Earl wrote:I have no problem with you guys who enjoy playing sports, just as long as you don't seek to impose them upon unwilling kids. I mean, after all, I thought sports were a form of recreation (which would imply that they're voluntary, not mandatory).
Yeah, how could something that is mandatory possibly be considered recreational?
If you enjoy doing something, then it's recreational.
But if it's mandatory, then it's not enjoyable or recreational.
To say that mandatory sports is recreational, that is a perfect example of Orwellian Double Think, or what is also known as New-speak.
It's like saying that freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength!
Double Think, the ability to hold onto two contradictory concepts and hold them as both being true.
New Speak, the elimination of words from our vocabulary to streamline the English language.
For example, we refer to a food item as being sugar-free, or sugarless, or fat-free which means, containing no sugar or no fat, or free from sugar, or free from fat.
Carry such concepts to the extreme, we enter the realm of Orwellian New Speak.
Free, now meaning, having less or being without.
So, freedom would now mean, less-dom or without-dom.
Therefore, to say you want to be free, in Orwellian New Speak, it means you want to have less or be without.
Now, for the reduction of vocabulary.
When we use words with opposite meanings, we would say, good or evil, hot or cold, light or dark.
But we can eliminate many words by using the prefix un.
So, we would have good or ungood, hot or unhot, light or unlight.
We can also eliminate more words, like superb or excellent by saying, good, plus-good, and double-plus-good.
Or when something is bad, we would say, ungood, plus-ungood, and double-plus-ungood.
This is what was depicted in George Orwell's 1984.
Has anyone ever studied color theory in art, with the colors arranged on a color wheel?
On a color wheel, the opposite colors are red and green, orange and blue, yellow and violet.
If you shine a bright red light into your eyes, then turn away and look at a white wall, you see a green spot before your eyes. Stare at a bright orange light, then turn away, you will see blue, and finally, stare at a bright yellow light and turn away, you will see violet. What ever color your are staring at, when you turn away, you will see it's opposite.
Now, getting back to words with the un prefix.
In Orwellian New Speak, the opposite of red would be unred.
And so, I introduce you to Orwellian Color Theory!!!
Naturally of course, in the above example: the color we now call red, which is ungreen in the Orwellian color wheel, is also not orange, and not yellow, certainly not green, it's not blue, and it's not violet, so therefore ungreen is also unorange, unyellow, ungreen, unblue, and unviolet.
So, if ungreen is also unevery color, then it is also uneverthing making it nothing, a self-contradiction. Also, all the colors are unevery color, and the whole Orwellian color wheel becomes a self-contradiction under the application of New Speak and double-think!
Therefore, in Orwellian New Speak, all words become meaningless, and in Orwellian double double-think, all is self-contradictory.
OK, this color wheel concept of mine was not ever mentioned in the novel by George Orwell.
I just made this up, as an example, of Orwellian New Speak and double-think carried to it's ultimate extreme.
So, double-think is actually not thinking at all, because it's all self-contradictory.
In Orwell's 1984, people who were rejected by society for being nonconformists were classified as unpersons.
Well, thanks to mandatory sports in our schools, and all the harassment and bullying I had received in school, and being suspended form school, just simply because I was not good at sports, I have often felt like I was no longer a US citizen, being forced to live on the outer fringes of society.
Yeah, thanks to the dominant sports culture, I was made to feel like an unperson.
Thank you America!!!
This forum post was sponsored by 7UP!
The Uncola!
I believe those 7UP ads were inspired by Orwellian New Speak.
Yeah! Now do you all see where all this "UN" BULLSHIT started???
Well, I don't drink 7UP because of it, because I won't drink an Uncola!
I won't drink or eat an un-anything!
I drink
COKE the REAL THING because I'm a real person, and don't wish to be reminded that American society regards me as an unperson!
FUCK THAT!!!
Oh! And by the way, 2 + 2 = 5
And when I hold up my hand, I see 6 fingers!
OK???
YEAH RIGHT!!!
Or as Captain Jean Luc Picard once said, in one particular episode of Star Trek Next Generation when he was being interrogated and tortured by a Cardasian military officer, and upon his final release . . . . .
I SEE FIVE LIGHTS!!!
During his interrogation and torture, he was almost tempted to say four!