In the year 2001 we made the long journey by train from Vienna to Naples.
And went to the summit of Vesuvio and peered into the crater. Today Vesuvio is quiet.
We then went to the Parco Campi Flegrei which is where the above photo was taken.
In ancient times the Campi Flegrei was believed to be the entrance to Hell.
Today the Campi Flegrei is in the news. Something is stirring. Minimally perhaps, but enough to attract media attention.
Perhaps things will settle down in due course. Let us hope so.
Another simmering caldera is Newspeak.
In the novel 1984 the appendix is titled The Principles of Newspeak.
Here reader may read the definitions of several Newspeak words: words like goodthink.
The populous will be encouraged to be goodthinkful.
The goodthinker does not use ungood words like honour, justice and democracy. To do so would be crimethink.
The few left who were born in the time of Oldspeak are aware of the power of words.
The final year for the complete adoption of Newspeak is fixed. It will be 2050 is Orwell's conclusion.
"Orwell . . . is not a prophet of disaster . . . 1984 teaches us, the danger with which all men are confronted today, the danger of a society of automatons . . . it would be most unfortunate if the reader smugly interpreted 1984 as . . . description of Stalinist barbarism, and if he does not see that it means us, too." - Erich Fromm in his Afterword.
