This chapter starts off with a pseudo-epigraph from Winston's journal, "If there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles."
And then it's mostly him saying they just need to RISE UP. The party doesn't even bother trying to indoctrinate them, or even surveil them fully. (This is a different from the modern age, where the lower class is the easiest to surveil, since they're attached to smart phones 24/7.)
I like that jus primae noctis has become a right of the capitalists in the urban legends of the oppressive future.
It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the party was trying to achieve.
People talk about how prescient 1984 is, but I don't see this quote passed around a lot, and I think it's relevant. How many people today feel like nothing even matters? How much of the stuff people do obsess over obviously doesn't? He then goes on to describe how they're in a boring dystopia.
It's "the lonely hour fifteen". I'm starting to wonder if they're just in 24 hour time.
It's starting to sound like Oceania is just "The West". They talk about working with New York and Canada.
This is also the, "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." chapter.
I think people think too much about the thought police parts of 1984 and not enough about the denying reality parts.
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