“…In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything , and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird…”
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part II, Chapter 5
There are no visible borders separating the place known as “Canada” from the Orwellian Canada. The two are separated by an invisible wall created by Big Brother through control over every aspect of life of those living in the Orwellian Canada. This effectively means control over the minds of its inhabitants and explains why the Orwellian Canada is, first and foremost, a particular state of mind superimposed on those living there and not a piece of land surrounded by barbed wire.
There are two kinds of people in the Orwellian Canada. The majority find themselves there as a result of Big Brother’s precautionary policy of ensuring submission of the masses through mind control. Due to the drudgery that they have to live with and that makes them barely conscious of anything outside their daily lives most are not even aware that they are there. Then there are those who wind up in the Orwellian Canada because they are perceived by Big Brother as a threat to his rule due to their thoughts and actions. Some of those living on the other side of this invisible wall, that is, in the Canada that is known to the outside world, are aware of the Orwellian Canada, but they do not acknowledge its existence for fear that even the mere act of accepting this fact may one day land them on the wrong side of the wall.
Big Brother is particularly wary of those among the second kind who underwent Transformation, − he has no control over Transformation and everything uncontrollable imperils the established order of things in the Orwellian Canada. Besides, those transformed enjoy freedoms denied to all others, such as Freedom of Flight. Big Brother expects his subjects to crawl, while those transformed do not crawl, − they fly. Transformation makes them fearless. This lack of fear is due to their knowledge and understanding of the reality of the Orwellian Canada acquired through Freedom of Flight, − those who crawl do not see beyond their noses, while those who fly see far and wide. They present a double threat to Big Brother’s rule since Freedom of Flight is infectious and they infect with this freedom others. The only way to deal with those transformed is through erasure, − their elimination and destruction of every trace of their existence. Since Big Brother prides his regime on compassion and care for others − one of the many myths on which the Orwellian Canada is built − erasure is carried out in most inconspicuous ways and usually looks like death due to natural causes.
Freedom of Flight also challenges one of the main slogans trumpeted throughout the Orwellian Canada: “I own, therefore I am”. To make his subjects embrace unconditionally this slogan is important for Big Brother to keep the masses under control and perpetuate his rule. He does not need to use any force or re-education camps to this end. All he needs is Big Bank that he uses as an instrument of “soft control” through fear and illusionary ownership, − the fear of the failure to pay one’s mortgage or rent, one’s car loan or credit card, and the illusion of ownership that is easy to create since the majority of those in the Orwellian Canada have lost the capacity to comprehend one simple truth. It does not matter how much money one has or how many assets one owns because sooner or later all this money and all these assets leave one’s hands or the hands of one’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to wind up, albeit in a different form or shape, in the hands of Big Bank and, ultimately, in the hands of Big Brother. It should be noted here that the distinction between the two is becoming increasingly blurry as the Orwellian Canada moves closer and closer to becoming a bankocracy.
It is a perfect system not only because it creates the illusion of ownership that helps Big Brother keep the masses in check, but also because it offers them a false sense of happiness, − in the Orwellian Canada happiness is equated with ownership, and the ever-present fear of losing something that one does not really own is an effective instrument of control.
Freedom of Flight means freedom not only from Big Brother’s control but also from this illusionary ownership, − one does not need to own anything in particular when one can fly anywhere and do anything, when one owns the entire world…
When she found herself in the Orwellian Canada she decided to create the EcoGarden, not only because she deeply cared about Nature, but also because those whom she knew and trusted quietly and predictably disappeared from her life. Common knowledge had it that it was safer to stay away from the likes of her who openly criticized Big Brother. The EcoGarden gave her an opportunity to strike up new friendships, with the Monarch Butterfly becoming one of her best friends. She admired the Monarch not only for its beauty, strength and intelligence, but also for Freedom of Flight that the Monarch enjoyed; she admired the Monarch because it reminded her that she was born to fly and not to crawl:
OUR ORWELLIAN CANADA 