Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [157]

The frightening thing, he reflected for the ten thousandth time as he forced his shoulders painfully backward (with hands on hips, they were gyrating their bodies from the waist, an exercise that was supposed to be good for the back muscles) – the frightening thing was that it might all be true. If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened – that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death? — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 157

Note

The panoptic anxiety reaches its philosophical peak: the truly terrifying possibility is not punishment but that the Party’s rewriting might be correct. The parenthetical Physical Jerks detail keeps the horror tethered to bureaucratic banality.