1984 and 10/17 2004

Compare and Contrast.

Suskinds's article in todays New York Times Magazine

"The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''"

1984
"We control matter because we control the mind. Realisty is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees Winston. There is nothing we could not do."

Especially please please contrast, if you can. I am genuinely scared.