Orwell/Goldstein’s “main point” is the permanent emergency and the advantages that gives the state. The Afghan war can never end because it has no war aims, which means the conditions of victory and defeat are unknown and unknowable, and can never be met. Why America chooses to wage war that way is a question for another day, but there are certainly economic elements at play: Many people have grown rich on an outmoded model of national strength that puts carrier groups in every pond around the globe — the “Floating Fortresses” of Orwell’s vision — while China takes over the planet unencumbered by such things.
Mark Steyn, “Essential Structure and Irreconcilable Aims”, Steyn Online, 2021-01-31.
May 16, 2021
QotD: Emmanuel Goldstein’s Theory and Practice of Oligarchal Collectivism as applied in Afghanistan
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