1984 - Planet eBook

that the proles should have strong political feelings. All thatwas required of them was a primitive patriotism whichcould be appealed to whenever it was necessary to makethem accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. Andeven when they became discontented, as they sometimesdid, their discontent led nowhere, because being withoutgeneral ideas, they could only focus it on petty specificgrievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.The great majority of proles did not even have telescreens intheir homes. Even the civil police interfered with them verylittle. There was a vast amount of criminality in London, awhole world-within-a-world of thieves, bandits, prostitutes,drug-peddlers, and racketeers of every description; butsince it all happened among the proles themselves, it wasof no importance. In all questions of morals they were allowedto follow their ancestral code. The sexual puritanismof the Party was not imposed upon them. Promiscuity wentunpunished, divorce was permitted. For that matter, evenreligious worship would have been permitted if the proleshad shown any sign of needing or wanting it. They werebeneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: ‘Proles andanimals are free.’Winston reached down and cautiously scratched hisvaricose ulcer. It had begun itching again. The thing youinvariably came back to was the impossibility of knowingwhat life before the Revolution had really been like. He tookout of the drawer a copy of a children’s history textbookwhich he had borrowed from Mrs Parsons, and began copyinga passage into the diary: