SOCIAL ENGINEERING, CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING, BRIDGES COLLAPSE AND PLANES FALL FROM THE SKY

Education became social engineering when GOALS 2000 banned SEQUENTIAL learning for  CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING. I challenged the University of Alabama College of Engineering then about what would happen when a group did a project and everyone got the same grade, but only one did the work. Yet, those individuals would graduate with a GPA that some might think indicated mastery of scientific principles. What mastery of cognitive knowledge do grades now indicate? 

We know Colleges of Education accept students with the lowest ACT and SAT scores and graduate them with the highest GPAs. What does that predict for what they are able to teach their students?

Are we seeing the fruits of SOCIAL ENGINEERING when bridges collapse and planes fall from the sky?

Look at this headline!

And now, according to the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Alabama has dropped from 26 to 51st in the nation in Reading and Math. 

When we call for a return to Traditional Education do you know what we mean? 

We know Progressive Education doesn’t work for academic preparation or we wouldn't keep having so many efforts to "fix it." So what IS the goal?

I thought I would try to explain what has happened with Math. First you have to

understand that there are competing philosophies of education at work here. 

TRADITIONAL versus PROGRESSIVE (WHOLE LANGUAGE)

SMALL TO WHOLE (constructionist) v WHOLE TO PART (deconstructionist) 

DIRECT INSTRUCTION versus INFERENTIAL LEARNING (guessing, estimating,

risk-taking) 

SAGE ON THE STAGE (TEACHER DIRECTED)

 versus GUIDE ON THE SIDE (FACILITATOR)

SEQUENTIAL INSTRUCTION

versus THEMATIC INSTRUCTION (taking a theme

like the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima 

Supposedly going from a Mile Wide and an Inch Deep to an Inch Wide and a Mile Deep. Traditional augument supports acquiring a broad chronological understanding to history, simple to complex understanding in Math, Biology and Science, and foundational understanding of writing and grammar.  Progressive method takes a topic and spin off with integrated curriculum (including sex ed).

INTEGRATING subjects like English,

History, Science, Mathematics and sex education)

PATRIOTISM/NATIONALISM

verus SOCIALJUSTICE/GLOBALISM

INDIVIDUAL (INDIVIDUALISM) EFFORT

vs. CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING (COMMUNALISM) 

You model attitudes and beliefs by modeling behavior.

CAPITALISM vs. SOCIALISM

 What they are now being taught

KNOWLEDGE BASED vs. SKILLS BASED

COGNITIVE (Testing measures empirical data on academic achievement) vs. ATTITUDINAL/AFFECTIVE (How do students feel about it?)

COMPUTER (tool) v COMPUTER (teacher, tester, change agent modifying attitudes

and beliefs)

HOMESCHOOL children mostly use traditional materials/methods, as do ABEKA and CLASSICAL schools  versus  PUBLIC SCHOOLS and many Catholic and private schools

that have bought into Common Core with its Progressive Agenda.

PHONICS (sounding out the words, then drill and repetition) 

versus Whole Language

Old Math (memorizing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables) v. 

NEW MATH


Goals 2000 and Common Core have institutionalized the Progressive methodology and its agenda in our schools. 

But, how can Math be converted to Social Justice? 

   

RADICAL MATH

Elitist Harvard graduates like Bill Gates (attended, dropped out to start Microsoft,

 awarded honorary degree)

... then you have William McCallum, PhD, said to be the lead writer of the Common 

Core State Standards in mathematics.

Dr. William McCallum, Harvard graduate, mentioned below in Chamber Foundation 

film, apparently replaced Dr. James Milgram (who refused to sign off on the COMMON CORE STANDARDS).

Seeing the influence of Harvard and Mathematics education along with the 

Paolo Freire cult, it is not difficult to see the direction McCallum would take in 

establishing “Standards” for Mathematics. 

EDUCATION IS POLITICS! Whole Language Catalog,  Ken and Yetta Goodman and Lois Bird,  1991. 

Though Freire has passed on, his imprint remains a part of the Harvard legacy. Not only do none of those developing Standards have a concept of what is developmentally appropriate, they have been indoctrinated into what they call deconstructionism or radical math, a part of liberation pedagogy a philosophy developed by defrocked Marxist priest PAOLO FREIRE who once led the Nicaragua liberation theology movement.

Kenneth Goodman, edited the influential Whole Language Catalog chock full of information on Progressive ideology and "heroes" like Freire. He also wrote his definitive work, "Reading a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game," in May of 1967. 

 Like Harvard, the University of Arizona has been influential in the Progressive Movement.  


