Wednesday, 30 May 2007

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength

This opening sentence of a BBC report about the smoking ban stamping down on Britain is classic (emphasis added):

Buckingham Palace has to, so does 10 Downing Street, and even St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. When it comes to the no smoking symbol, the ban on lighting up in enclosed public places is very democratic.

Strange that. I've been a writer & editor for thirty years and until now I didn't know that "democratic" and "totalitarian" were synonyms.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, but it *is* democratic. When you've elected and empowered a regime that has legislated everything but blinking for a decade--and haven't stopped them--you have a democratically-elected tyranny.

And earned your fate, mind.

Anonymous said...

I think they mean "democratic" in its little-known sense of "there is no escape."