“
They were born, they grew up
in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief
blossoming period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty,
they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty.
Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with
neighbors, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the
horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. A few
agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false
rumors and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were
judged capable of becoming dangerous; but no attempt was made to
indoctrinate them with the ideology of the Party. It was not desirable that
the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of
them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it
was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter
rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did,
their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they
could only focus it on petty specific grievances.
”
”