Saturday 11 October 2003

Two Minutes Hate

From Orwell's 1984 :
The next moment a hideous, grinding speech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one's teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one's neck. The Hate had started.
Now please go here. [Warning: Multi-Megabyte Quicktime Movie]
The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.
From the Korean News May 23 2002:
It happened in one day of April Juche 64 (1975), one day before the birthday of President Kim Il Sung.

Kim Jong Il acquainted himself with the holiday preparations being made by the young people building the historic revolutionary site on Mt. Wangjae.

He has already sent a lot of meat, canned goods, confectionery, fruits, etc. to them. yet, he was lost in a deep thought that this was not enough for them.

He called an official and instructed him to send the first harvest of cucumbers from a greenhouse to the builders working hard in the site. He told him to airlift the cucumbers so that they might reach there before their breakfast on April 15.

Sitting at the sumptuous breakfast table next morning, they were deeply moved to hear a touching story about the fresh cucumbers before them.
Dear Leader is watching You.

UPDATE : And apparently reading you as well.

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