"Brothers at the Intelligence Ministry made me understand my mistake"

In My Humble Opinion
1

Quiz time.

Is the above quote:

A) A line from Orwell’s 1984
B) From a disgruntled summer-school student angry at “the man” sending him to detention
C) Part of an actual confession made publicly in an actual court
Please put down your pencils, your time is up!

When I read that a Frenchwoman who has “confessed” to involvement in Iran’s recent post-election unrest actually said this to a Iranian judge’s (or perhaps prosecutor’s) face I really couldn’t believe it. Not sure whether to laugh or cry. It is so Orwellian as to be farcical.

Either she just repeated exactly what the 'brothers" told her to say and they were too clueless to recognize how bad the statement makes them look, or she just got away with royally slamming the Iranian government in its own courtroom… and they were to clueless to recognize how bad she just made them look (IMHO).

Doubleplus ungood. Or maybe, tripleplus supercool. I am not sure exactly what to make of it. Probably won’t know for sure until she makes it back to France.

In the meantime, I sure hope she and the others won’t be sent to Room 101.

2

That appears to be translated from Farsi. I assume you consider the “made me understand my mistake” to be the funny part. The “brothers” and “intelligence ministry” are just due to the translation.

Is “The men at the justice department made me understand my mistake” just as funny?

3

Mostly it’s the “made me understand” part that is a bit chilling. Understanding is something that is best arrived at freely at the time and place of the"understander’s " choosing.

Being compelled to “understand” something by foreign intelligence agents while you are under their control, probably inside of their ministry building (as oppose to say, a sidewalk cafe), is something I do not exactly understand to be understanding, at least the way that I understand it. I think George Orwell understood it that way–at least in 1984.

Understand? If not, me and the boys can make you.