Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [177]

But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty’s figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 177

Note

The escalating distinction — not even forgery, merely substitution, not even a lie — does real philosophical work, showing that the falsification sits one level deeper than dishonesty: truth itself has been unmoored. The reader sees Winston’s unspoken reasoning and is drawn into his moral numbness, which is far more insidious than any overt coercion.