The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.

Political chaos is connected with the decay of language... one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.

A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance, this new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact.

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.

It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children

The result of this is that so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda. Like war propaganda, it concentrates on putting forward a ‘case’, obscuring the opponent’s point of view and avoiding awkward questions.

The Catholic and the Communist are alike in assuming that an opponent cannot be both honest and intelligent.