The Oxymoron

You know, when I was freshman at the University of Chicago, I had the privilege of having the great Peter Dembowski as a Humanities Teacher. Professor Dembowski (who recently passed away in 2023) was the CLASSIC OLD SCHOOL literature teacher.

There as no "What do you think this means" when we read something like "Hamlet", or "Beowulf", or even "1984" ... with each passage HE TOLD YOU what it meant. On the rare occasion when there was room for interpretation he would say "well, there are perhaps a couple ways to view this... " and proceed to tell us what they were.

Now I know what some of you might say ... "Well that takes the fun out of reading ..."  and there might be some merit to that, but after that class, I instantly knew what were the correct intepretations of classic works. 

One day, while discussing Orwell's 1984 and the concept of "DOUBLETHINK", he taught us about the word "OXYMORON" ... which he said was a "self contradictory word/phrase" ... like "squared circle" or "roaring silence" ...

... "or," as he concluded "... "if you watch the news lately ... MILITARY INTELLIGENCE!"

Oddly enough, that sentence still probably holds up today!