I can’t listen to much news (or what now passes for news) and especially during election years without being reminded of the 2-minute hates. These were a form of public manipulation George Orwell described in his novel, 1984. If anything, these are more relevant now than in Orwell’s fictional world because much of our “news” is now presented to us in segments lasting 2 minutes or less.
This raises another one of those chicken-egg questions: are we offered these snippets because our attention spans are so short and our critical thinking skills so limited that’s all we can handle? Or have our attention spans become shorter and have we lost our critical thinking skills because such a limited diet has caused them to atrophy from disuse?
But more germane to this podcast, do some insecure animals use hates to divert attention from their own inadequacies the way some insecure people do?
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Great podcast Myrna! I just re-read 1984 for the 3rd time so your podcast had a little extra significance for me.
Critical thinking has been on the wane, and I am hoping your podcast shed some light on that. I also found it fascinating how you used “newspeak” to give us insights into animal behavior.
loved this…thought it was funny too that I ACTUALLY have Orwell’s book! However, is it any surprise I don’t recall it vividly! I’ll leave it out and maybe I will read it…perhaps it will have a new significance now 😎
BTW,since you don’t have the share buttons anymore, i’ve assumed we are not supposed to share these posts…is this correct?
You’re free to share these with anyone you want, Joyce.
Thanks, Kim. There’s nothing quite like an election year to bring out the lack of critical thinking skills. 🙂