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War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. ― George Orwell, 1984

by voxadam 1y ago

detritus 1y ago
I doubt he wrote that then, given he'd been dead for 34 years at that point.
- sertsa 1y ago
  It’s from the book “1984”, published in 1949.
  - detritus 1y ago
    Sadly you ignored the main takeaway from the quotation, "ignorance is strength".
    - hagbard_c 1y ago
      Neither of these are applicable to the return of the War Department. This on-the-nose name for the department leaves nothing to guess about its purpose - war clearly is not peace and ignorance of that fact is not strength hence the name War Department instead of Ministry of Peace.
  - computerthings 1y ago
    [dead]
- rmonvfer 1y ago
  I’m pretty sure he’s quoting the book
  - jhanschoo 1y ago
    On the other hand, I think anyone who knows when Orwell died should know Noneteen-Eighty-Four, so the comment should be seen as a joke, though it helps to give a textual signal like /jk
SanjayMehta 1y ago
Well played. I’m stealing this.
hagbard_c 1y ago
From Orwell's "1984" which was published in 1949, the same year the Department of Defense was established out of what used to be the Department of War or "War Office". In 1947 The Department of War was split into three separate departments - Army, Navy and Air Force - which were gathered into the National Military Establishment which in turn was renamed to Department of Defense in 1949. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Wa...
shpx 1y ago
Combining a thing with its opposite is a generic algorithm for generating short, profound-sounding sentences in the language game. You can try it with anything - Ugliness is beautiful. - Happiest people are the saddest. - The darkest light is bright. - Comfort is uncomfortable. - Impossible is easy. - The biggest people are the smallest. - The bravest are the most afraid. - Obvious things are the most uncertain. - Peace is war. You can keep going for all words with an antonym. Any insight or truth in these statements comes from your brain trying to give them meaning because they're grammatically correct and so short they can't be immediately discarded as obviously false.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. ― George Orwell, 1984

detritus 1y ago

I doubt he wrote that then, given he'd been dead for 34 years at that point.

sertsa 1y ago
It’s from the book “1984”, published in 1949.
- detritus 1y ago
  Sadly you ignored the main takeaway from the quotation, "ignorance is strength".
  - hagbard_c 1y ago
    Neither of these are applicable to the return of the War Department. This on-the-nose name for the department leaves nothing to guess about its purpose - war clearly is not peace and ignorance of that fact is not strength hence the name War Department instead of Ministry of Peace.
- computerthings 1y ago
  [dead]
rmonvfer 1y ago
I’m pretty sure he’s quoting the book
- jhanschoo 1y ago
  On the other hand, I think anyone who knows when Orwell died should know Noneteen-Eighty-Four, so the comment should be seen as a joke, though it helps to give a textual signal like /jk

SanjayMehta 1y ago

Well played. I’m stealing this.

hagbard_c 1y ago

From Orwell's "1984" which was published in 1949, the same year the Department of Defense was established out of what used to be the Department of War or "War Office". In 1947 The Department of War was split into three separate departments - Army, Navy and Air Force - which were gathered into the National Military Establishment which in turn was renamed to Department of Defense in 1949. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Wa...

shpx 1y ago

Combining a thing with its opposite is a generic algorithm for generating short, profound-sounding sentences in the language game. You can try it with anything - Ugliness is beautiful. - Happiest people are the saddest. - The darkest light is bright. - Comfort is uncomfortable. - Impossible is easy. - The biggest people are the smallest. - The bravest are the most afraid. - Obvious things are the most uncertain. - Peace is war. You can keep going for all words with an antonym. Any insight or truth in these statements comes from your brain trying to give them meaning because they're grammatically correct and so short they can't be immediately discarded as obviously false.