NCE4美文THOUGHTS IN THE WILDERNESS

In our new society there is a growing dislike of original, creative men. The manipulated do not understand them; the manipulators fear them. The tidy committee men regard them with horror, knowing that no pigeonholes can be found for them.
We could do with a few original, creative men in our political life-if only to create some enthusiasm, release some energy-but where are they? We are asked to choose between various shades of the negative. The engine is falling to pieces while the joint owners of the car argue whether the footbrake or the handbrake should be applied. 【Notice how the cold, colorless men, without ideas and with no other passion but a craving for success, get on in this society, capturing one palm after another and taking the juice and taste out of them】. Sometimes you might think the machines we worship make all the chief appointments, promoting the human beings who seem closest to them.
【Between midnight and dawn, when sleep will not come and all the old wounds begin to ache, I often have a nightmare vision of a future world in which there are billions of people, all numbered and registered, with not a gleam of genius anywhere, not an original mind, a rich personality, on the whole packed globe. The twin ideas of our time, organization and quantity, will have won for ever.】
J. B. Priestley
这篇文章附了张图片，是根据奥威尔的“1984”改编的电影场景。老师讲到了1984，那是我第一次知道这部小说。还记下了里面的名句，虽然到现在也没看完这部让人心颤的小说：WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH。