E. Y. Triplette, C.L.U.
December 20th 07, 07:05 AM
in disposing of the fallacy, and he was in no
danger of succumbing to it. He realized, nevertheless, that it ought never
to have occurred to him. The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a
dangerous thought presented itself. The process should be automatic,
instinctive. Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak.
He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop. He presented himself
with propositions -- 'the Party says the earth is flat', 'the party says
that ice is heavier than water' -- and trained himself in not seeing or not
understanding the arguments that contradicted them. It was not easy. It
needed great powers of reasoning and improvisation. The arithmetical
problems raised, for instance, by such a statement as 'two and two make
five' were beyond his intellectual grasp. It needed also a sort of
athleticism of mind, an ability at one moment to make the most delicate use
of logic and at the next to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors.
Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.
All the while, with one part of his mind, he wondered how soon they
would shoot him. 'Everything depends on yourself,' O'Brien had said; but he
knew that there was no conscious act by which he could bring it nearer. It
might be ten minutes hence, or ten years. They might keep him for years in
solitary confinement, they might send him to a labour-camp, they might
release him for a while, as they sometimes did. It was perfectly possible
that before he was shot the whole drama of his arrest and interrogation
would be enacted all over again. The one certain thing was that death never
came at an expected moment. The tradition -- the unspoken tradition:
somehow
danger of succumbing to it. He realized, nevertheless, that it ought never
to have occurred to him. The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a
dangerous thought presented itself. The process should be automatic,
instinctive. Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak.
He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop. He presented himself
with propositions -- 'the Party says the earth is flat', 'the party says
that ice is heavier than water' -- and trained himself in not seeing or not
understanding the arguments that contradicted them. It was not easy. It
needed great powers of reasoning and improvisation. The arithmetical
problems raised, for instance, by such a statement as 'two and two make
five' were beyond his intellectual grasp. It needed also a sort of
athleticism of mind, an ability at one moment to make the most delicate use
of logic and at the next to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors.
Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.
All the while, with one part of his mind, he wondered how soon they
would shoot him. 'Everything depends on yourself,' O'Brien had said; but he
knew that there was no conscious act by which he could bring it nearer. It
might be ten minutes hence, or ten years. They might keep him for years in
solitary confinement, they might send him to a labour-camp, they might
release him for a while, as they sometimes did. It was perfectly possible
that before he was shot the whole drama of his arrest and interrogation
would be enacted all over again. The one certain thing was that death never
came at an expected moment. The tradition -- the unspoken tradition:
somehow