"Muse" muse upon 1984 in The Resistance

It is quite obvious that their new song, The Resistance, is an allusion to the book 1984 by George Orwell. Reading the first verse automatically made me acknowledge the song’s reference to 1984 and where we stand today, as well. “Is your secret safe tonight? And are we ought of sight? Or will our world come tumbling down?” This clearly implies to Julia's  and Winston’s “secret”, their love affair, and the constant fear they’ve been facing from the thought police in order to hide such deadly secret. From where I stand I am able to vision people whom are actually living in constant fear merely because they are keeping a secret, of similar matter to Julia's and Winston’s, from the authorities. The following verse foreshadows the upcoming events that occur in book 3, “will they find our hiding place? Is this our last embrace?”, and the hiding place refers to the apartment above Mr. Charrington’s store in which they use it as their place of escape thinking that its far from the Party’s eyes.

The following two verses signify the Party’s physiological manipulation and perhaps the idea of “doublethink”. The repetition of the line “It could be wrong, could be wrong” conveys doubt and uncertainties about Winston's and Julia’s love and whether they should split apart and adhere to the Party’s principles or resist and endure alongside the love their posses for each other. Due to the Party’s physiological manipulation individuals whom are able to think independently get distracted by thoughts that belong to the principles in which they are forced to abide by and thus they encounter the concept of “doublethink”.

The verse that starts with “love is our resistance” tells the story of Winston's and Julia’s willingness to stay together and go up against The Party in order to uphold the love they possess for one another. Further, the verse “quell your prayers for love and peace you’ll wake the “thought police” we can hide the truth inside” clearly alludes to 1984. It alludes to the constantly worries Winston is having about waking the Thought Police (obvious reference) and he hopes that they can continue their affair without showing outward emotion in public.

The last two verses explain the part of the story when Winston gets fed up from being under constant surveillance and begin perpetuating his path of resisting, “the night has reached its end we can’t pretend…it’s time to run”. Living in an oppressed society leads one to the point of being fed up with the authorities rule and hence resistance.

Is War a link to Peace?

Do all peace signs and peace movements resemble war; are we not aware that fighting in war is a fight for peace? There are numerous questions that come to mind when one thinks of the passage, extracted from the book 1984 by George Orwell, “War is peace”. This passage triggers uncertainties regarding the idea that peace is not able to subsist in our world. If war, the thing that most people dread, is a link to peace then aren’t we living in a world bombarded with peace? If the higher authorities think that brainwashing the public into telling them that “war is peace” then they are most certainly concealing their strategies away from the masses. Obviously, a government akin to the one in 1984 mainly focuses on keeping their people appointed towards a certain aggressor, far from themselves, to annihilate the idea of rebellion and keep it far from one’s ability to think about. War usually injects hatred in one’s mind towards the aggressor, and the hatred obtained stands as a fundamental element that keeps masses not only incapable of rebellion but also unified. Moreover, this passage is marked by physiological manipulation as the masses are being subjected to the idea that war is something for their own benefit while being coerced subliminally to believe in this ideology. However, in reality war is something for the Party’s own benefit in order to maintain stability and the so-called “peace” in their society. Evidently, Orwell is conveying the message that humans have a diabolical instinct wherein they tend to prioritize their wants before others, thinking of only the benefits THEY will gain yet not taking into consideration the aftermath even if the outcome is a total catastrophe for the majority but themselves. Simply put greed has stained the human flesh!

Catastrophic Disparities

Chile Vs. Haiti

I know that Chile is a much bigger quake than Haiti but according to the media, Haiti wins the attention! They’re pointing our attention to a much less severe earthquake. The picture illustrates the media’s perception that is reflected upon the majority of the world. However, reality states a rather different view; the Chile quake was actually much more severe than the one that occurred in Haiti. But somehow all our attention is pointed towards Haiti and the aftermath that the earthquake brought along. Currently a very few people are concerned with the death toll and the aftermath disasters that the 8.8 earthquake brought along to Chile. In fact people are more concerned about the earthquake’s aftermath regarding the shift of the earth’s axis or whatever.  Media, media, media you attention-grabbing slithery sly poisonous snake, with the poison you inject you’ve got the whole publics’ attention, don't you?

From Paris with a Bias

Please note that the following entry contains spoilers.
I am quite sure that a several of you guys have watched the movie From Paris with Love. I personally liked the movie and John Travolta was hilarious; I was cracking up the whole time. However, it conveyed a major misconception that people outside of the Middle East would view it as reality.

Basically the movie revolves around a team of two American operatives for the CIA, working in Paris. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the role of James Reece, a personal aide to the American Ambassador of Paris and an under-cover operative for the CIA. He had an ideal life in the city of romance with his French girlfriend up until he discovered the horrid truth. John Travolta plays the role of Charlie Wax, a special agent with a humorous, daring, and an upfront persona. Wax has been sent to Paris to partner up with James to stop a terrorist attack. During their quest to “stop all evil” and bring in peace, James confront a bunch of complications and emotional hindrance associated with his love life. He discovers that his French girlfriend is a Muslim terrorist and she was using him to arrange terrorist attacks. This was very devastating for him to bear. Wax seemed to have no emotions toward James’s emotional distress as evident in the following quote said by Wax “that happened to me once in Cairo and twice in Beirut”. In the preceding quote Wax was referring to the fact that among the Arab women he gave his heart to, in those two Middle Eastern cities, he eventually discovered their true identity, "undercover terrorists". They mentioned the name of those two Middle Eastern cities, in the preceding quote, with the aim of presenting the audience with the misconception that only Muslim women and/or women from the Middle East are terrorists.

I find that the interrogation of suicide bombers conveyed a major misunderstanding of Islam as well. The following is a quote said by a Muslim suicide bomber during her interrogation “I want to do this because my faith [Islam] requires me to do it”. So if I were an outsider that had no idea about Islam, besides the misconceptions the media present us with, I would digest this quote in a different manner unlike a person who is well-informed of Islam. Showing that a committed Muslim must become a suicide bomber was just bogus.

Another thing I found attention-grabbing was the various locations around Paris the movie covered. It showed both the beautiful, peaceful and romantic side of Paris and the “Parisian underworld” that most of us never saw in movies. I have been in Paris a couple of times and I never thought it had this whole criminal world. It was a new angle of Paris, for a certain audience. We, the audience, always saw Paris as the epitome of an idealistic place, whether it was in movies or novels it was all the same Paris we were used to.

The movie in general was pleasant to watch and it wasn’t the typical action/romantic movie. The ending was very much unexpected. For those of you who haven’t watched the movie I recommend you to watch.