... history is continuously rewritten. This day-to-day falsification of the past, carried out by the Ministry of Truth, is as necessary to the stability of the regime as the work of repression and espionage carried out by the Ministry of Love."
               -- Doublethink

After reading how the media (e.g. Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, CNN, AP, etc) took an ethnic German (Michael Seifert) and meta-morphed him into a "Ukrainian-born Nazi", a "member of the SS of Ukrainian origin", a "Ukrainian sadistic SS concentration camp guard", etc. one must give Newspeak high marks for its effectiveness. Soon "Nazi" and "Ukrainian" will become one word under Newspeak's mind control. As was explained to Orwell's Winston: "the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it."   The purpose was also to reduce the number of words and the range of consciousness.

"Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?"

Other successes of Newspeak include "Communist War Criminal" or "Russian Jewish Crimes Against Humanity."  For example, one cannot apply those terms to someone like Lazar Kaganovich. Newspeak forbids it, or rather has expunged the terms. And since those terms do not exist, then those thoughts do not exist, and therefore those crimes do not exist. Thus, Newspeak seeks to prevent those kinds of thoughtcrimes.

Thus, trying to create a new term like Holodomor, has very little chance under Newspeak. The motive is clear. Such a term makes one think of a crime. A crime has victims and a criminal perpetrator. Justice demands that criminals be punished. But the criminals are controlling Newspeak and therefore can't allow such thoughts, in effect making them thoughtcrimes. To prevent thoughtcrimes, Newspeak will prevent Holodomor.

For another example, Newspeak prevents equating Communism with Nazism. It does not matter that Communism killed five times as many people as Nazism. It does not matter that Communism was Nazism's ideological twin. It does not matter that Communist labour concentration camps killed many more than Nazi concentration camps. It does not matter that Stalin even signed a pact with Hitler. These thoughts must not exist for they are thoughtcrimes. Newspeak expunges terms like "Stalin as a Nazi collaborator." (Ukrainians are Nazi collaborators). The motive is clear.  The risk to powers that be is great in equating Communism with Nazism. Since Nazi writings, writers and ideas must be expunged by Newspeak (e.g. Hitler's Mein Kampf not be allowed in schools, libraries, Amazon.com, etc.), any equating of Communism with Nazism would demand an equal treatment. And the powers that be will not allow the expunging of Marx, Lenin, communist academic circles at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, communist philosophers (Sartre, Wittgenstein, etc.), communist writers, ideas, etc. Newspeak must prevent the thought that USA and Britain collaborated with a Communist Stalin (who had a twin in Nazi Hitler) at Yalta in perpetrating crimes against humanity and against Ukrainians. Newspeak expunges terms like British collaborators and American collaborators. Those are thoughtcrimes to be prevented by Newspeak.

"Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak."

"The mutability of the past is the central tenet of Ingsoc. Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records, and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it. It also follows that though the past is alterable, it never has been altered in any specific instance. For when it has been recreated in whatever shape is needed at the moment, then this new version is the past, and no different past can ever have existed. This holds good even when, as often happens, the same event has to be altered out of recognition several times in the course of a year. At all times the Party is in possession of absolute truth, and clearly the absolute can never have been different from what it is now. It will be seen that the control of the past depends above all on the training of memory. To make sure that all written records agree with the orthodoxy of the moment is merely a mechanical act. But it is also necessary to remember that events happened in the desired manner. And if it is necessary to rearrange one's memories or to tamper with written records, then it is necessary to forget that one has done so. The trick of doing this can be learned like any other mental technique. It is learned by the majority of Party members, and certainly by all who are intelligent as well as orthodox. In Oldspeak it is called, quite frankly, "reality control." In Newspeak it is called doublethink, although doublethink comprises much else as well."

Some in the media seem to have learned this mental technique only too well.

Stefan Lemieszewski, 2000-11-27