> Anyway, there is a word in 1984: duckspeak. Now, my impression of the word was that it meant to speak constantly without any actual thought behind it. My teacher says that the word means to say something which can be interpreted at either good or bad depending on who you are talking to. I still agree with my opinion, but of those who have read 1984 am I the only one?

I don't think I've read the book 1984 since the year 1984, so my memory may be wrong -- but I thought the term was "quacktalk", or possibly "quackspeak". And I agree with your interpretation of its meaning. What your teacher describes is "doubletalk" ("doublespeak"?).

> When we first started reading this book my English teacher used it as an excuse to tell us that the government was running our lives. Now I disbelieve that everyone in America agrees with my teacher, but do a lot of people believe this? I have always felt that I had a lot of freedom and that my governmental system was just. Especially after taking Government and Politics the system, to me, seems to be working the way it was intended. Then, I ask myself, why are there so many people who think that our government is corrupt and needs constant surveillance? Any ideas?

The system itself as conceived by the founders of our government is pretty sound. I guess people's doubts hang on the possibility that gov't officials are exploiting their power to circumvent the way in which the system is *supposed* to work. That fear leeches away some of the enjoyment of freedom -- we worry that our freedom is illusory or isn't truly secure; it could be taken away at any time by the gov't.

I choose to ignore the question of whether and to what extent Secret Conspiracies™ in the gov't are plotting to keep me pacified with the illusion of freedom while advancing their own private agendas. All I could do would be to fret in the absence of any hard information, and you can't live like that.

Apart from conspiracy theories, there's certainly always the danger that the government will enact (possibly) well-intended but ultimately wrong-headed legislation that chips away at individual freedom. But we can do something about that by staying informed on the issues that are up for consideration by our Congress. A reasonably well-informed American populace has the power to protect its own freedoms. If our freedom diminishes, it's most likely because we tacitly complied in the process.

Iss "a double-plus-good question" achar