bilingüe [pdf] - Blog de Javier Smaldone
bilingüe [pdf] - Blog de Javier Smaldone
bilingüe [pdf] - Blog de Javier Smaldone
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George Orwell 1 9 8 4<br />
empirical method of thought, on which all the<br />
scientific achievements of the past were foun<strong>de</strong>d,<br />
is opposed to the most fundamental principles of<br />
Ingsoc. And even technological progress only<br />
happens when its products can in some way be<br />
used for the diminution of human liberty. In all the<br />
useful arts the world is either standing still or<br />
going backwards. The fields are cultivated with<br />
horse-ploughs while books are written by<br />
machinery. But in matters of vital importance—<br />
meaning, in effect, war and police espionage—the<br />
empirical approach is still encouraged, or at least<br />
tolerated. The two aims of the Party are to conquer<br />
the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish<br />
once and for all the possibility of in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt<br />
thought. There are therefore two great problems<br />
which the Party is concerned to solve. One is how<br />
to discover, against his will, what another human<br />
being is thinking, and the other is how to kill<br />
several hundred million people in a few seconds<br />
without giving warning beforehand. In so far as<br />
scientific research still continues, this is its subject<br />
matter. The scientist of today is either a mixture of<br />
psychologist and inquisitor, studying with real<br />
ordinary minuteness the meaning of facial<br />
expressions, gestures, and tones of voice, and<br />
testing the truth-producing effects of drugs, shock<br />
therapy, hypnosis, and physical torture; or he is<br />
chemist, physicist, or biologist concerned only<br />
with such branches of his special subject as are<br />
relevant to the taking of life. In the vast<br />
laboratories of the Ministry of Peace, and in the<br />
experimental stations hid<strong>de</strong>n in the Brazilian<br />
forests, or in the Australian <strong>de</strong>sert, or on lost<br />
islands of the Antarctic, the teams of experts are<br />
in<strong>de</strong>fatigably at work. Some are concerned simply<br />
with planning the logistics of future wars; others<br />
<strong>de</strong>vise larger and larger rocket bombs, more and<br />
more powerful explosives, and more and more<br />
impenetrable armour-plating; others search for<br />
new and <strong>de</strong>adlier gases, or for soluble poisons<br />
capable of being produced in such quantities as to<br />
<strong>de</strong>stroy the vegetation of whole continents, or for<br />
breeds of disease germs immunized against all<br />
possible antibodies; others strive to produce a<br />
vehicle that shall bore its way un<strong>de</strong>r the soil like a<br />
submarine un<strong>de</strong>r the water, or an aeroplane as<br />
in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt of its base as a sailing-ship; others<br />
explore even remoter possibilities such as focusing<br />
the sun's rays through lenses suspen<strong>de</strong>d thousands<br />
of kilometres away in space, or producing artificial<br />
224<br />
empírico <strong>de</strong> pensamiento, en el cual se basaron<br />
todos los a<strong>de</strong>lantos científicos <strong>de</strong>l pasado, es<br />
opuesto a los principios fundamentales <strong>de</strong> Ingsoc. E<br />
incluso el progreso técnico sólo existe cuando sus<br />
productos pue<strong>de</strong>n ser empleados para disminuir la<br />
libertad humana.<br />
»Las dos finalida<strong>de</strong>s <strong>de</strong>l Partido son conquistar<br />
toda la superficie <strong>de</strong> la Tierra y extinguir <strong>de</strong> una<br />
vez para siempre la posibilidad <strong>de</strong> toda libertad <strong>de</strong>l<br />
pensamiento. Hay, por tanto, dos gran<strong>de</strong>s<br />
problemas que ha <strong>de</strong> resolver el Partido. Uno es el<br />
<strong>de</strong> <strong>de</strong>scubrir, contra la voluntad <strong>de</strong>l interesado, lo<br />
que está pensando <strong>de</strong>terminado ser humano, y el<br />
otro es cómo suprimir, en pocos segundos y sin<br />
previo aviso, a varios centenares <strong>de</strong> millones <strong>de</strong><br />
personas. Éste es el principal objetivo <strong>de</strong> las<br />
investigaciones científicas. El hombre <strong>de</strong> ciencia<br />
actual es una mezcla <strong>de</strong> psicólogo y policía que<br />
estudia con extraordinaria minuciosidad el<br />
significado <strong>de</strong> las expresiones faciales, gestos y<br />
tonos <strong>de</strong> voz, los efectos <strong>de</strong> las drogas que obligan<br />
a <strong>de</strong>cir la verdad, la terapéutica <strong>de</strong>l shock, <strong>de</strong>l<br />
hipnotismo y <strong>de</strong> la tortura física; y si es un químico,<br />
un físico o un biólogo, sólo se preocupará por<br />
aquellas ramas que <strong>de</strong>ntro <strong>de</strong> su especialidad sirvan<br />
para matar. En los gran<strong>de</strong>s laboratorios <strong>de</strong>l<br />
Ministerio <strong>de</strong> la Paz, en las estaciones<br />
experimentales ocultas en las selvas brasileñas, en<br />
el <strong>de</strong>sierto australiano o en las islas perdidas <strong>de</strong>l<br />
Atlántico, trabajan incansablemente los equipos<br />
técnicos. Unos se <strong>de</strong>dican sólo a planear la logística<br />
<strong>de</strong> las guerras futuras; otros, a i<strong>de</strong>ar bombas cohete<br />
cada vez mayores, explosivos cada vez más<br />
po<strong>de</strong>rosos y corazas cada vez más impenetrables;<br />
otros buscan gases más mortíferos o venenos que<br />
puedan ser producidos en cantida<strong>de</strong>s tan inmensas<br />
que <strong>de</strong>struyan la vegetación <strong>de</strong> todo un continente,<br />
o cultivan gérmenes inmunizados contra todos los<br />
posibles antibióticos; otros se esfuerzan por<br />
producir un vehículo que se abra paso por la tierra<br />
como un submarino bajo el agua, o un aeroplano<br />
tan in<strong>de</strong>pendiente <strong>de</strong> su base como un barco en el<br />
mar, otros exploran posibilida<strong>de</strong>s aún más remotas,<br />
como la <strong>de</strong> concentrar los rayos <strong>de</strong>l sol mediante<br />
gigantescas lentes suspendidas en el espacio a miles