Comment by whatshisface

It is interesting to think about how such a counterproductive attitude could develop. I imagine that the Party saw a problem, suppressed some people who were impacted by it, and saw the problem go away (at least for them). The they saw another problem, suppressed some people, and saw that problem go away too. After doing this for several decades, their default reflex upon seeing a problem was to suppress whoever was complaining about it. This strategy worked for small problems that would stay about the same size over time, because they could tell the sufferers to suck it up and at most a few people would become discontent. Eventually the strategy became a habit, and the habit became an integral cultural component of their way of governing.

Then, one day, they saw a problem, suppressed some people... and discovered that the small problem would not stay small and suppressible after all.