At the end of Part One, the two profound thoughts that Winston Smith writes in his diary are these:
"I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY."
"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
Share your thoughts on both of these quotes.
11 comments:
Learning how to do something is simple, there is a problem and a way to find a solution. But we are not always taught why knowing how to do something is important. It is left as something one must know, to get into college. The reasons for doing something are unknown or vague, left that way for someone to find out on their own. Winston does not know why he does anything, the ideas and thoughts he thinks for some time just brainwashed in, until he starts thinking freely, knowing the risk of death. It is almost like school sometimes, taught things one may never use for a reason one may never know.
By having the freedom of thought to say 2+2=4, everything else can follow because people will gradually fight for the other freedoms and obtain them. From this, they can find out why things matter to them, or why knowing how do even add 2 and 2 to make 4 is important. People will lead others to have more freedom from their rulers or oppressors, and find their points of view. From there, they can try to change what they want to change and fight for themselves.
The Thought Police was created to stop people from finding out about the freedoms others may be enjoying elsewhere. They oppress the free thought of the people, brainwashing them to keep them from revolt and change. They can say 2 and 2 make 5, and the people would have no choice to agree, because there is no freedom. Without the basic freedom of thought, nothing else can come, because no one will think of them and no one will question why anything is done, it will just happen as the ones with power plan it out.
I think that really there doesn't need to be a 'why' in the Party's mind: more, a 'why not?' Doing what they are doing allows them to gain supreme power - what other reason do you need? It's like Emily said: Winston doesn't know why he's doing what he's doing, but he really doesn't know why not to. If we don't have a good reason not to do something, that doesn't usually stop us.
That being said, the freedom allowed by the simple act of addition does not necessarily represent freedom. Math is a set of rules - rules that are widely known and regarded, yes, but still a somewhat arbitrary rules nonetheless - that can be bended. If we simply follow what rules show us instead of facts, than freedom is more easily manipulated.
I agree that often in life we know something and how it works, but we don't necessarily know why it's there in the first place (why is it important to us?). A very good example that Emily mentioned was about school. We learn information that can sometimes appear to be useless. As a result, we have negative attitudes, wondering why we should spend our time learning this stuff. If we understand not only how to do something but why we do it, we would definitely have more clarity and understanding, and we would be more open-minded to whatever it is we are doing. In 1984, the Party forbids the people to freely think and gain a complete understanding of the structure of society and why it exists, fearing that the people will gain too much power. People are accused of being "thought criminals" and are "vaporized" because of the twitch of an eye or an unusual facial expression. This oppression and feeling of confinement leads Winston to despise the Party.
To say two plus two equals four could imply many different freedoms. It may be that it is the freedom to think logically and use common sense to guide your actions. Or it could be the freedom to openly express your beliefs, because for all we know, two plus two could equal five. We all can agree that we accept two plus two to equal four, which, like Erik said, is just a bunch of rules that we follow. I think what Winston intends is if the Party says that two plus two is five, he wants the freedom to say and believe that two and two is four. Though the Party thinks they must have complete control over the people, Winston believes granting freedom of thought to the people would be more beneficial to a society.
As with Winston's case, many people always question ideas and conventional customs because they want to see what value it actually has. Regarding the first quote, one can surely say that Winston's ambiguous situation is both a philosophical and personal question. On one hand, the uncertainties of life in London seem to overwhelm just a few people which bothers him. That is to say that he understands what the problem with his particular society is, but he is unsure as to why that is. In Winston's case, it is the hell of knowing versus the hell of not knowing which drives him to question his place. Generally feeling alone in this dilemma doesn't aid his situation either, yet knowing through glances of other comrades that he is not entirely a lone provides him with a false sense of comfort.
Regarding the second quote, I would have to agree with Michelle in that it is implying that thinking logically will have a domino affect on others on the notion that it will cause people to "clear the fog" and see things clearly. In today's modern society, we can safely say with confidence that two plus two is indeed four, but in 1984 it isn't that simple. Their government is constantly monitoring and tampering with knowledge and ideas as they see best suiting. So if they were to say to say that men and women were wrong all along and that two plus two actually equals five, many would believe it. I think Winston eventually learned this and saw that it would be a burden worth telling. That is not to say that everything would end up in a disney fashion, but as more people began to see the inhumane system which had been taking place for decades, they too would see reason as Winston did.
