“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the earth’s center. With the feeling that he was speaking to O’Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote:
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
Orwell has been quoted a lot lately, and with good reason. Have you read “1984,” or has it been a while? I think it’s a good idea to read or reread it now, so I’ve added an extra book club next month: please join us on February 10th to discuss, and to be with our community to support one another.
Our minds and hearts are with the people of Minneapolis. That being said, I am asking that if you don’t already own a copy of 1984, please buy one from a Minneapolis bookseller on https://bookshop.org/— you can search for one in the store locator— they could use all our support right now.