And now we live with the consequences of the Progressive Movement in our schools. 

Social Justice Math Homework

Then Came Common Core

Those "Assessments" will collect data on your child for sharing. Profitable?

When we call for a return to Traditional Education do you NOW know what we

mean? We know Progressive Education doesn’t work for academic preparation.

So what IS THEIR goal? 

Education

THE GENEALOGY OF COMMON CORE: BILL GATES/UNESCO/ROBERT MULLER//ALICE BAILEY/LUCIS TRUST 

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-genealogy-of-common-core-bill-gates_5.html

THE CHICAGO CONNECTION TO COMMON CORE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-chicago-connection-to-common-core.html

TEACHERS AS LIBERATORS PRODUCE STUDENTS AS REVOLUTIONARIES: Whole Language Live On!

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/teachers-as-liberators-produce-students.html

Revolutionary Pedagogy: Or, so you thought reading, writing and calculating were why you sent your child to school?

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/06/revolutionary-pedagogy-or-so-you.html

Radical Possibilities

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/radical-possibilities-your-children.html

DEMONIC ROOTS TO COMMON CORE? VISIT YOUR CHILD'S THERAPEUTIC CLASSROOM.

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/demonic-roots-to-common-core-visit-your.html

A Tale of the Last Hope for Local Control

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-tale-of-last-hope-for-local-control.html

THE FOUR PERIOD DAY: 

STUDENTS AS GUINEA PIGS AND PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT FOR "INNOVATORS"

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-four-period-day-students-as-guinea.html

The Four Period Day: Students as Guinea Pigs and Professional advancement for "innovators"

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-four-period-day-students-as-guinea.html

The Tale of Last Hope for Local Control

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-tale-of-last-hope-for-local-control.html

DEMONIC ROOTS TO COMMON CORE? VISIT YOUR CHILD'S THERAPEUTIC CLASSROOM.

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/demonic-roots-to-common-core-visit-your.html

THE GENEALOGY OF COMMON CORE: BILL GATES/UNESCO/ROBERT MULLER//ALICE BAILEY/LUCIS TRUST 

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-genealogy-of-common-core-bill-gates_5.html

THE CHICAGO CONNECTION TO COMMON CORE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-chicago-connection-to-common-core.html

does anybody really believe anymore? does anybody really care?https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/does-anybody-really-believe-anymore.html

Sounding the Alarm! Today's Therapeutic Classroom. What are you going to do about it?

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/does-anybody-really-believe-anymore.html

Spalding Writing Road to Reading and John Winston of Parks Elementary Natchitoches, Louisiana

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/spalding-writing-road-to-reading-and.html

RETARDING AMERICA THE IMPRISONMENT OF POTENTIAL

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/12/retarding-america-imprisonment-of.html

NOTE FROM ROBERT SWEET OF THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO READ FOUNDATION

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/10/note-from-robert-sweet-of-national.html

The DARE PROGRAM 20 years later.

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-dare-program-20-years-later-more.html

Merry Christmas! Meet Alliwishus, The Elf Mother Met at the Battle of the Bulge

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/merry-christmas-meet-alliwishus-elf.html

My Mother. My hero who won a Battle Ribbon at the Battle of the Bulge. December 16, 1944. A SCRAPBOOK LOOK FROM JEAN BRONSON GILLIS BURSON.

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-mother-my-hero-who-won-battle-ribbon.html

LEONARD COHEN HALLELUJAH PROJECT AT BAY HIGH SCHOOL AND ESTABLISHMENT RELIGION, SECULAR HUMANISM, IN OUR SCHOOLS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/leonard-cohen-hallelujah-project-at-bay.html

WHY SHOULD CONSERVATIVES, CHRISTIANS AND THE THE FAITH COMMUNITY BE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS? SUBSCRIBE TO THE PANAMA CITY NEWS HERALD AND GET WASHINGTON POST FREE

http://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/why-should-conservatives-christians-and.html

PEACE EDUCATION? CONFLICT RESOLUTION? TEACHING TOLERANCE? COMMON CORE 

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/peace-education-conflict-resolution.html

TRADITIONAL OR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION. DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE? HAS POLITICS AFFECTED YOUR CHILD'S MATH EDUCATION?

