Oceana

Politics. The American knew that the point wasn't to win. Winning would have ended conflict, and conflict was precisely the point.

Orwell's Oceania was perpetually at war with someone, anyone. The enemy's face changed but the conflict remained constant. In the novel 1984, Oceania's endless war served the Party's need for continuous crisis - today Eurasia, tomorrow Eastasia, the enemy was interchangeable. Didn’t matter. From without, from within.

What mattered was maintaining a state of fear, of militant loyalty, of unquestioning belief. External threats justified internal control. Permanent emergency powers. Continuous crisis making normal politics impossible.

A state of perpetual imbalance.

No real plans to build, no practical policies to implement, no ability to solve anything. The agenda was the conflict itself. The purpose was the fight itself. It’s the spectacle of the ring. Building requires compromise. Fighting only requires enemies. Nothing is ever achieved.

As systems degrade, as institutions crumble, as truth splinters, what remains is this permanent state. Control through chaos. Power through division.

The grand illusion isn’t that any conflict is winnable. As Claude would say, "La grande illusion était de croire que la victoire avait la moindre importance." The grand illusion was believing that victory had the slightest importance.