Newsgroup: it.scienza.ambiente
Titolo: Re: CA HSR to use Pacheco Pass

It  includes the power  of not  grasping analogies, of failing to
perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they
are  inimical  to Ingsoc,  and of being  bored or repelled  by any train of
thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in
short,  means protective  stupidity. But  stupidity is  not enough.  On the
contrary,  orthodoxy  in the  full sense  demands a  control over one's own
mental  processes  as complete  as that  of a  contortionist over his body.
Oceanic  society  rests  ultimately  on  the belief  that  Big  Brother  is
omnipotent  and that  the Party  is infallible.  But since  in reality  Big
Brother  is  not omnipotent and the  party is not infallible, there is need
for  an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts.
The  keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has
two  mutually contradictory  meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the
habit  of impudently  claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the
plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say
that  black is  white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also
the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is
white,  and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands
a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought
which  really embraces  all the  rest, and  which is  known in  Newspeak as
doublethink.
     The  alteration of the past is necessary for two reasons, one of which
is  subsidiary  and, so  to speak, precautio

to Syme.  But Syme was not only
dead,  he was  abolished, an  unperson. Any  identifiable reference  to him
would  have  been mortally dangerous.  O'Brien's remark must obviously have
been  intended  as  a  signal,  a  codeword. By  sharing  a  small  act  of
thoughtcrime  he had  turned the  two of  them into  accomplices. They  had
continued  to stroll slowly down the corridor, but now O'Brien halted. With
the curious, disarming friendliness that he always managed to put in to the
gesture he resettled his spectacles on his nose. Then he went on:
     'What  I had really intended to say was that in your article I noticed
you  had used  two words  which have  become obsolete.  But they  have only
become  so  very recently. Have you  seen the tenth edition of the Newspeak
Dictionary?'
     'No,'  said  Winston. 'I didn't  think it had  been issued yet. We are
still using the ninth in the Records Department.'
     'The  tenth  edition is not due  to appear for some months, I believe.
But  a few advance copies have been circulated. I have one myself. It might
interest you to look at it, perhaps?'
     'Very much so,' said Winston, immediately seeing where this tended.
     'Some of the new developments are most ingenious. The reduction in the
number  of verbs -- that is the point that will appeal to you, I think. Let
me  see,  shall I  send a  messenger to you  with the  dictionary? But I am
afraid I invariably forget anything of that kind. Perhaps you could pick it
up  at  my flat  at some  time that  

These translations were a slow
and difficult business, and it was not expected that they would be finished
before  the first  or second decade of the twenty-first century. There were
also  large quantities  of merely  utilitarian literature  -- indispensable
technical  manuals, and the like -- that had to be treated in the same way.
It  was  chiefly  in order  to  allow  time  for  the preliminary  work  of
translation  that the final adoption of Newspeak had been fixed for so late
a date as 2050.
        1949
________
[1]  Newspeak  was the official language  of Oceania. For an account of its
structure and etymology see Appendix.
[2]  Compound words such as speakwrite, were of course to be found in the A
vocabulary,  but these  were  merely convenient  abbreviations  and had  no
special ideologcal colour.
        THE END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GEORGE ORWELL: 'NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR', A NOVEL
First published by Secker & Warburg, London in 1949
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Nineteen Eighty-Four'
Appendix
THE PRINCIPLES OF NEWSPEAK
Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to
meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year
1984 there was not as yet anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of
communication, either in speech or writing. The leading articles in the
Times were written in it, but this was a tour de force which could only
be carried o

to make amends.
     Some  time after  their release Winston had actually seen all three of
them  in the  Chestnut  Tree  Cafe. He  remembered  the  sort of  terrified
fascination  with which  he had watched them  out of the corner of his eye.
They  were men  far older than himself, relics of the ancient world, almost
the  last  great figures left  over from the heroic  days of the Party. The
glamour  of the  underground struggle and the civil war still faintly clung
to  them. He  had the feeling, though  already at that time facts and dates
were  growing  blurry, that he had  known their names years earlier than he
had  known that  of  Big  Brother. But  also  they  were outlaws,  enemies,
untouchables, doomed with absolute certainty to extinction within a year or
two.  No one who  had once fallen into the hands of the Thought Police ever
escaped in the end. They were corpses waiting to be sent back to the grave.
     There was no one at any of the tables nearest to them. It was not wise
even  to be seen  in the neighbourhood of such people. They were sitting in
silence  before glasses  of the  gin flavoured  with cloves  which was  the
speciality  of  the cafe. Of the  three, it was Rutherford whose appearance
had most impressed Winston. Rutherford had once been a famous caricaturist,
whose  brutal cartoons  had helped  to inflame  popular opinion  before and
during  the Revolution.  Even now,  at  long intervals,  his cartoons  were
appearing  in the  Times.  They were  simply an  imitation  of his  earlier
manner,  and  curiously  lifeless  and unconvincing.  Always  they  were  a
rehashing  of the  ancient  themes --  slum  tenements, starving  children,
street  battles, capitalists  in top  hats --  even on  the barricades  the
capitalists  still  seemed to cling to  their top hats an endless, hopeless
effort  to get  back into the past. He  was a monstrous man, w