War is Peace

These three value-equivalencies may be difficult for a non-believer such as you to understand. In your world, to be free is to make choices. You think that to be ignorant is to be uninformed, believing this will lead to an incorrect approach to any issue. War and peace are, in your obsolete version of the English language, antonyms. You are mistaken on all three accounts. Only when we approach these three basic truths from the perspective of English Socialism, can their untainted and pure meaning be understood.

In our modern world, we, along with and our ally East Asia, are constantly at war with Eurasia. It has never been any other way. This war serves both to fuel our economy and keep the masses from obtaining any further freedoms. (Of course, I am using the definition of “freedom” as you understand it, for clarity. If I were speaking with a fellow party member, there would be no need to address the subject, because it has never been and never will be an issue.)

Since this war has been in progress forever, and will always be in progress, there can be no winner or loser. Neither can there be any threat of further conflict, since our societies are already at war. In the stagnation of our situation we have achieved what no truce could ever do: we have eliminated the threat of escalation and frozen our war in history forever. Our population does not become rowdy, revolutionary, or unsatisfied with progress (as so often happens in the absence of war). The peace that has been achieved through a war, limited in scale but limitless in time, is the greatest state of elevation a society can reach.

This ultimate state of elevation would not be possible without a population that is free, yet fully devoted to the one true cause. In your day, you are burdened by others’ irresponsibility, forced to act of your own accord to survive. In your time, you are forced to think, and to make choices that ultimately leave you exactly where you started. Against nature’s will, you have been distorted to such an extent that you cannot survive without your “own” thoughts; you are unable to exist without using your mind. When I use the word “free”, I refer to the one true freedom: the ability to exist without the ultimate burden, the burden of consciousness and conscience. Humans today are entirely free from thought, and they are therefore entirely subject to Big Brother’s will. Their enslavement is the key to their freedom.

Every member of our society thinks exactly as Big Brother would have him or her think. If a member of the public were to claim, for example, that we are at war with Eurasia (when it is common knowledge that Eurasia has always been our ally), it would be necessary for our common safety to eliminate this incorrect thought. Those not well practised in the art of doublethink cannot be forgiven; to think unorthodoxly is to think something unthinkable, which is only possible for the insane, a non-person. These people who do not exist must be systematically removed to ensure their continued non-existence. The ignorant, on the other hand, pose no such threat. Though their stupidity is regrettable, the ignorant are willing to agree with Big Brother; they understand his point of view even when they do not comprehend it. This is double plus good, both for Big Brother, and for their continued survival in Ingsoc. The ability of the ignorant to survive where the self-proclaimed intellectuals die out is definitive proof of the final party slogan. oIgnorance is Strength.

Though it may seem unlikely at this point, I promise that in time you will learn to accept this. Once you have understood and agreed with it, you may forget you ever knew it until such time as it becomes necessary once again to know. The only constant in your life from now on is your love for Big Brother, which, as you will become aware, has always been as strong as it will be.