Oh, Good!
I was worried that I was
The Only One who couldn't decide which candidate to vote against!
Reliably Red Ohio County Finds Both Trump and Clinton Hard to Stomach - The New York Times:
(September 09, 2016)
DELAWARE, Ohio — Donald J. Trump is not popular in this prospering county north of Columbus. The Republican nominee’s dystopian language does not resonate here. Signs that read “Now Hiring” outnumber “Trump” campaign placards. But many residents of this reliably Republican county, which last voted for a Democratic president in 1916, simply cannot imagine voting for Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. And that goes a long way toward explaining why she has struggled to separate herself from Mr. Trump in this bellwether state.
I don't blame the good citizens of Red Ohio County for their dyslexic choices in the upcoming Presidential Election.
I guess it depends on which dystopian choices you find least impalpable ... and which candidate you choose to represent those choices.
In
Brave New World, we face these societal changes:
- Abolition of natural reproduction. Human embryos are raised artificially in "hatcheries and conditioning centres".
- Educating children by the hypnopaedic process, which provides each with appropriate subconscious messages to mould the child's self-image appropriate to their caste.
- Discouragement of critical thinking.
- Discouragement of individual action and initiative
- An abundance of material goods. However (presumably because of advanced technology) conditions of work are not onerous, in contrast to the contemporaryMetropolis in which the workers are forced to arduous exertions. To maintain the World State's command economy, citizens are conditioned to promote consumption (and hence production) with platitudes such as "ending is better than mending".
In "
1984", the choices are subtly different ... but perhaps not SO different:
Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949.[1][2] The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government's invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged elite of the Inner Party, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as "thoughtcrime."[3]The tyranny is epitomised by Big Brother, the Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality but who may not even exist. The Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake. It is not interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in power."
The problem is .. which dystopian world should be assigned to which current candidate?
It's a vexing question, and your choice would be as private as your vote.
BOTH worlds discourage "Critical Thinking" (sound familiar?).
CLINTON's Democratic background seems to lean toward "abundance of material goods" in that the welfare society is
one of the mainstays THE Mainstay of the Democratic party; pointing toward the
"Brave New World" schematic.
For myself, if I HAD to make a choice, I would consider Hillary Clinton as the Avatar of that 'party'.
TRUMP's isolationism seems more of the
"1984" variety, although the
"... privileged elite of the Inner Party ..." resonates for both candidates. However, while the "Cult of Personality seems to be critical to both candidates, I'm inclined to nudge that caste toward Trump more than Clinton for the sole reason that Clinton at least has a history in Government, while Trump has nothing more than his financial success and his personality. (Such as it is ... and it isn't much!)
Still, you need to weigh "English Socialism" on his side, as Trump is on the record as resistant to non-english-speaking-peoples emigrating freely to America.
On the other hand, "1984" promotes a Socialistic Society, which is much more congruent to Clinton than Trump.
Or is it? I'm not sure, but I wouldn't trust either of them if they were given the reins of power.
Not to suggest that EITHER CANDIDATE HAS A PERSONALITY ... at least in the sense that you would want to take them home to meet your mother!
But BIG BROTHER is all about Trump; not saying he's a bully, but Clinton seems much more ...
nuanced ... in her drive toward
Total Thought Control.
And she is quite as much of a bully as Trump, except she seems more comfortable in that role. Let's put that down to 'experience'; after all, she bullied President Bill
Clingon Clinton for eight years (although with little success in suppressing his excesses.)
=========
So there you have it.
Clinton is the
"Brave New World" candidate, while Trump is the
"1984" Candidate.
Or the other way around; it doesn't much matter, because if you just watch their lips you see that
Trump is the liar with the fat lips, and
Clinton is the liar with the thin lips.
I see both candidates as One Giant Step Forward toward a Dystopian Society, and I don't like it at all, at all, at all.
Any group of responsible individuals which can't find a reason to vote for either candidate has my sincere appreciation for their judgement, and my great sorrow for their lack of choices.
Oh, and why oh WHY, in this nation of nearly a billion peoples, can we not find Presidential Candidates which are not only electable, but admirable?
My Dear God,
have we sunk this low?