“If Big Brother (of Orwell's 1984) comes to America, he will not be a fearsome, foreboding figure with a heart-chilling, omnipresent glare as in 1984. He will come with a smile on his face, a quip on his lips, a wave to the crowd, and a press that (a) dutifully reports the suppressive measures he is taking to save the nation from internal chaos and foreign threat; and (b) gingerly questions whether he will be able to succeed.”

Michael Parenti must have been tuning in to the non-local reality of he present day.

Methinks Big Brother is in our midst. We love Big Brother.

To me Big Brother is basically political lying and expecting US to accept it. The most recent example of The Big Brother Big Lie is Bush/Cheny's mantra "deficits don't matter". What a bunch of crap that Big Lie has gotten us into. And floks follwed it as they admired Bush and Cheny's smile. Now some of the dumb masses are wondering after Sarah Palins smile. I don't know about her smile but she does have a nice mouth.

It seems now the Nazi style of socialism is coming to fruition with 36% of the Bank being directly owned by Big Brother. First Big Brother has 100% of the equitable position in the bifurcated legal person, now they own 36% of the legal position (being called equitable position because its immediate control over property). hmmm One of the differences between the Hitleresk style socialism advanced by the Coronated One 'Obamunist' is the fraternization with the Lennonists. Can some one out there help me find the specific article or section of the Republic's Constitution that authorizes such an action.

Socialism has never worked and yet here we are..........Mr. Parenti is a modern prophet! They need to revisit the Pilgrims and see what finally worked with them. Free Enterprise...........it worked so well then....hmmm Janice, Arizona

Thanks to the work of mass psychologists (spin doctors) who have been perfecting techniques for controlling the opinions of the masses, as long as we are entertained along the way to servitude, all is well. "Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. ... Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy."

This quote is a perfect description of Obama. He is coming, however, not as big brother but more like the most high and holy Messiah and we are his subjects.

Big Brother has been here for too long, demands to stay indefinitely and denies it.

Janice the Pilgrims were a cooperative highly structured theocratic society. They were physically and mentally strong but they worked together generally as a community not as free enterprize entrepreneurs as your post seems to suggest.

Did he just write that? He was clairvoyant. Did he know Obama? Waffler as always you know nothing of history. Janice has the facts. Why in the world do you only worry about deficits when we have a Republican in the White House but do not give a crap about the outlandish waste of money that goes on when one is not? I guess when the money is targeted to buy votes or to pay off organizations that stuff the ballot box for Dems that is OK. Ignorance is too damn expensive. Learn something.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink...until it's thirsty enough. Maybe Waffler will figure this out. "To me Big Brother is basically political lying and expecting US to accept it." Well, what do you think Obuma and the Congress is doing to you?

I don't like deficits Warren period. The current one and the ones since Clinton were caused by Cheney's tax cuts for the wealthy. They will expire next year. We can not live with deficit financing in our towns, citiesk, counties or states, and we damne well should not accept it in our national government. Raise hell with your representatives and let us step up to the plate as a nation of intelligent people. As for the pilgrims, they did not come here as individual entrepreneurs but as a band of highly organzied, politcally and theocratically connected people. Not that they did not have individual skills and personal courage but it was in a context of a tight knit societal framwork. And thus they accomplished much very quickly.

Mike, Norwalk, a study of our world banking system will reveal that big brother does not own the banks the international bankers own them. Read pamphlet entitled Economic Solutions by Peter Kershaw, there is one of his quotes available here. If you are adventurous read "The Creature from Jekyll Island." It's like we are trapped in a box with no windows or doors or even the desire to look outside let alone resolved to get out! This can only end one way if this doesn't change very soon. The beginning of the destruction of our Republic began with Woodrow Wilson, and Americans worked and slept while the philosophies that produced men like Obama grew like a cancer and metastasized. The American people allowed this to happen be it ignorance or apathy of the masses that has brought us to the doorstep of national death and after a point there is no stopping the cancer short of hacking it out (founders type revolution) but the sad fact is that many Americans have been brainwashed to believe that the cancer (socialism/communism) is good so they fall easy prey to charlatans, quacks and hustlers! The thought that went into this quote was prophetic and in line with human nature.

This quote is chilling. It's as if the "annointed one" read something besides Marx. Waffler, unfortunately, has consumed too much KoolAid along with the other of the welfare masses to think coherently so don't waste time reading his manure.

Waffler, you are right that the original Pilgrims initially established a communal/communistic plan, but it was a disaster as William Bradford's letters document. Once they abandoned that communistic plan, the community prospered -- the colony almost collapsed due to communistic organization.

E Archer NYC, you are 100% correct about William Bradford's letters and the abandonment of the communal stores system, those who worked the least or not at all still had access to equal amounts of goods as those that labored the hardest. It wasn't until the adoption of the system that let individuals keep the fruits of their labors for themselves and their families did the colonies prosper immensely!
Liberals are ignorant of this history the same way they are ignorant of the failings of socialism /communism and that it has never worked but they keep trying saying to themselves " this time we can make it work." The useful idiots Utopian dream!

Sounds like Trump! Or Hillary, narrowly averted.

Again, any force that wishes to influence the American environment has the obligation to prove their influences legitimate scientifically, artistically.

Big Brother is here and happy. The people are conforming as they are blind to their freedoms being decreased. Our youth believe liberty is when one gets free 'stuff'. Youth have not learned what freedom is. We are on the cusp of demise because the people are unlearned.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:... Hosea 4:6 (in part). "Ignorance is bliss" can lead to death of a nation.