1984, or Orwell Was Only 20 Years Off

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Compare the following quote, from 1984, to the quote from the "senior White House aide" from a few days ago:

O'Brien's manner grew stern again. He laid his hand on the dial.

'On the contrary,' he said, 'you have not controlled it. That is what has brought you here. You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.'

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I never read 1984 in school a nd I picked it up a few years ago. I didn't make it through the whole thing. Stuff like what you posted about made me too uncomfortable, so I put it down. Haven't picked it back up again, but I will someday.

I believe that part of the point of Orwell's writing was that it's supposed to make you uncomfortable.

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