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Ignorance is Strength

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Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby Angry_Chimp » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 20:15:56

"In our society, those who have the best knowledge of what is happening are also those who are furthest from seeing the world as it is. In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.

One clear illustration of this is the fact that war hysteria increases in intensity as one rises in the social scale. Those whose attitude towards the war is most nearly rational are the subject peoples of the disputed territories. To these people the war is simply a continuous calamity which sweeps to and fro over their bodies like a tidal wave. Which side is winning is a matter of complete indifference to them. They are aware that a change of overlordship means simply that they will be doing the same work as before for new masters who treat them in the same manner as the old ones. The slightly more favoured workers whom we call 'the proles' are only intermittently conscious of the war. When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies of fear and hatred, but when left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods that the war is happening. It is in the ranks of the Party, and above all of the Inner Party, that the true war enthusiasm is found. World-conquest is believed in most firmly by those who know it to be impossible. This peculiar linking-together of opposites -- knowledge with ignorance, cynicism with fanaticism -- is one of the chief distinguishing marks of society.

If human equality is to be for ever averted -- if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently -- then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity."
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Re: Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby roccman » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 20:20:47

Honey!!!!!

Git my flag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

911 got out agin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Excellent post AC.
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins
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Re: Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby MD » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 20:26:02

Since you've used quote marks I'll assume it's a quote. Give authorship credits, please.
Thanks!
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Re: Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby mekrob » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 20:33:09

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', 'S')ince you've used quote marks I'll assume it's a quote. Give authorship credits, please.
Thanks!


Take a portion of the quote, type it into Google (although copy and paste is faster and better) and look it up. => George Orwell, 1984. Although that should be the first guess given the title.

But yes, quotes should have sources given so that 100 people don't have to search for it themselves as that's a waste of time.
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Re: Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby Angry_Chimp » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 20:57:24

I thought it would be obvious who it was from, my bad.


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Angry_Chimp', '"') The slightly more favoured workers whom we call 'the proles' are only intermittently conscious of the war. "


More on the "proles" from Orwell.

"In reality very little was known about the proles. It was not necessary to know much. So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern. They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming-period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. A few agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumours and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous; but no attempt was made to indoctrinate them with the ideology of the Party. It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.
... There was a vast amount of criminality, a whole world-within-a-world of thieves, bandits, prostitutes, drug-peddlers, and racketeers of every description; but since it all happened among the proles themselves, it was of no importance. In all questions of morals they were allowed to follow their ancestral code. The sexual puritanism of the Party was not imposed upon them. Promiscuity went unpunished, divorce was permitted. For that matter, even religious worship would have been permitted if the proles had shown any sign of needing or wanting it. They were beneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: 'Proles and animals are free.'"
“A utilitarian civilization will always go on to its logical conclusion – forced labor camps.”
~Romain Gary
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Re: Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby MD » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 21:01:09

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', 'S')ince you've used quote marks I'll assume it's a quote. Give authorship credits, please.
Thanks!


Take a portion of the quote, type it into Google (although copy and paste is faster and better) and look it up. => George Orwell, 1984. Although that should be the first guess given the title.

But yes, quotes should have sources given so that 100 people don't have to search for it themselves as that's a waste of time.


Right on both counts!

I tried reading 1984 again a year or so ago. Couldn't get into it. It was a big favorite too.
Stop filling dumpsters, as much as you possibly can, and everything will get better.

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It's not hard to do.
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Re: Ignorance is Strength

Unread postby Aaron » Sat 03 Nov 2007, 11:36:10

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')fterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant. The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing. Besides, legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it. Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie. And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.


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The problem is, of course, that not only is economics bankrupt, but it has always been nothing more than politics in disguise... economics is a form of brain damage.

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