How many fingers, Winston?

Requiring people to see things that aren’t there is neither reasonable nor progressive.

IT IS THE PIVOTAL PASSAGE of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The hero, Winston Smith, is being tortured by “O’Brien”, the senior party official responsible for his political re-education.

O’Brien holds up four fingers and asks Winston how many he sees. When he answers “four”, he receives an excruciating electric shock. The answer, O’Brien insists, is “five.” Every time Winston answers “incorrectly” the voltage is increased.

“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? Two and two are four.”

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”

As has so often been the case since the publication of Orwell’s novel in 1948, our contemporary lives have begun to imitate his art. Increasingly, ordinary people – citizens of countries we used to look upon as exemplars: Great Britain, Canada, Australia – are being commanded to accept, no, to believe unconditionally, that 2+2=5, or 3, or “all of them at once.”