Bad is Good, and Good is Bad!

Yes, it's super-easy to feel like Winston Smith. I grew up hating the enemy. When I was a kid, that was most significantly the God-less Soviet Union. We were told our enemy had nuclear missiles pointed at us, and they were certain to push the button, and we'd all have to hide under our desks, and pray for a miracle, or we could just kiss our asses goodbye.

I read about those two monsters: Stalin and Hitler. These two were the two-headed personification of Evil. And how many movies did we watch where the Nazis were the ultimate bad guys? And it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Bad guys killed innocent people. They tortured people. They spied on their own citizens. Their governments lied to them. They lied about torture, they lied about spying, and they lied about reasons for sending men into wars. The Good Guys? Well...

Turns out my own country, the Good Guys also did all these things. So yes, that Winston Smith feeling.  An alien in my own country. The "Good Guy/Bad Guy" thing sort of seems naive. And stupid. And sort of irrelevant. So yes, I live here. I keep my eyes peeled. And I don't believe the bullshit. I don't love Big Brother, even if he tells me without him the Bad Guys would devour me. I don't love Big Brother, because I can't really see the difference between him and the Bad Guys. If my government tortures, and spies, and lies well, even if they are doing these things for me, they are also doing these things to me. 

Bad is Good, and Good is Bad! And Freedom is Slavery... and well, read the book!