Re: Longest time between project proposal and project execution

grounded in Ingsoc could appreciate
the full force of the word bellyfeel, which implied a blind, enthusiastic
acceptance difficult to imagine today; or of the word oldthink, which was
inextricably mixed up with the idea of wickedness and decadence. But the
special function of certain Newspeak words, of which oldthink was one, was
not so much to express meanings as to destroy them. These words,
necessarily few in number, had had their meanings extended until they
contained within themselves whole batteries of words which, as they were
sufficiently covered by a single comprehensive term, could now be scrapped
and forgotten. The greatest difficulty facing the compilers of the Newspeak
Dictionary was not to invent new words, but, having invented them, to make
sure what they meant: to make sure, that is to say, what ranges of words
they cancelled by their existence.
As we have already seen in the case of the word free, words which had
once borne a heretical meaning were sometimes retained for the sake of
convenience, but only with the undesirable meanings purged out of them.
Countless other words such as honour, justice, morality, internationalism,
democracy, science, and religion had simply ceased to exist. A few blanket
words covered them, and, in covering them, abolished them. All words
grouping themselves round the concepts of liberty and equality, for
instance, were contained in the single word crimethink, while all words
grouping themselves round the concepts of objectivity and rationalism were
contained in the single word oldt


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