1984 - Planet eBook

For how could the fear, the hatred, and the lunatic credulitywhich the Party needed in its members be kept at the rightpitch, except by bottling down some powerful instinct andusing it as a driving force? The sex impulse was dangerous tothe Party, and the Party had turned it to account. They hadplayed a similar trick with the instinct of parenthood. Thefamily could not actually be abolished, and, indeed, peoplewere encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost theold-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand, weresystematically turned against their parents and taught tospy on them and report their deviations. The family hadbecome in effect an extension of the Thought Police. It wasa device by means of which everyone could be surroundednight and day by informers who knew him intimately.Abruptly his mind went back to Katharine. Katharinewould unquestionably have denounced him to the ThoughtPolice if she had not happened to be too stupid to detect theunorthodoxy of his opinions. But what really recalled herto him at this moment was the stifling heat of the afternoon,which had brought the sweat out on his forehead. He begantelling Julia of something that had happened, or rather hadfailed to happen, on another sweltering summer afternoon,eleven years ago.It was three or four months after they were married. Theyhad lost their way on a community hike somewhere in Kent.They had only lagged behind the others for a couple of minutes,but they took a wrong turning, and presently foundthemselves pulled up short by the edge of an old chalkquarry. It was a sheer drop of ten or twenty metres, with