they will continue from generation to generation and
from century to century, working, breeding, and dying, not only without any
impulse to rebel, but without the power of grasping that the world could be
other than it is. They could only become dangerous if the advance of
industrial technique made it necessary to educate them more highly; but,
since military and commercial rivalry are no longer important, the level of
popular education is actually declining. What opinions the masses hold, or
do not hold, is looked on as a matter of indifference. They can be granted
intellectual liberty because they have no intellect. In a Party member, on
the other hand, not even the smallest deviation of opinion on the most
unimportant subject can be tolerated.
A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought
Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone.
Wherever he may be, asleep or awake, working or resting, in his bath or in
bed, he can be inspected without warning and without knowing that he is
being inspected. Nothing that he does is indifferent. His friendships, his
relaxations, his behaviour towards his wife and children, the expression of
his face when he is alone, the words he mutters in sleep, even the
characteristic movements of his body, are all jealously scrutinized. Not
only any actual misdemeanour, but any eccentricity, however small, any
change