jaylar
O’Brien continues to explain;
” There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever. Make that the starting-point of your thoughts.’
O’Brien explains how the Party maintains itself in power. Then asks Winston;
“What is our motive? Why should we want power?”
Winston was silent. He was tired. He knew what O’Brien would say. That the Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power as people were frail cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves.
That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better.
The terrible thing, thought Winston was that O’Brien believed it.
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?
