The Party denied the free will of the individual--and at the same time it exacted his willing self-sacrifice. It denies his capacity to choose between two alternatives--and at the same time it demanded that he should constantly choose the right one. It denied his power to distinguish good and evil--and at the same time it spoke pathetically of guilt and treachery. The individual stood under the sign of economic fatality, a wheel in a clockwork which had been wound up for all eternity and could not be stopped or influenced--and the Party demanded that the wheel should revolt against the clockwork and change its course.
There was somewhere and error in the calculation; the equation did not work.
--Rubahsov, in prison, awaiting execution. Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon
(London: Arthur Koestler & Jonathan Cape Ltd,) p.240
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