The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Book Club

George Orwell’s 1984 contains excerpts from a fictional book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism.  Orwell provides a short passage from Chapter 1, entitled “Ignorance is Strength” and a much longer passage from Chapter 3, entitled “War Is Peace.”  Although 1984 is a work of dystopian fiction, TPOC has long struck me as a profound work of social science.   The book is a wonderful meditation on not only totalitarianism (especially Stalinism), but politics itself.

The upshot: I’ve...