Name: George Orwell - Never Abandon the Truth | 1984
Uploaded: 2021-10-18T17:40:09.000Z
Duration: 8 min 41 s
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To-infinitive

Throughout his novel /1984/, Orwell maintains that in order to protect yourself from the

Adverbs of frequency

authoritarian, you must never abandon the truth.

The authoritarian wants absolute power over you, and one of the things they need to achieve

How does holding on to the truth protect you from the authoritarian?

That's what I'm interested in exploring, and as always, I'm gonna explore this idea

The following is a conversation between a monk (M) and a student (S).

M: If you wanna protect yourself from the authoritarian, never abandon the truth.

S: Well, before I can even decide whether to abandon it or not, I need to know something:

M: Truth is the only way to get what you want.

Can't I lie to you in order to get what I want from you?

M: You can, but you're not understanding what I mean by the truth.

Let's say I wanna walk to a particular point across the room.

There are several ways I can get to that point.

I can walk around the room until I eventually arrive at the point.

And the truth contains all of those ways.

/So truth is all of the ways you can reach your goal./

S: Hmm… all of the ways I can reach my goal.

So we could say the truth /is/ what works, and in fact, it is the /only/ thing that works!

So if you wanna get something from me and lying helps you get it, then that's the

Rather, it's more like a road between where you are and where you wanna be.

If you travel down that road, then you arrive at the point where you wanna be.

Let's say you wanna move that cup across the table.

There's the present: that's where the cup is now.

And there's the future: that's where you want the cup to be.

Now there are several ways you can get that cup from where it is to where you want it

You can drag the cup across the table, you can lift it up and put it down, you can call

a friend and ask them to move it for you, and so on.

There are several /roads/ you can take to get the cup to where you want it to be.

But there are other roads, that if you take them, won't get the cup to where you want

For example, you can't just knock the cup off the table and expect it to be where you

When you take the right roads, which is to walk the truth, you get what you want, but

when you take the wrong roads, which is to walk falsehood, you don't get what you want.

So when we began talking, you told me that if I wanted to protect myself from the authoritarian,

M: If you reject evidence that contradicts your current beliefs, that means you have

S: Why does the authoritarian want me to abandon truth?

Once you're dependent on them, they can make you do and believe whatever they want.

S: But how will they make me dependent on them?

M: If you abandon the truth, you will have no choice.

S: How does abandoning truth make me dependent on them?

M: Because once you abandon truth, you reject any evidence that contradicts your current

And once you start rejecting evidence that contradicts your beliefs, you stop being able

And once you stop learning, you start losing the ability to take care of yourself.

And once you start losing the ability to take care of yourself, you look to others to take

And when others are in a position of care over you, they have immense power over you.

And it's the authoritarians dream for you to be in their care, because once they have

you, they have every intention of abusing their power.

They'll make you do and believe whatever they want.

M: When you hold on to the truth, you acknowledge any evidence that contradicts your current

You use that contradiction to learn and expand your mind.

And as your knowledge grows, you get better and better at taking care of yourself.

And as you get better at taking care of yourself, you become more independent.

And when you become independent, no one can have absolute power over you.

Independence is the greatest threat to the authoritarian, because it undermines the source

S: So dependence is the source of the authoritarian's power?

A baby is completely dependent on its parents, and practically speaking, the parents have

But as the baby grows up, it becomes educated.

And as it becomes more and more educated, it learns to take care of itself.

And this independence decreases the power that the parents have over it.

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George Orwell - Never Abandon the Truth | 1984

perspective

eventually

present

evidence