I agree with the general argument so far about the first quote. The "how" is understood because Winston feels he understands how to do his job. He understands "how" the party wants him to act and "how" Big Brother wants people to think (by not thinking). However, Winston cannot understand "why" simply because the Party does not let people know why, and the people who seek to know why usually end up dead. The Party cannot be defeated because the people have no incentive to overthrow Big Brother because they do not know why they should, if they should.
However the second quote seemed more symbolic than literal to me. Some of you were arguing about how once logic is granted all will follow. I believe that Winston is not saying that 2+2=4 literally is the basis of all freedom. Rather he is saying that the idea that one thing added to another thing can make a third thing. This is a complex logical thought. Winston can use this logic equation to compare his consequences versus his actions. He can say that skipping a meeting + talking to strangers = getting vaporized. This logical thought keeps Winston on guard of who he talks to and it keeps him alive. The freedom to think and put 2 and 2 together, literally, is the basis of any freedom at all.
I am completely able to understand the dilemma that Winston has as he ponders the motives and reasons for actions taken by the Party. In an isolated world where occupations are pre-determined, Winston finds himself questioning the reason for such a large effort to revise the past. He is naive in considering that he will receive the answer to such a question, but it angers him that civilians cannot know the goals of their own country. He believes that if he is a part of such a strong movement, he should be able to AT LEAST understand the ultimate goal and potential results of his actions
Regarding the second quote, I clearly see the idea that Winston believes is mandatory to uphold freedom. In this quote, he gives the reader such a simple example such as, "the freedom to say two plus two make four." I agree in that if a human being cannot have opinions concerning ideas of the smallest importance, the ability to believe in freedom of speech and religion are not relevant. In the article from assignment 24, constitutionalism is viewed with skepticism due to the fact that if a government is in charge of declaring a set of laws, how can it limit itself in upholding justice? Winston is arguing that freedom is gained with the ability to say 2+2=4. A society cannot maintain complete freedom with continuous contradiction in ideology
I agree with Johnathon and the others about Winston's question of why. Understanding how something is done is a very different thing from understanding why it is done and the discovery requires a different sort of information. For example, imagine if a man was put in charge of operating a large and complex machine. He would be given information by his employers on how to operate the machine but no more. Now let's say all the machine produced was a large pile of poo and as soon as it was produced it was taken away. The man would know exactly how the product was made in the finest detail and all of the components that went into making it, yet if his superiors never gave him any other information about the pile of poo then he would never know why it had been created or what his superiors used it for. In the same way Winston understands how Big Brother and the party control things and the ways they do it because of his job in helping them, yet he can never understand why they choose to do this for he is allowed no information more than is needed for him to do his job.
I agree with the aforesaid comments about how the freedom to say 2+2=4 is the most basic of all personal freedoms, the freedom of believing in something that you believe to be true. In Winston's world even thoughts are almost controlled, at least to the greatest possible extent. To be able to say the equation he mentioned is liberation of thought for it is one stating a belief that they believe cannot be changed or altered in its truthfulness no matter what the party says. His comment about all else follows is, I believe, to mean that as soon as one is allowed to believe this single unchanging fact in opposition to the ever changing information the party gives, he or she can finally start to believe in other truths they believe to be unchanging no matter what is said and therefore fully free their mind from the lies of the party, and as it is well known, the mind is the birthplace for every human action.
ohh whoops. Af is me sorry.
The first thought that Winston Smith writes can feel very familiar to some individuals. There are moments where many of us do things that we do not understand why we do it. The people who always tells us how to do something seldom tells us why we need to do/learn stuff. As a result, a lot of people end up understanding how something works, but rarely understands why. People have insatiable curiosity and innate proclivity towards efficiency. If people do not find the need to do something, they will resent the work they are told to do. Also, if the Big Brother decided to let people know why they are doing their job, he would be risking his work's unquestionable authority. Letting people know why is to let people think for themselves, is his reasons for making us work valid? Then, his authority would automatically become risky as people could challenge the notion more easily. This is why it is not surprising that Winston understands how but not why.
