In his novel, 1984, George Orwell was writing not a piece of fiction, but a representation of what he had seen and experienced while he was involved in the Spanish Civil War. Throughout his book are various phrases which are part of a new language created by the totalitarian leaders of the society. Just as we have experienced a national candidate who could label millions of her fellow citizens “deplorables” and note that they are burdened by a myriad of sins (all described as “phobias”), we now have politicians who tell us that spending billions of dollars will incur no cost and that we are in transistion without ever saying what we are in transistion too. It is that type of thinking which makes Orwell’s novel so timeless as we move forward “progressively”, sure in our rightheous and purity.
The actual definition of Crimestop is “the faculty of stopping short, as thought by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…and of being bored and repelled by any train of though which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”
Crimestop provides a wonderfully safe blanket of neutralized thought. It allows one to cancel out all those pesky doubts and questions when supported policies and programs fail time after time, or when the actual cost of an idea becomes reality. How comforting is Crimestop! Only the young and immature need pictures of puppies and plush toys, the skilled believer has Crimestop.