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/look-at-this-headline-and-now-according.html

RETARDING AMERICA THE IMPRISONMENT OF POTENTIAL

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/12/retarding-america-imprisonment-of.html

NOTE FROM ROBERT SWEET OF THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO READ FOUNDATION

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/10/note-from-robert-sweet-of-national.html

DELPHI TECHNIQUE, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT CONVINCED A GULLIBLE PUBLIC TO BUY INTO COMMON CORE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/so-what-is-thedelphi-technique-let.html

COMMON CORE: PORNOGRAPHY 101

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/common-core-pornography-101.html

MIDDLE SCHOOL AGENDA FOR SEXUAL ORIENTATION AS A PART OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/09/middle-school-agenda-for-sexual.html

BEHAVIOR MODELS ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-protest-at-busy-intersection-near.html

CULTURE WAR AND COMMON CORE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/culture-war-and-common-core.html

MATH WARS. ONCE AGAIN INTO THE FRAY

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/06/math-wars-once-again-into-fray.html

COMMON CORE MATH

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/common-core-math.html

SOCIAL STUDIES AND COMMON CORE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/social-studies-and-common-core.html

TEACHERS AS LIBERATORS PRODUCE STUDENTS AS REVOLUTIONARIES: Whole Language Live On!

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/teachers-as-liberators-produce-students.html

RADICAL POSSIBILITIES: YOUR CHILDREN 

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/radical-possibilities-your-children.html

Response to AL.Com article "Alabama Superintendent Proposal to Raise Academic Standards."

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/response-to-alcom-article-alabama.html

SECULAR HUMANISM IS NOW THE RELIGION OF OUR SCHOOLS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/08/secular-humanism-is-now-accepted.html

COMMON CORE: THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/common-core-emperor-is-wearing-no.html

COMMON CORE=PETRI DISH FOR RADICALS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/common-core-petri-dish-for-radicals.html

REVOLUTIONARY PEDAGOGY

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/06/revolutionary-pedagogy-or-so-you.html

Revolutionary Pedagogy: Or, so you thought reading, writing and calculating were why you sent your child to school?

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2014/06/revolutionary-pedagogy-or-so-you.html

EDUCATION TODAY:

Politics, Profits, Position, Power, and Prejudice published 1995

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/education-today-politics-profits.html

CAPSTONE EDUCATION (UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA) AND MY CONCERNS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2015/01/capstone-educator-and-concerns.html

CONFLICT RESOLUTION OR POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION?

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/conflict-resolution-or-political-and.html

DELPHI TECHNIQUE, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AND THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT CONVINCED THE GULLIBLE NATION TO BUY INTO COMMON CORE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/so-what-is-thedelphi-technique-let.html

WHO DO WE HOLD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE FAILURE OF OUR SCHOOLS?

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/so-who-do-we-hold-accountable-parents.html

PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOULD EMPOWER PARENTS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/public-education-should-empower-parents.html

CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN EDUCATION

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/conspiracy-theories-in-education-truth.html

THE CIVIL WAR IN EDUCATION 

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-civil-war-in-education-why-we.html

SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/01/solve-problems-of-public-schools-hope.html

TAKE A KNEE

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2016/12/take-knee.html

Acknowledgements for ON TO ANGOLA

ON TO ANGOLA is Black History, Native America History, Florida History for 1821, the year Florida came under control of the United States from being a Spanish colony. Andrew Jackson was the first territorial governor. He came with a history, a goal and a bias. He made a formidable enemy. As a writer of Historical Fiction, I attempted to tell this story with an appreciation for those whose story has been swept under the carpet for nearly 200 years. It is not a pretty bit of history.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Perhaps one of the best parts of writing Historical Fiction is the people you meet who share your interests. After Mercer University Press published In Pursuit, I was surprised by these emails by Uzi Baram, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the New College Public Archaeology Lab in Sarasota, Florida. 

I want to share them with you so that you can see how encouraging a fellow searcher can be. 

Dear Sharman Burson Ramsey,

I am writing to let you know that I enjoyed reading In Pursuit. 

I have been a researcher with Looking for Angola since 2004, and seeing your inclusion in the novel of the previously nearly erased community on the Manatee River thrilled me. As an academic, I have written scholarly work on the project and the early 19th century maroon community; I have given many public lectures and there are videos on and about the project. But your novel does what the archaeology and history does not: brings the community to life within the larger currents that crossed the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Thank you. The history matters greatly and my hope has been to see many representations of the search for freedom on Florida's Gulf Coast. 

In addition, I share your interest in making the 1816 events at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River better known. For the 200th anniversary of the fort's destruction, I have a Florida Humanities Council grant to digitally reconstruct the Negro Fort and the landscape for Angola. Shortly after the anniversary, I will lead a presentation on the work at Apalachicola and Bradenton (details still being worked out). Although it is quite early, I hope you can keep my project in mind as you hear about other commemorations and, hopefully, you can come to one of the FHC sponsored presentations.
Sincerely,
Uzi Baram

Professor of Anthropology
Director of the New College Public Archaeology Lab
New College of Florida
5800 Bay Shore Road
Sarasota, FL 34243 USABaram@ncf.edu
https://ncf.academia.edu/UziBaram

When I began writing On to Angola, friends of ours, Robert (archaeologist) and Rezi Hurst, my husband, Joel, and I took a trip down to South Florida with the Florida Humanities Society. While in the area, I called Uzi and he delighted us by taking us to the areas where he and Vicky Oldham have come to believe Angola actually stood. 

Sharman,
----------

A pleasure meeting you, your husband, and friends. I hope my tour of the sites was helpful. I look forward to more discussions. Below is one strand.

One of the questions, I got asked at public presentations: Who might have been at Angola?

Filling in their biographies (see, for instance, Jane Landers African Creoles) suggests these men connected with Angola:
Abraham (1789-1890?)
Harry
John Horse (ca. 1812–1882)
Louis Fatio Pacheco (1800-1895)

 More intriguing, when the maroon communities on the Florida Gulf were destroyed in 1821, about 300 people were taken north. There were law suits regarding ownership. There are three " Descriptive List of the Negroes brought into the Creek nation by a detachment of Indian Warriors under the command of Col. Wm. Miller a half breed Indian (Viz)" found at http://www.africannativeamerican.com/crkslaves.htm (accessed March 2016), which provides names of those at Angola. Looking through these records, you will find Jim (Richard, Augustine, formerly the Estate of Genl. Washington), Nancy and her three children, among the others. 

 Rosalyn Howard located a list of of “foreign Negros” in the Bahamas since 1821 and two of the names overlap:

Sipsa/Sipco Bowlegs
Peter/Peter McQueen

Both escaped as the Coweta took captives north and escaped to Andros Island - the part of the history that is inspiring.

Sincerely,

Uzi

--------------------

We all believe this is a bit of our history that has been glossed over. It is a story that needs telling. 

Because of the hard work of Uzi Baram and Vickie Oldham who have done the hot work of digging and discovering, I long to make these events come alive and remember the people who lived this story. These people in Angola touched my heart. The book is dedicated to them so that their memory will not die. 

Thank you for your encouragement, Uzi. 

With the introduction of the orphans rescued at Fort Mims in my novel, Swimming with Serpents, I set out to craft a story for each of them. Inspired by the events at Angola, I realized that Andro’s story must also involve Angola. Discovering a twin who had been raised in slavery brought the poignancy of a family ripped apart to combine with the raid on Angola by the Coweta Indians. Add to that the horror of any mother to have a child ripped from one’s arms and you have a human tragedy that could not help but touch any heart. 

In writing Historical Fiction, one cannot truly know who was exactly where at one time or what they exactly said, unless it is recorded in official records. There is much that public figures do not want known, of course, and so much is speculation.

Gasparilla is legend. Or so they say. If that is true, why is there a Gasparilla Island, a Captiva Island, a Sanibel Island? So, Gaspar finds a place in this novel and in my imagination. Black Caesar is mentioned as an authentic participant in Haiti and pirate in the Gulf of Mexico. Creatures in the Okefenokee Swamp. So the legends say. 

I have attended talks on Jackson’s Militia and left wondering what happened to the Creeks who survived? That is how I began following Peter McQueen. Finding a genealogical connection with Josiah Francis made through my fourth great grandmother, Vashti Vann Jernigan, Cherokee, whose people were taken away on the Trail of Tears, made this story even more important to me.

Just as Native American History has been overlooked so has Black History. In this book, the two intertwine.

Records mention the gathering of people to task the Coweta to make just such a raid down into the peninsula of Florida. Weatherford accompanied them. Peter McQueen was a true target of Jackson. Did the two meet? There is no official record of that, but it is said that Peter McQueen did die on an island in the keys. And if they did meet, what really happened? One can only speculate from what one knows about the character of a man what his actions might be.

But that is Historical Fiction. Fact meets fiction.

I hope you enjoy On to Angola. 

Sincerely,

Sharman Burson Ramsey
February 1, 2018
Panama City, Florida

NEWSPEAK, GEORGE ORWELL AND THE UNDERMINING OF TRUTH AND FREEDOM

GEORGE ORWELL   1984

"The sacred principles of Ingsoc: Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side? And what way of knowing that the dominion of the Party would not endure forever?" (1.2.34)

Trapped between the Party’s nonsense principles and his own perception of reality, Winston experiences a metaphysical crisis that ultimately leads to his demise.

"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word "doublethink" involved the use of doublethink." (1.3.20)

The Party’s concept of doublethink is contrary to reason, logic, and the workings of the brain. It takes a great effort for Winston to engage in doublethink.

It was as though some huge force were pressing down upon you – something that penetrated inside your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of your senses. In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable…what then? (1.7.27)

Common Core Math

OR THAT MAN IS MAN AND WOMAN IS WOMAN 

Deathly afraid of the Party’s proposition that there exists no external reality independent of the mind, Winston feels despair – not because of the doctrine itself, but because he may be subject to the truth of that doctrine.

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," repeated Winston obediently.

"Who controls the present controls the past," said O'Brien, nodding his head with slow approval. "Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?" (3.2.39-40)

To O’Brien’s dismay, Winston continues to deny that the mutability of the past leads to control of the present. However, the prolonged torture has been gnawing away at Winston’s belief in an independent, external reality.

----------------------

O'Brien smiled faintly. 

"You are no metaphysician, Winston," he said. "Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?"

"No."  

"Then where does the past exist, if at all?"

"In records. It is written down."

"In records. And- ?"

"In the mind. In human memories."

"In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?"

"But how can you stop people remembering things?" cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the dial. "It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control memory?

You have not controlled mine!" (3.2.42-49)

Facing extreme torture, Winston vehemently refuses to give up the view that an independent external reality exists, even in a world where the Party controls all records. Winston’s fierce belief in the immutability of memory is the last straw he holds on to.

--------------------------------------------

"You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self- destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane." (3.2.51, O’Brien)

In urging Winston to discard his rebellious views, O’Brien imparts on him a Party-centric, metaphysical view of reality: reality does not exist except in the collective and immortal mind of the Party.

----------------------

Did not the statement, "You do not exist", contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind shriveled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O'Brien would demolish him.

"I think I exist," he said wearily. "I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?" (3.2.40-41, Winston)

Winston continues to hold on to the concept of an independent, external reality by referring to his being conscious of his own existence.

-----------------------------------

"We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull…" (3.3.21, O’Brien)

Furthering Party doctrines, O’Brien attempts to push his view of a mind-dependent reality on Winston.

-------------------------

"Nonsense. The earth is as old as we are, no older. How could it be older? Nothing exists except through human consciousness."

"But the rocks are full of the bones of extinct animals – mammoths and mastodons and enormous reptiles which lived here long before man was ever heard of." (3.3.25-26, Winston, O’Brien)

Winston continues to resist the concept of a mind-dependent reality by referring to the existence of creatures pre-dating man.

-----------------------

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth's centre. With the feeling that he was speaking to O'Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom […] (1.7.29-30)

Winston believes fiercely in the correctness of his position on there being an external, mind-independent reality; however, he cannot help but wonder whether the Party is right in asserting that the contrary is true.

--------------------

Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own. Down at street level another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single word INGSOC. (1.1.4)

A totalitarian power seeks to exert influence over its constituents by conveying the message that it is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Ubiquitously posting awe-inspiring posters is one such means to this end.

EARLY MORNING ATTACKS ON TRUMP ASSOCIATES? 

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In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed. He was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out "Swine! Swine! Swine!" and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen. (1.1.29)

The Party’s go-to tactic for maintaining power is to shift blame to a designated scapegoat, toward which all of its constituents’ hatred and violence may be directed. Here we have the citizens letting it all out during the daily Two Minutes Hate—which is of course organized and overseen by the Party.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST TRUMP?

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With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it. (1.2.25)

The Party seeks to maintain power by severing private loyalties, replacing them with loyalty to the party. With children, the success of the Party’s plan is furthered in that the children serve as extra surveillance forces for the Party

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A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy automatic pistol, while his small sister, about two years younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirts, and red neckerchiefs, which were the uniform of the Spies. Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy's demeanor, that it was not altogether a game.

"You're a traitor!" yelled the boy. "You're a thought-criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines!"

Suddenly they were both leaping round him, shouting "Traitor!" and "Thought-criminal!" the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gamboling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy's eye, a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so. (1.2.15-17) 

 The Party holds their power by using children as extra surveillance forces for the Party. This younger sister is learning how to spy by following her brother's lead. We bet the Party was extra happy that they didn't have to train her themselves.

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On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally. (2.9.3)

The Party’s modus operandi in maintaining power is to shift blame to a designated scapegoat, toward which all of its constituents’ hatred and violence may be directed.

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"We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?" (3.2.99, O’Brien)

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"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were-cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" (3.3.14, O’Brien)

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"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought, which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are mat work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother." (3.3.34, O’Brien)

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In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for "Science." The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc. And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty. (2.9.30).

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