My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What is the Ministry of Truth in 2020?
I re-read this book 51 years after the first reading. The novel "1984" is surprisingly applicable to today's news. The Ministry of Truth, doublethink, unceasing warfare, ...
When I first read it at the age of 14, I had no appreciation for the philosophical, emotional and political descriptions in the book. I read them and missed the impact. What I recalled best was the advice "If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones." (I never found a reason to break the big rules in our society but it was encouraging that I was laying the ground work by keeping the small rules.)
I expected to find a boring read, but it was captivating. I enjoyed the story and the philosophical discussion this time around much more time than I did the first time. When I started this reading of "1984," I was tempted to dismiss the book as dated, dealing only with the impact of Stalin in the USSR. The story is meaningful today. What is truth, reality, history, and economics of warfare? What is the value of words such as crimethink (thought-crimes) and doublethink? The persuasion of the protagonist, Winston Smith, about the subjective nature of reality, almost drew me into belief. It filled some of the gaps in my understanding of the incentives for the existence of philosophical ideas from Plato's theory of forms to the silly ideas of Richard Rorty.
The appendix to 1984, "The Principles of Newspeak," distinguishes need for different levels of objective thought. Objective thought is needed in order to develop better weapons of warfare, or better ways of doing surveillance and brainwashing citizens. Subjective illusionary thought for the majority of the population is sufficient to sustain the society of Oceania in the novel "1984."
In "1984" the party does not educate the mass of the people. "They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have not intellect. In a Party member, on the other hand, not even the smallest deviation of opinion on the most unimportant subject can be tolerated." The party insures that this is the case.
"DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt."
I re-read this book 51 years after the first reading. The novel "1984" is surprisingly applicable to today's news. The Ministry of Truth, doublethink, unceasing warfare, ...
When I first read it at the age of 14, I had no appreciation for the philosophical, emotional and political descriptions in the book. I read them and missed the impact. What I recalled best was the advice "If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones." (I never found a reason to break the big rules in our society but it was encouraging that I was laying the ground work by keeping the small rules.)
I expected to find a boring read, but it was captivating. I enjoyed the story and the philosophical discussion this time around much more time than I did the first time. When I started this reading of "1984," I was tempted to dismiss the book as dated, dealing only with the impact of Stalin in the USSR. The story is meaningful today. What is truth, reality, history, and economics of warfare? What is the value of words such as crimethink (thought-crimes) and doublethink? The persuasion of the protagonist, Winston Smith, about the subjective nature of reality, almost drew me into belief. It filled some of the gaps in my understanding of the incentives for the existence of philosophical ideas from Plato's theory of forms to the silly ideas of Richard Rorty.
The appendix to 1984, "The Principles of Newspeak," distinguishes need for different levels of objective thought. Objective thought is needed in order to develop better weapons of warfare, or better ways of doing surveillance and brainwashing citizens. Subjective illusionary thought for the majority of the population is sufficient to sustain the society of Oceania in the novel "1984."
In "1984" the party does not educate the mass of the people. "They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have not intellect. In a Party member, on the other hand, not even the smallest deviation of opinion on the most unimportant subject can be tolerated." The party insures that this is the case.
"DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt."
