If anything like Orwell's 1984 dystopia, Oceania, were remotely possible in a non-fiction world, I presume Fitzgerald would have hated it. A large number of writers who originally embraced the USSR and communism (FSF was not one of them) rejected the system when they finally gained an insight into what totalitarianism entailed.
In a message dated 6/21/12 5:05:19 PM, [email protected] writes: > On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 8:14 AM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > http://books.google.com/books?id=bfn4q_xVaMIC&pg=PA157&; > dq=%22ability+to+hold+ > two+opposed+ideas%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=puLUT8XRGKfO2gXF6tWEDw& > ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=o > nepage&q=%22ability%20to%20hold%20two%20opposed%20ideas%22&f=false > > > > > > Would Fitzgerald have like Oceania?: > > - To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while > telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions > which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in > both > of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying > claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party > was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to > forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was > needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the > same process to the process itself that was the ultimate subtlety; > consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become > unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to > understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink. > > "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (Orwell)
