October 2, 2005

'1984': Sound Familiar? part 4

Here are summore amazing quotes from George Orwell's "1984":

"...it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones..." (my emphasis)

"It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist."

The term "Inner Party" won't mean anything to you if you've never read the book. In "1984", there are three superstates. One is called Oceana. Oceana is governed by one political party that is simply refered to as "The Party". The class system of Oceana (from top to bottom) is Inner Party members, Outer Party members, and "the Proles". Inner Party members would probably be like what we just call "politicians".

1 comment:

Ron said...

Man, back in the early 80s when I read this book, it was taken as being much more about Soviet style totalitarianism: Brave New World was supposed to be about America. It's amazing how we now seem to truly flirting with fascism. I mean, this country, never as morally high-minded as it has pretended to be, has really taken a turn for the worse.

It's very cool that you're posting these Orwell quotes, Adam.