Eddy[_2_]
December 25th 07, 09:46 PM
it was false? Had it not been
exposed long ago as a fallacy? There was even a name for it, which he had
forgotten. A faint smile twitched the corners of O'Brien's mouth as he
looked down at him.
'I told you, Winston,' he said, 'that metaphysics is not your strong
point. The word you are trying to think of is solipsism. But you are
mistaken. This is not solipsism. Collective solipsism, if you like. But
that is a different thing: in fact, the opposite thing. All this is a
digression,' he added in a different tone. 'The real power, the power we
have to fight for night and day, is not power over things, but over men.'
He paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster
questioning a promising pupil: 'How does one man assert his power over
another, Winston?'
Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.
'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is
suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his
own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human
minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own
choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It
is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old
reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torm
exposed long ago as a fallacy? There was even a name for it, which he had
forgotten. A faint smile twitched the corners of O'Brien's mouth as he
looked down at him.
'I told you, Winston,' he said, 'that metaphysics is not your strong
point. The word you are trying to think of is solipsism. But you are
mistaken. This is not solipsism. Collective solipsism, if you like. But
that is a different thing: in fact, the opposite thing. All this is a
digression,' he added in a different tone. 'The real power, the power we
have to fight for night and day, is not power over things, but over men.'
He paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster
questioning a promising pupil: 'How does one man assert his power over
another, Winston?'
Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.
'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is
suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his
own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human
minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own
choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It
is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old
reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torm