At the beginning of 2025, the statement of the British writer began to spread in social networks that a constant war helps to keep people in the world of illusions. We checked the authenticity of this attribution.
This quote completely looks like this: “This war is fraudulent in nature, since it should last constantly, without victory. Its main goal is to preserve the existing system, destroying not only human lives, but also the fruits of human labor, since the general growth of welfare threatens the hierarchical society with death. If the huge mass of people becomes competent, he will learn to think on his own, it will get rid of the privileged minority as unnecessary. War and hunger help to keep people who are dumbfounded from poverty in the world of illusions. ” The authors of many publications clarified that this was an excerpt from the novel "1984".
In January-February 2025, the phrase was Popular First of all among users Facebookbut in three years that have passed since the beginning of the Russian full -scale invasion of Ukraine, this text was distributed in social networks x, and c Instagramand in blogs on "Zen". Mentioned him and the media, for example ""Radio Liberty".
The novel by George Orwell, printed in 1949, became his most famous work, and the book itself about a totalitarian society, constantly at war, is an example of anti -utopia. The main character “1984” is Winston Smith, an employee of the Ministry of Truth, whose work is to falsify documents that cease to comply with the party line. He supports the party in words, and hates it in his thoughts. Some terms and slogans invented by Orwell (“Big Brother”, “New Maiden”, “Binomnoster”, “War is the World”) firmly entered the daily figurative language.
Phrases from the viral text are taken from 9th chapter of the second part Roman. In it, the book of Emmanuel Goldstein-once one of the founders of the ruling regime, and then fierce critic and the exposure of the party and the world order, gets to Smith. It is from this work (books within the novel) that the main character learns that the permanent war between Ocean, Cupid and Eurasia is just a battle for the resources and deception of society.
However, there are no quotes in the form in which it spreads on social networks in 1984. These are fragments the same chapter, abbreviated, slightly distorted and rearranged in places (translation of Victor Golyshev):
“It doesn’t matter if the war is actually going on, and, since there can be no decisive victory, it doesn’t matter whether things are going on at the front or bad. One thing needs: to be at war ”<...>. Thus, war, if you approach it with the standards of past wars, is fraud. <...> The essence of the war is the destruction of not only human lives, but also the fruits of human labor. <...> If the car was aimed for this purpose, then after a few generations it would be finished with hunger, and grueling labor, and with mud, and illiteracy, and with diseases. But it was also clear that the overall growth of welfare threatens the hierarchical society with death, and in a sense there is already its death. For if everyone will be able to enjoy the provision and leisure, then the huge mass of people who are stupid from poverty will become competent and learn to think on their own; After that, these people will sooner or later understand that the privileged minority does not perform any function and will throw it away. ”
Thus, we can conclude that a fragment that spread in social networks, signed by the name of Orwell, is not an accurate quote, but rather a squeeze from his novel. Nevertheless, the meaning is not distorted and the key ideas of the novel are correctly conveyed.
In this type, a quote from 1984 began to spread since the mid-2010s. The earliest mention that found “verified” is Record On the user's page Galina Rudnitskaya on the website "Poems.ru", made in 2015.
Photo on the cover: frame From the film "1984" (dir. Michael Radford, 1984)
Read on the topic:
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
