Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thoughtcrime and the Thought Police
So what do you guys think about this idea of Thoughtcrime and the Thought Police? Is thinking about committing a crime the same thing as committing one? The book calls it "the essential crime" (pg 19). What's up with that? (Hehe...watch out for the the Thought Police!)
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7 comments:
tanya k. per3
I think that the thought police and thoughtcrime is stupid. Thinking of doing something is totally different than actually doing it. If you can't think of doing it and can't think of not doing it then you are more likely to do it. Thinking is what helps people decide not to do the things they are thinking of doing.
As for the "essential crime". I think it is called that because if Winston decides to go through with the crime, then it will decide what happens to the place they live in. Will that place be Big Brother free or will Winston get caught and the place will be Winston free?
Tanya...that's way too existential for this guy to get his head around, but I think you do a great job trying to articulate that problem.
Thing is, if it is illegal to think, then the govt. can lock up anyone for the littlest shred of evidence of dissent. It makes it easy to keep control.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: Thoughtcrime IS death" (pg. 28). It seems to me this book is trying to say that you can't hide from yourself forever, and that sooner or later your thoughts betray you. Winston worries about his inkstained fingers, and about his facial expressions. We notice others "disappearing" for discussing the wrong things in public, etc. The government in this book doesn't grant its citizens the right to free speech like we do, and they seem to arrest people for the smallest things. Do the citizens of Oceana have ANY rights? I haven't noticed any...aren't we lucky that we do?
i think from what i read so far is that there is oppression, and that winston starts to describe what the government does and in london how things work..for example when something happens they change the dates and make it look like it happened on that date and who ever finds out about it and trys to tell disapears and all their ids and such disapear to make it look like they never existed either.
Courtney...I think you're right...but do you think that "making people disappear" is something that can happen in our world today? Can you think of an example?
Kaczor
per 6/7
the thought police is something that can have a major influence on our world today that could help us and others with things that they think wouldnt seem right to do. Thoughts are thoughts but when they become true they can result in major consequencses !
For example:
take the recent incident at virginia tech. Imagine how the result would of changed and how many peoples life could have been saved.
But on the book the way it sounds to me is that when they catch u thinkig they can make you disapear ?
how would that be possible unless they used some kind of invention known to evaporate the human body lol
the way it seems is that they take there personal records and eliminate them forever and be placed in room 101.
Interesting to know.
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