Cristian Miron answers “Why do people rate this book so high? ...”

Wilma asked this question about 1984:

Why do people rate this book so high? Surely I am missing something.

Cristian Miron This book has endless ramifications to our daily life. Even more, it's a scarry idea shown in the book, that "Power is not a means, it is an end".

Quot…moreThis book has endless ramifications to our daily life. Even more, it's a scarry idea shown in the book, that "Power is not a means, it is an end".

Quote:

‘And now let us get back to the question of “how” and “why”. You understand well enough HOW the Party maintains itself in power. Now tell me WHY we cling to power. What is our motive? Why should we want power?

[…]

‘Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?’(less)

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Cristian Miron Have you even wondered why very rich people always want more? It's not like they would be able to spent all their money during their life time and pro ...more
Jan 25, 2015 12:16PM · flag

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