01.10
The first fiction book of our 2012 book reading list is 1984, and I used the opportunity of a long road trip to listen to the audiobook. I’ve never read it before, and I have to say that it was simultaneously one of the best and one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. I finished it about 4 hours ago, yet I still feel the emotional tremors from it’s ending. Yes, it’s one of those books that grabs you by the emotions and shakes you to the bone.
Overall, I guess you could say that 1984 felt like two different books. The first half felt like simply a parabel of future society. But, the second half takes you deep into the evil that absolute power can produce in the mind of man. Whereas Ayn Rand’s Anthem was similar in it’s vision of where government would go in the future if it remained un-checked, 1984 was a much darker book. Anthem only gives you vague impressions of the people behind the curtain of government. 1984, in contrast, introduces you to them in their fullness.
Throughout the first two-thirds of the book, I kept running into phrases and whole sections that sounded like they perfectly described what we see in our own government today. It was, at times, uncanny. Here’s some that stood out to me about war:
“…in a physical sense war involves very small numbers of people, mostly highly-trained specialists, and causes comparatively few casualties. The fighting, when there is any, takes place on the vague frontiers whose whereabouts the average man can only guess at…”
“The primary aim of modern warfare .. is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living.”
“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labour power without producing anything that can be consumed.”
“War, it will be seen, accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way. In principle it would be quite simple to waste the surplus labour of the world by building temples and pyramids, by digging holes and filling them up again, or even by producing vast quantities of goods and then setting fire to them. But this would provide only the economic and not the emotional basis for a hierarchical society. What is concerned here is not the morale of masses, whose attitude is unimportant so long as they are kept steadily at work, but the morale of the Party itself. Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. In other words it is necessary that he should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war.”
“It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist.”
“…In past ages, a war, almost by definition, was something that sooner or later came to an end, usually in unmistakable victory or defeat… But when war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous there is no such thing as military necessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded. As we have seen, researches that could be called scientific are still carried out for the purposes of war, but they are essentially a kind of daydreaming, and their failure to show results is not important. Efficiency, even military efficiency, is no longer needed. Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the Thought Police.”
“The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair… The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word ‘war’, therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist.”
To say that this book is highly recommended is an understatement. It is a must read. But, make sure you carve out some time, because once you start reading it, you probably won’t put it down until you’re finished.
