“It was as though some huge force were pressing down upon you – something that penetrated inside your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of your senses. In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable…what then?”
Winston 1984
Thinking about this quote, we should probably adopt the number 4 to go with the ‘rebellion’ against this crap.
LOL, glad to see others including some well known people share my thoughts. I’m not in the inner circle of a party, but I sure understand where he’s coming from.
His recitation sounds like what you feel like when going through a divorce. You begin to question everything. Is the reality I saw, the actual reality, or was I merely shaping a reality that was acceptable to me, not entirely accurate, not entirely honest even with myself?
Second guessing... it’s not just for everyone. LOL