Divide or Die Print

This print is inspired by the great George Orwell! 

Reading 1984 is always a remarkable experience, but it’s particularly profound and useful during times like these when power and authoritarianism are motivated, optimistic and on the march. George Orwell certainly did have a keen understanding of how the minds of autocrats operate and how our minds, as members of the controlled population, respond to them. The villain of the story, O'Brien, masquerades as a secret revolutionary and gives the main character a revolutionary book called The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, written by a man named Emmanuel Goldstein, the greatest enemy of the Party and of Big Brother. One of the most profound moments in 1984 takes place when O’Brien, after revealing that his participation in the resistance was a ruse, claims that he was the one who wrote the revolutionary book and we never really learn if this is true or not or if Goldstein exists or not or even whether Big Brother exists or not. The implicit promise of a better world is a vital component to the machinery of oppression and the understanding of how these mechanisms work is, to a large degree, universal and automatic. 

I love the book but I also feel very critical of it. Its central conclusion is that the State is capable of actually destroying our inner most selves, what some might call a soul - The place where love resides. I find this stupid and ridiculous. It can certainly happen on small scales and individuals can be destroyed in this way, but we are a collective species and the total destruction of a population is not possible in my opinion. Never the less, the book has a lot of insight to offer and can provide us with a map of some of the most dangerous terrains that we might find ourselves in. 

One last side note, if ever this conclusion were correct, that Human collectives can effectively be beaten and permanently, spiritually destroyed, it would only be possible with the aid of AI.