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September 26, 2004
A SELECTION FROM GEORGE ORWELL'S 1984
It just seemed appropriate to post a passage from this story today. So here you are - excerpts from 1984.
A Party member is... supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party...
But stupidity is not enough. On the contrary, orthodoxy in the full sense demands a control over one's own mental processes as complete as that of a contortionist over his body. Oceanic society rests ultimately on the belief that Big Brother is omnipotent and that the Party is infallible. But since in reality Big Brother is not omnipotent and the Party is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The key word here is "blackwhite." Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings.
Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink.
Think of whoever this makes you think of... I'm not in any position to tell you who you see parallels to. I suspect, however, than 97% of us are thinking of the same person.
