1984 - Planet eBook

seemed to be impressed. She had let her cigarette go out andwas listening intently. O’Brien went on:‘You will have heard rumours of the existence of theBrotherhood. No doubt you have formed your own pictureof it. You have imagined, probably, a huge underworld ofconspirators, meeting secretly in cellars, scribbling messageson walls, recognizing one another by codewords or byspecial movements of the hand. Nothing of the kind exists.The members of the Brotherhood have no way of recognizingone another, and it is impossible for any one member tobe aware of the identity of more than a few others. Goldsteinhimself, if he fell into the hands of the Thought Police,could not give them a complete list of members, or any informationthat would lead them to a complete list. No suchlist exists. The Brotherhood cannot be wiped out because itis not an organization in the ordinary sense. Nothing holdsit together except an idea which is indestructible. You willnever have anything to sustain you, except the idea. Youwill get no comradeship and no encouragement. When finallyyou are caught, you will get no help. We never helpour members. At most, when it is absolutely necessary thatsomeone should be silenced, we are occasionally able tosmuggle a razor blade into a prisoner’s cell. You will haveto get used to living without results and without hope. Youwill work for a while, you will be caught, you will confess,and then you will die. Those are the only results that youwill ever see. There is no possibility that any perceptiblechange will happen within our own lifetime. We are thedead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part