AIG and Obama's Two-Minute Hate

Remember the “two-minute hate” in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four? Here is an accurate description of it from Wikipedia:

In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Two Minutes Hate (more properly, “Two Minutes’ Hate” or “Two-Minute Hate”) is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting The Party’s enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them and the principles of democracy.

The film and its accompanying auditory and visual cues (which include a grinding noise that Orwell describes as “of some monstrous machine running without oil”) are a form of brainwashing to Party members, attempting to whip them into a frenzy of hatred and loathing for Emmanuel Goldstein and the current enemy superstate. Apparently, it is not unknown for those caught up in the hate to physically assault the telescreen, as Julia does during the scene. The film becomes more surreal as it progresses, with Goldstein’s face morphing into a sheep as enemy soldiers advance on the viewers, before one such soldier charges at the screen, machine gun blazing. He morphs, finally, into the face of Big Brother at the end of the two minutes. At the end, the mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted viewers chant “BB” over and over again, ritualistically.

Orwell’s two-minute hate vividly illustrates the importance of scapegoats as a propaganda tool. The propagandist must give the masses a target for their hatred, lest it be turned toward the ruling regime. Well, the two minute hate is alive and well in America in 2009. Check out this clip from yesterday from Big Brother—err, rather, President Obama:

Now, let’s dissect that for a minute. Ignore all the bluster and fury and listen to what he actually said, or rather, and did not say. He didn’t say that the bonuses are illegal. Why? Because they are not. In fact, Senator Dodd inserted an amendment into the Porkulus that specifically proetcted the bonuses. Obama did say that Secretary Turbo Tax is going to “pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses.” Well, Mr. President, I am an attorney. Let me give you some free legal advice:

It’s a contract. You lose. Pay-up now, or pay more (attorney’s fees, costs, and a colorable claim for punitive damages) later.

Obama knows that. So does every other politician in Washington that is complaining about the bonuses. But the fact is that if you are really morally outraged about the bonuses, you should have let AIG file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Instead, you deemed them “too big to fail” and are left holding the bag (which, in this case, is filled with bonus contracts). And to be clear, when I say “you” deemed them “too bigg to fail,” I’m not limiting myself to Obama or the Democrats. I include W. and most of the Republican party in my condemnation.

But the truth is that this is all just a sideshow—a two-minute hate. Come America, the President is really saying, expend your energy hating AIG. Don’t look at what we’re doing in Washington. In fact, once again, Rick Santelli gets this one exactly right:

Hotair also has a nice discussion of the issue here.