O’Brien held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended. ‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’ ‘Four.’
‘And if the party says that it is not four but five — then how many?’
- George Orwell (1984)
It may seem like trivial nonsense, where we can let them play make-believe harmlessly, but it’s not. As Orwell recognized, the ability to compel people to accept an obvious lie as the truth is central to the absolute dictatorship that socialists and “progressives” under all their deceptive labels dream about.
Great reminder. BTW, I was disappointed by Animal Farm after reading the magnificent 1984. It’s like Orwell was still formulating his masterpiece when he wrote Animal Farm.