Times went on. The sun shifted in the sky, the clocks struck thirteen, and in the Ministry of Truth, the workers were busy rectifying the news. It had been announced on the telescreen that the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the beginning of next week. Then, without any warning, it was announced that the ration was to be increased to twenty grammes. Winston’s mind went back to the evening before, when he had heard the announcement of the increase. He had just taken a nibble of the chocolate and had been thinking how much better it tasted than the stuff they had had last year. But the announcement had been made only that morning, and already it had been superseded. The Party had announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes, and then, a few hours later, that it was to be increased to twenty grammes. The masses, of course, accepted it without question. They were too ignorant to see the contradiction, and too frightened to care.

—George Orwell, 1984, 1949