’s author page on Amazon
