Liam Murphy

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

There are so many ways for Winston to misstep. Don't speak your mind in your own home, take the same path twice, talk shop to a neighbor, walk alongside a friend, love an acquaintance.
Wild that consistent bombings aren't near the top of the list or Winston's concerns

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

Constant, repeated state repression flattens ideological fervor and exploration. Party members (Julia) survive by going through the motions (which are visible to the state: 2MH) and maintain sanity by abstaining from discerning political philosophy. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

@hardclass2020 In my experiences, old guys at pubs enjoy discussing both useless things and fundamental shifts in culture/society. Disappointing for Winston that decades of censorship made his conversation partner “incapable of comparing one age with another” (93)

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

Last night, friends were chatting about childhood fears and one mentioned Bloody Mary legend:
“What if I thought it? What if I let the intrusive thoughts win?”
They’re fortunate BM doesn’t work for the Thought Police

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

@hardclass2020 And the party attempts to be the sole teller of truth. In other societies, groups demonstrate truth amongst each other. Only vehicle of collective thinking in Oceania is state-run. Winston looking for answers through interpreted facial expressions

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

Orwell weighs into a classic science debate on page 81. What do others think?

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

@hardclass2020 @deakinbooks Russian winters sure are cold. I hope that Stalin & Co. did actually produce SOME boots. Fudging numbers in the millions is one thing but making nothing and championing destructive falsehood is insane. Does Orwell exaggerate too much here? (41)

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

Thinking about Bataille’s framework of leader-party-state relations. While the big 3 exude extreme power, their application remains hazy because of the past's ambiguity. Big Bro v. State hierarchy still unclear since there’s “doubt that hung about his very existence” (15)

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

I'm reminded of @OldTakesExposed where tweeters are humiliated by incorrect predictions in ways Big Brother could never imagine. Tweets are constantly posted, and I bet some users wish they could borrow the Record Dept's "day by day and almost minute by minute" revisions (40)

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

The ease with which Big Brother’s words are re-written presents one of the most salient differences to our time. The 21st century lens alters my perspective, but the insulation of Winston’s world and subsequent lack of non-Oceanic informational threats thus far intrigued me.

[A24 @A24]

King amongst men. Denzel Washington nominated for Actor in a Leading Role for The Tragedy of Macbeth #Oscars

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

In Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, Arnold Borden mesmerizes the crowd with feelings of “astonishment and respect.” Arnold’s personal prestige coexists with his reputation and glory, and most importantly in magic tricks, “constitutes the fundamental element of persuasion.”

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

@EvahernandezBC Millennia of domesticated tradition guide the herd

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

Le Bon when Hershey and Chase confirm that the cell’s genetic material (crowd’s ideas) is created in the nucleus. In the context of the cell, leaders transcribe and translate the ideas while the crowd’s nucleus creates them.

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

Perhaps my classmates would have avoided mischief and unconscious behavior of crowds if we took part in apprenticeships rather than obligatory schooling (p. 52)

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

My uncle used to warn my teenage self to avoid the “cloud of stupidity” which arose from hanging out with crowds of high school boys. I might be the second person in the family to read Gustave Le Bon.

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

An individual sacrificing their consciousness in favor of the unconscious crowd

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

@PVMHardClass Political participation is also facilitated and expanded through social media. Whether it’s organizing the Jan 6 rally, creating online petitions, or indulging in armchair activism, 21st century crowds are often formed on Twitter, Reddit, etc.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@EvahernandezBC Posted in the cut like neosporin.

[Liam Murphy @liammurphyreads]

@hardclass2020 While Arnold acknowledges potential political effects, Le Bon takes things a step further when declaring that masses amount to destroying society and ushering in “that primitive communism which was the normal condition of all human groups before the dawn of civilization.” (XI)