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 />
to be un<strong>de</strong>sirable, the precautions against <strong>de</strong>feat<br />
had to be serious. Physical facts could not be<br />
ignored. In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or<br />
politics, two and two might make five, but when<br />
one was <strong>de</strong>signing a gun or an aeroplane they had<br />
to make four. Inefficient nations were always<br />
conquered sooner or later, and the struggle for<br />
efficiency was inimical to illusions. Moreover, to<br />
be efficient it was necessary to be able to learn<br />
from the past, which meant having a fairly<br />
accurate i<strong>de</strong>a of what had happened in the past.<br />
Newspapers and history books were, of course,<br />
always coloured and biased, but falsification of the<br />
kind that is practised today would have been<br />
impossible. War was a sure safeguard of sanity,<br />
and so far as the ruling classes were concerned it<br />
was probably the most important of all safeguards.<br />
While wars could be won or lost, no ruling class<br />
could be completely irresponsible.<br />
But when war becomes literally continuous, it also<br />
ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous<br />
there is no such thing as military necessity.<br />
Technical progress can cease and the most<br />
palpable facts can be <strong>de</strong>nied or disregar<strong>de</strong>d. As we<br />
have seen, researches that could be called scientific<br />
are still carried out for the purposes of war, but<br />
they are essentially a kind of daydreaming, and<br />
their failure to show results is not important.<br />
Efficiency, even military efficiency, is no longer<br />
nee<strong>de</strong>d. Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the<br />
Thought Police. Since each of the three superstates<br />
is unconquerable, each is in effect a separate<br />
universe within which almost any perversion of<br />
thought can be safely practised. Reality only exerts<br />
its pressure through the needs of everyday life—<br />
the need to eat and drink, to get shelter and<br />
clothing, to avoid swallowing poison or stepping<br />
out of top-storey windows, and the like. Between<br />
life and <strong>de</strong>ath, and between physical pleasure and<br />
physical pain, there is still a distinction, but that is<br />
all. Cut off from contact with the outer world, and<br />
with the past, the citizen of Oceania is like a man<br />
in interstellar space, who has no way of knowing<br />
which direction is up and which is down. The<br />
rulers of such a state are absolute, as the Pharaohs<br />
or the Caesars could not be. They are obliged to<br />
prevent their followers from starving to <strong>de</strong>ath in<br />
228<br />
significaba la pérdida <strong>de</strong> la in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>ncia o<br />
cualquier otro resultado in<strong>de</strong>seable, habían <strong>de</strong><br />
tomar serias precauciones para evitar la <strong>de</strong>rrota.<br />
Estos hechos no podían ser ignorados. Aun<br />
admitiendo que en filosofía, en ciencia, en ética o<br />
en política dos y dos pudieran ser cinco, cuando se<br />
fabricaba un cañón o un aeroplano tenían que ser<br />
cuatro. Las naciones mal preparadas acababan<br />
siempre siendo conquistadas, y la lucha por una<br />
mayor eficacia no admitía ilusiones. A<strong>de</strong>más, para<br />
ser eficaces había que apren<strong>de</strong>r <strong>de</strong>l pasado, lo cual<br />
suponía estar bien enterado <strong>de</strong> lo ocurrido en<br />
épocas anteriores. Los periódicos y los libros <strong>de</strong><br />
historia eran parciales, naturalmente, pero habría<br />
sido imposible una falsificación como la que hoy se<br />
realiza. La guerra era una garantía <strong>de</strong> cordura. Y<br />
respecto a las clases gobernantes, era el freno más<br />
seguro. Nadie podía ser, <strong>de</strong>s<strong>de</strong> el po<strong>de</strong>r,<br />
absolutamente irresponsable <strong>de</strong>s<strong>de</strong> el momento en<br />
que una guerra cualquiera podía ser ganada o<br />
perdida.<br />
»Pero cuando una guerra se hace continua, <strong>de</strong>ja <strong>de</strong><br />
ser peligrosa porque <strong>de</strong>saparece toda necesidad<br />
militar. El progreso técnico pue<strong>de</strong> cesar y los<br />
hechos más palpables pue<strong>de</strong>n ser negados o<br />
<strong>de</strong>scartados como cosas sin importancia. Lo único<br />
eficaz en Oceanía es la Policía <strong>de</strong>l Pensamiento.<br />
Como cada uno <strong>de</strong> los tres superestados es<br />
inconquistable, cada uno <strong>de</strong> ellos es, por tanto, un<br />
mundo separado <strong>de</strong>ntro <strong>de</strong>l cual pue<strong>de</strong> ser<br />
practicada con toda tranquilidad cualquier<br />
perversión mental. La realidad sólo ejerce su<br />
presión sobre las necesida<strong>de</strong>s <strong>de</strong> la vida cotidiana:<br />
la necesidad <strong>de</strong> comer y <strong>de</strong> beber, <strong>de</strong> vestirse y<br />
tener un techo, <strong>de</strong> no beber venenos ni caerse <strong>de</strong> las<br />
ventanas, etc... Entre la vida y la muerte, y entre el<br />
placer físico y el dolor físico, sigue habiendo una<br />
distinción, pero eso es todo. Cortados todos los<br />
contactos con el mundo exterior y con el pasado, el<br />
ciudadano <strong>de</strong> Oceanía es como un hombre en el<br />
espacio interestelar, que no tiene manera <strong>de</strong> saber<br />
por dón<strong>de</strong> se va hacia arriba y por dón<strong>de</strong> hacia<br />
abajo. Los gobernantes <strong>de</strong> un Estado como éste son<br />
absolutos como pudieran serlo los faraones o los<br />
césares. Se ven obligados a evitar que sus gentes se<br />
mueran <strong>de</strong> hambre en cantida<strong>de</strong>s excesivas, y han<br />
<strong>de</strong> mantenerse al mismo nivel <strong>de</strong> baja técnica<br />
militar que sus rivales. Pero, una vez conseguido<br />
ese mínimo, pue<strong>de</strong>n retorcer y <strong>de</strong>formar la realidad