The Sacrifice of the Soul
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”-George Orwell, 1984
Orwell expresses what we all fear, the fear of not owning our own thoughts. Those thoughts are sometimes deemed “bad” or “damaging” but they are ours. When we come earth side at birth we absorb ideas but even as small children we question those ideas and the ideas of others. Human beings are inquisitive creatures. To intervene with that inquisitiveness changes who we are at our very being.
‘’There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.’’Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.
Bradbury is steadfast in his writing when it comes to explaining the importance of thought. A person is willing to die just to have a free thought. The one thing we own without question is our mind, or at least that is what was always assumed. In today’s climate that is not the case.
If you are familiar with the early Catholic Church, free thought was thought to be anti-Christian and anti-clerical, it was the sin of all sins against the church. What is the church today? Has the alt left replaced what was once the alt right? Do we have a new master to our minds? Are our thoughts, opinions, feelings, and passions not our own? Or because they may offend, disrupt, or create mental distress need to be managed? Do our thoughts need policed? Is it for the greater good?
The world has always sought out freedom. Nations that are controlled by a dictatorship have either try to dismantle the powers that be or they have fled to other countries where freedom is in reach. Does the dictator need to be a single person or can it be a movement? I believe it can be both. A wave of a notion to strip freedoms of the mind can create a virus in those who are emotionally weak, lack logic, and reach for a sense of control of their environment. A culture steered by anxiety, fear, guilt, and delusions is dangerous, no matter if it is left or right.
Is equality really freedom? Or is it the opposite. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a political prisoner of Russia, he once said “Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.” I agree with this assessment and who would know better than a political prisoner of the communist state as to what freedom should be.
Shakespeare today is considered racist, homophobic, and insensitive to women. Huckleberry Finn, once a classic, is now at risk of being pulled from our shelves because it's full of indecent thoughts that trigger a group of people. These works of art point out the inequities we have in this word. The freedom to display these thoughts on paper is vital to the human race, even if it can be unraveling to some.
We must tread lightly as we move into the future. The spiritual lives of our next generation depends on it. When I say spiritual, I am not speaking to religion or faith, but our spiritual being, our individualism. To create equality in all things, we are sacrificing our souls.
