Young Winston Smith Attends His Company’s Emergency DIE Training

We enter the scene in which young Winston Smith has already arrived at HR, to receive an emergency DIE training from Maxine O’Brien, a training which uses the new and promising DIE-AL, the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Attitude Limiter, a device which aids in achieving optimal attitudes.

‘But how can you stop people knowing the differences between the sexes?’ cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the DIE-AL. ‘It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control instinct? You have not controlled mine!’

O’Brien’s manner grew stern again. She laid his hand on the DIE-AL.

‘On the contrary’ she said, ‘You have not controlled it. That is what has brought you here. You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you.’

‘But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Company, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Company holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Company. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.’

He paused for a few moments, as though to allow what he had been saying to sink in.

‘Do you remember,’ she went on, ‘tweeting, “Freedom is the freedom to say that a man pretending to be a woman is a man”?’

‘Yes,’ said Winston.

O’Brien held up her left hand, in which she held a photograph of Rachel Levine.

‘Is this a man or woman, Winston?’

‘Man.’

‘And if the Company says that it is not a man but a woman — then what?’

‘Man.’

The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the DIE-AL had shot up to fifty-five. The sweat had sprung out all over Winston’s body. The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans which even by clenching his teeth he could not stop. O’Brien watched him, the photograph still held. She drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly eased.

‘Man or woman, Winston?’

‘Man.’

The needle went up to sixty.

‘Man or woman, Winston?’

‘Man! Man! What else can I say? Man!’

The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it. The heavy, stern face and the photograph filled his vision. The picture stood up before his eyes with it hideous makeup, enormous, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably a man.

‘Man or woman, Winston?’

‘Man! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Man! Man!’

‘Man or woman, Winston?’

‘Woman! Woman! Woman!’

‘No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think it is a man. Man or woman, please?’

‘Man! Woman! Man! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!’

Abruptly he was sitting up with O’Brien’s arm round his shoulders. He had perhaps lost consciousness for a few seconds. The bonds that had held his body down were loosened. He felt very cold, he was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth were chattering, the tears were rolling down his cheeks.

For a moment he clung to O’Brien like a baby, curiously comforted by the soft arm round his shoulders. He had the feeling that O’Brien was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O’Brien who would save him from it.

‘You are a slow learner, Winston,’ said O’Brien gently.

‘How can I help it?’ he blubbered. ‘How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? It is a man.’

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes the man is a woman. Sometimes they are a man. Sometimes they are both male and female at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”

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