1984

how can there be crimes in the world of 1984 if there are no laws?

there are multiple instances in which winston asserts that crimes have been committed...the time he explains facecrime to the reader, all the times he talks about the accused in the great purges and all the crimes they were tried for and confessed to.

however, he also says that laws dont exist anymore at some point near the beginning of the book, which i unfortunately cannot find at the moment.

so my question is: how can there be crimes in the world of 1984 if there are no laws?

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"Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies...

To teach superstitions as 'truths' is a most terribe thing.

The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them.

In fact- men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth--often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but the truth is a point of view and so is changeable..."

(Hypatia of Alexandria)

Truth is a point of view. So is the concept of 'un-truth'.

How 'wrong' is it to fight against a brutal oppressor ?

Is it 'wrong' to kill a madman who threatens to kill children ?

The very idea of 'laws' would suggest that there is such a thing as 'rights'- which in turn would result in remnants within the language which could lead to the authority of the rulers being challenged.

So- who determines what is 'right' or 'wrong' ? 'Good' or 'Bad' ?

You ? Me ?

In Orwell's world, the answer to that question is simple:

Those who worship the God of power.

Because they are also the ones who determine what a 'Fable' is, what

a 'Myth' is, and wether or not a miracle is a mere poetic fancy.

They control the language itself...And they have deemed words like 'Bad' obsolete. Instead the proper expression is 'Un-good'...

That way no one can associate the word 'bad' with their little lucid-dream-factory.

The proper expression still contains the word 'good'- turned upside down, so to speak.

'Crime' is then simply focussed unto one thing:

Anyone going out of line (the lucid-dream-assembly-line, that is) commits a 'Crime'.

Because they say so.