Thought police: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[Thoughtcrime |
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The '''Thought Police''' were the [[secret police]] (''thinkpol'' in [[Newspeak]]) of the fictional totalitarian regime in [[George Orwell]]'s dystopic novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (1949). In that novel, the Thought Police used [[psychology]] and omnipresent [[surveillance]] to find and eliminate members of society who were capable of the mere thought of challenging ruling authority, or in the jargon of Newspeak, committing [[thoughtcrime]]. |
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Orwell's Thought Police were based on the unfolding revelations of the totalitarian structures of [[Stalinism]] that came to light after [[World War II]]. By extension, the term has come to refer to real or perceived enforcers of ideological correctness in any modern milieu. |
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The use of devices such as [[lie detector]]s and [[penile plethysmograph]]s can be regarded as modern intrusions on the privacy of the mind: in some cases evidence from these devices has been used as evidence in court. Programmes to identify and treat "potential offenders", in particular children or adults with real or percieved [[personality disorder]]s who have not committed any crime, can also be regarded as a movement towards a Thought Police. |
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== Thought crime and internal sin == |
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To extend the concept of ''thoughtcrime'' to the [[Early Christian]] obsession with extirpating [[heresy]] is anachronistic. Nevertheless, the Christian concept of a "thought crime" was introduced in the mid 16th century, largely with the not wholly new category of [[Internal sin]], the idea that sin (a crime of religion) may be committed not only by outward deeds but also by the inner activity of the mind, quite apart from any external manifestation. ''Thought crimes'' were as old as [[heresy]], but the [[Reformation]]'s alarms received new emphasis at the [[Council of Trent]] (Session XIV, chapter. v). The session, while reiterating that all mortal sins must be confessed, singled out the unspoken ones that "sometimes more grievously wound the soul and are more dangerous than sins which are openly committed". |
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Three kinds of internal sin are usually distinguished by Catholics: |
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* ''delectatio morosa'', i.e. the pleasure taken in a sinful thought or imagination even without desiring it; |
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* ''gaudium'', i.e. dwelling with complacency on sins already committed; |
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* ''desiderium'', i.e. the desire for what is sinful. |
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==See also== |
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[[Heresy]], [[Orthodoxy]], [[Cathar]]. [[Inquisition]]. |
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[[sv:Tankepolisen]] |
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Revision as of 14:12, 16 October 2004
- REDIRECT [[Thoughtcrime