oldthink. Greater precision would have been
dangerous. What was required in a Party member was an outlook similar
to
that of the ancient Hebrew who knew, without knowing much else, that
all
nations other than his own wor****pped 'false gods'. He did not need to
know
that these gods were called Baal, Osiris, Moloch, Ashtaroth, and the
like:
probably the less he knew about them the better for his orthodoxy. He
knew
Jehovah and the commandments of Jehovah: he knew, therefore, that all
gods
with other names or other attributes were false gods. In somewhat the
same
way, the party member knew what constituted right conduct, and
in
exceedingly vague, generalized terms he knew what kinds of departure
from
it were possible. His ***ual life, for example, was entirely regulated
by
the two Newspeak words ***crime (***ual immorality) and good***
(chastity).
***crime covered all ***ual misdeeds whatever. It covered
fornication,
adultery, homo***uality, and other perversions, and, in addition,
normal
intercourse practised for its own sake. There was no need to enumerate
them
separately, since they were all equally culpable, and, in principle,
all
punishable by death. In the C vocabulary, which consisted of scientific
and
technical words, it might be necessary to give specialized names to
certain
***ual aberrations, but the ordinary citizen had no need of them. He
knew
what was meant by good*** -- that is to say, normal intercourse between
man
and wife, for the sole purpose of begetting children, and without
physical
ple
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