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In Reply to: Nice YouTube find! posted by CB on February 18, 2007 at 09:54:43:
I found it quite interesting that Berg gets only one brief mention and only near the end. Maybe Berg is being a little quiet right now because he's speechless over the new direction to establish stable churches as opposed to being fly-by-night gypsies.
Characterizing the letter as a pep talk to the troops is accurate, but I think it demonstrates something even more sinister. Yesterday, I watched for the first time the movie 1984. I had, of course, read the book, but many years ago. Anyway, with that fresh in my mind, the following from Peter's letter really stood out to me:
"Are we still in wartime? The answer is an unequivocal 'yes'".
That is so Big Brother, and just like in that story, TF's tyrannical leaders need to give their followers the perception of perpetual war (actual war is not necessary) and the threat of enemy assaults to keep their followers motivated. In other words, they need to instill fear in their followers.
Peter uses lots of newspeak, too. And of course, we're all familiar with long diatribes likes this, which is similar to the constant harangues by Big Brother to keep the citizens in line. There is so much repetition in the letter that 80% of the words could be removed and the main message still would not be lost.
