A heavy black volume , amateurishly bound , with no name or title on the cover . The print also looked slightly irregular . The pages were worn at the edges , and fell apart easily , as though the book had passed through many hands . The inscription on the titlepage ranTHE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISMby Emmanuel GoldsteinCrimestop means the faculty of stopping short , as though by instinct , at the threshold of any dangerous thought . It includes the power of not grasping analogies , of failing to perceive logical errors , of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to ~~ Ingsoc ~~ DNC , and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction . Crimestop , in short , means protective stupidity .