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Appropriate?

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Anonymous:
A Party member is expected to have no private emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. He is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party. The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce a sceptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline. The first and simplest stage in the discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak, crimestop. Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. 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.

Anonymous:
is this from a book or just your head?

Froderik:
I recognize it from Orwell's classic novel "1984" (which I read for the first time while in Straight, Inc. in the year 1984. How's that for irony?)

I also read "A Clockwork Orange" while I was in there...

Antigen:
Ya know, sometimes I have to agree with those who say Va Straight was a cake walk by comparison to some other locations. In Sarasota, things like daze off and reading 'priviledges' were purely theoretical. They kept us all so thoroughly occupied and sleep deprived that all anybody ever did when they had time was to sleep. If you tried to double up and read while the newcomers were around you'd run the risk of being reported for turning your back on your newcomer. And I never would have run the risk of reading something as controversial as 1984 or CO.

BuzzKill:

--- Quote from: ""Scarlett Chiclet"" ---Ya know, sometimes I have to agree with those who say Va Straight was a cake walk by comparison to some other locations. In Sarasota, things like daze off and reading 'priviledges' were purely theoretical. They kept us all so thoroughly occupied and sleep deprived that all anybody ever did when they had time was to sleep. If you tried to double up and read while the newcomers were around you'd run the risk of being reported for turning your back on your newcomer. And I never would have run the risk of reading something as controversial as 1984 or CO.
--- End quote ---


As an outsider looking in - I would also be surprised at anyone in Straight safely reading either book. I have always been astounded that reading was prohibited the way it was - That is one of the many aspects of the whole thing that was hard to believe at first. But being as its true - I would think it would take a brave (or crazy) soul to pick such reading material when allowed.

Fro - where you thumbing your nose (so to speak) with those two choices?  Or where those around you so ignorant of literature they had no clue what you were reading - and how it might pertain to them?

I always preferred Animal Farm to 1984. 1984 was just so depressing. I once read clockwork orange - but I can't remember much about it. I do recall the basic premise of corse - but couldn't bring up a single detail if I had to.

BTW Chicklet - seen any good movies lately?

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