Students for an Orwellian Society (SOS) is a nationwide student
group. Although SOS has always been a nationwide student group, there is
evidence to suggest that it first appeared at Columbia University. The mission of
SOS is to promote the vision of a society based upon the principles of
Ingsoc, first articulated
by George Orwell in his prophetic novel, 1984.
As an Oceania-wide organization, SOS has a number of local chapters.
For a partial listing, see our contact
section.
George Orwell
Doubleplusgood Book Collection Activity
Students for an Orwellian Society is proud to co-sponsor a book collection activity
wherein copies of the prophetic novel 1984 will be sent to
members of the U.S. House and
Senate who voted for the plusgood bill, the Military
Commissions Act. This offers the Innner Party members a token of our
thanks for their good work and guidance for their future activities. The Ministry of Love is
organizing the project.
Successes
As to be expected, SOS has been quite successful. Since the events
of 11 September, we have been able to convince a number of
figures in national and local politics to help forward our aims. How
could they do otherwise?
Our successes can be shown to fit into the three major ideals of
Ingsoc as expressed by Orwell:
War Is Peace
Oceania (commonly called the US and Britain) is at war with Afghanistan Iraq.
Oceania has always been at war with AfghanistanIraq.
Just like in 1984's Room 101, the Miniluv operations in
Guantánamo Bay were
authorized to “exploit[] a prisoner's phobias, sometimes using
muzzled dogs in interrogations.” Doubleplusgood!
The Anti-Terrorism
Act ensures US citizens' freedom by ensuring the FBI's ability to
examine their activities.
Security cameras have been placed around the Columbia campus and
around the island of
Manhattan.
If you are buying postage, do not ask for
stamps without flags on them. Such would clearly be a sign of
lack-of-patriotism, and we at SOS are glad to see that the Post Office
is cracking down on it.
We encourage all true citizens of this country to join Operation
TIPS, which, we promise, will help further an Orwellian society in
ways that we at SOS cannot even begin to fathom.
While Victory Gin is not (as far as we know) yet available, the
sale of freedom
fries is an important first step; freedom fries and freedom
toast are also now available in
Congress. Also, check out Victory Beer, and W Ketchup
The truly Orwellian and praiseworthy Transportation Safety
Administration gets our thanks for spotting
anti-Americanism in passengers' baggage.
Flying while wearing certain buttons may not be permitted.
It is, apparently, okay to wear a button saying, “Hooray for Tony
Blair,” though.
Similarly, carrying a note stating
that you do not have a bomb in your bag is equivalent to saying that you
do have a bomb.
When flying, you may use the toilet. However, if it is occupied,
do notwait
in line for it to become free. Only a terrorist would do that.
We've been notified that Apple Computer company, which once made
public anti-Orwellianism pronouncements, is now coming
around to our side. (Note: Link contains a quicktime movie.)
The Junior Anti-Sex League is offering
grants to organizations which support its work.
A student in Washington state was disciplined and questioned by the
Secret Service for drawing ungood
pictures of the President.
On surveillance cameras: “The value we gain in public safety
far outweighs any perception by the community that this is Big Brother
who's watching.” — Ron
Huberman, Executive Director, Chicago Office of Emergency
Management
Wearing a t-shirt which says “Protect Our Civil
Liberties” is, of course, obscene, and will get you kicked out
of Bush campaign rallies.
Osama bin Laden's messages will no longer be shown
in Oceania. This will improve the strength of the bloc.
There is no dissent in this country. Those who disagree with
President Bush are merely confused.
The New York Times published an excellent piece of doublethink in its magazine
section on Sunday 18 November. It is bad that Al-Jazeera fails to take
American positions seriously. It is good that American media doesn't
take Arab positions seriously. And all this from an Arab-American
scholar who President Bush the First once called “more
anti-Arab than the Israelis.”
The Guardian reports that PR firms have begun
creating false citizens to try and shift the debate on certain key
issues. Big Brother is certainly pleased!
Do not wear a “Give Peace a Chance” t-shirt at the mall,
or carry a protest sign when passing through. It may be
illegal.
It's good to know that the recent pro-war rallies have been sponsored by Clear Channel—we wouldn't
want people expressing their opinions without the help of media
conglomerates!
We're pleased to learn that the government has been
removing information from websites which do not agree with the
current administration's policies. For example, the CDC's website no
longer points out that condoms are an effective means of stopping
sexually transmitted diseases.
A teacher was arrested in Tampa, Florida because a
bookmark she was carrying is a concealed weapon.
Thank the Department of Homeland Security for not forgetting Poland but
instead protecting
us from dangerous 12-year-old Polish choir boys.
Failures
Any reports of failure are almost certainly lies, the work of
thoughtcriminals. Kindly ignore them. SOS does not fail.
T-Shirt Design Contest
We're considering printing SOS T-Shirts. Please email Minitrue with your
designs. If we like one of them enough to print up a bunch, we'll send
the artist a free shirt or two, as well as some other incentives if we
come up with any. We're more inclined to print designs that use a small
number of colors (one or two). The rules and entries
thus far have been posted.
Posters
It is the duty of all citizens to print out 300 posters weekly and
place them around campus. We may be monitoring you at any time. For your
convenience, we provide posters here. You need Acrobat
Reader, version 5.0 or later, to view them. This
product is made by Adobe, a company which we greatly admire.
SOS is pleased to present a special flyer about
ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps and a truly Orwellian
organization. We know you find it useful.
News Service
The SOS
chapter at Berkeley has constructed a goodspeak
news service which will “translate news pages about the
present peace conflict in Eurasia into standard, Ministry of
Truth-approved goodspeak”. You can also view the goodspeak
versions of The
International Herald-Tribune, CNN, or FOX
News.
The Empty
Space Theatre in Seattle and the Catalyst Theatre
Company in Washington, DC held productions of 1984. Both
productions started in late January, 2004, and continued through the end
of February. While not directly sponsored by SOS, these productions will
help spread the word about Ingsoc, and for this, we salute them.
Similarly, The Orwell
Project is presented performances of 1984 and
Animal Farm in February and early March at the Connelly
Theater in New York City. Party members who attended a performance
highly recommend it.
The 1984 + 20 Project
organized public readings of 1984 on April 4, 2004. See
their website for more information.
The National Council of Teachers of
English is sponsoring a similarly-named but otherwise unrelated
event called 1984+20, in which
students will relate the issues raised in Orwell's work to the modern
world.
Contact Us
We already know what you're thinking. There's no use hiding. To
report incidents of aberrant behavior or thought among your
classmates, please email miniluv@studentsfororwell.org. Also,
our group is so successful that sometimes we miss reports of our own
success. If you find one, please email minitrue@studentsfororwell.org.
If our other ministries wish to hear from you, they will contact you
directly.
