Sunday 4 April 2021

the consequences of every act are included in the act itself

On this bright and cold day in April 1984, and the clocks were striking thirteen, Winston Smith returned home from the ministry and retreated to the comfort of his living room and took out this slim old diary with coral ornamentation that he bought from Mr Charrington that runs the frowzy junk shop and makes his first entry:

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!

Horrified at his transgression and panicking, Smith was tempted to rip out those first spoiled pages and give up on this silly and pointless act of rebellion altogether but refrained, realising that it did not matter. The Thought Police would be coming for him just the same. He had committed—would still have committed, even without committing it to paper in his small, clumsy letters, the essential crime that contained all others, thoughtcrime.