Jim Shaner’s Reviews > 1984 > Status Update

Finished the story.

"What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?"

Modern political discussions are rife with "doublethink," the simultaneous promulgating of 2 contradictory ideas. "For it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely."

"A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors. The Party is not concerned with perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself. Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same."