The second thought is rather symbolic as Jonathan said. When we see two plus two we automatically say four. This is because we have been taught this way since we were young without a challenge to this notion. Freedom to say two plus two make four could mean that people say so because they believe so. In other words, Winston claims that people should have the rights to say what they believe, instead of what is forced by the higher power. Also, just because the mass says that two plus two equals five does not make this the truth. People should discern between what is right and what is wrong. This is not to say that truth is not open to any debate or arguments. Quite the contrary, this simply means that one's thought should be free of any outside influence or intimidation that leads to an affected judgment of one's thoughts.
Why. Why exactly does someone decide on, per say, a Saturday afternoon, to take over a third of the world and keep the entirety of the globe in perpetual war by installing an authoritarian government that controls every thought of its populace.
Why, for power, of course! Not to be mistaken for a lust for wealth, the lust for power has, as a byproduct, the production of immense wealth. It doesn't matter how many dollar bills you have if you control so many people that you don't even have to pay for a house. And that is why.
What is more profound is that Winston wonders this. Why would a middle aged man risk his entire life to muse about the motivations for the power crazed? As Emily talked about, it is perfectly explainable to wonder exactly when you will use your vast knowledge on periodic trends. No one will kidnap and torture you for questioning the purpose of the government setting standards that compel you to learn about the outside angle of a triangle.
But if you woke up every day with the full expectation that you would be snatched off of the street and imprisoned, it would not be the motivation of the people whom are going to snatch you that will concern you. It will be avoiding getting snatched, primarily.
You all know that I hate fitting in, so here's a different vein on Quote 2.
The idea that everything will follow after logical thinking is wrong. Incorrect. False.
Basic mathematic principles are the basis of the entirety of thought. 2<3. 2+2=4. 4>3.
A small force of two men is outnumbered by a larger force of three men. Alone, it will lose. Two pairs of men can overpower three men. Therefore, in cooperation, two smaller pairs of men that would lose on their own can beat the larger force of three men. Cooperation is key to survival.
Man cannot overthrow the oppressor once he has logical thought. He knows that he should overthrow the oppressor, but achievement of this goal is impossible. It is not the ability to state simple statements that will automatically lead to survival. It is instead the ability to turn simple statements like 2+2=4 into the core tenets of humanity, like cooperation is key to survival. That this will happen is not ensured.
People can live their entire lives without wondering exactly where we have gotten. The idea that without "2+2=4" we would never survive is not a common one. Should it be revealed that Big Brother is a fraud to Airstrip One, rebellion is impossible.
People will burn their meager rations of Victory Gin as molotov cocktails, but they can be divided and conquered because they have no idea how to apply basic statements to everyday life. Knowledge is not enough. There is no instant domino effect.
We see the problems with Airstrip One and the rest of the Allied Territories because we have been trained to spot the problems with government. We have been trained to apply logical thinking to a current situation. An educated American would understand that survival lies in cooperation, that the Inner Party is not a fierce force by itself, but rather is entirely dependent on the Party members and the people.
People in France were unhappy for a long time. They didn't like the king, but they didn't do anything about it. They knew in their smoke filled gut that democracy was the way to go. The Enlightenment came along, with all these grand egalitarian values. France was given an example by the American Revolution, and it had logic applied to the situation for it by the Enlightened Thinkers.
Cue the storming of the Bastille.
Okay, so I swear I posted already for this one, but for some reason it didn't stick to the blog or something, so here I go again:
In regards to the first quote, and to go back to Emily's point about learning, the question of why we do things is almost unanswerable. Obviously we learn to gain knowledge and skills, which is the how, but the question of "why" I need to go to school is something I try to find a justifiable answer for every single day I wake up to go to school. 95% of the stuff we learn at school we will not need to know in the future (and 87.352515% of all statistics are made up on the spot), we do it to gain skills that we can use later in life. At least, that's my justification for it. But who knows? Maybe I'm just like Winston, and I've been brainwashed to the point of having to justify it, and maybe the sophomores aren't at that stage yet (what do you think Erik?)
The second quote is talking about the basic freedom to speak the truth. It goes along with the chocolate rations story: the government says they are going up, while in reality they are going down, and no one can say that that doesn't make sense. He is talking about the basic freedom to discuss and debate using solid facts, instead of being forced to spew fake numbers. It's a baby step for democracy, to put it simply.
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