"Of course the people do not want war... But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism. " German Field Marshall
A reader of this blog took
the time to e-mail me the post I deleted by accident. Thank you , Claire. I
appreciate your time and cooperation.
Today I’m publishing my
post on “1984” again, with a few “upgrades”.
If there is something
about the plot and/or characters that offends somebody, please bear with it.
George Orwell is now dead so you can’t bully the author. Excuse my sense of
humor here. I know, I know. Women are not expected to have this kind of sense of
humor (unless they use it to pester a woman who opposes the bully in power).
Thankfully, I’m married to
a man who loves my sense of humor.
Do people get annoyed by
the use of pen-names? Hopefully not because George Orwell is a pen-name. Ladies
and gentlemen: live and let live.
Here’s my essay on “1984” by George Orwell.
‘1984’ is a dystopian novel
about a country called Oceania. (The
name Oceania probably alludes to the isolationist nature of its people). Oceania is constantly at war, but its citizens do not
know why it is at war. They do support it, though, because anybody who is not a
supporter is considered a traitor.
Hatred and rage fuel the support of this endless war.
Anyone who dares to oppose the dictator’s ideas or think
differently is vilified and will disappear. Those who work for the party are
instructed to manipulate the truth as needed. In fact, nobody is expected to care about the truth because their lives would be at
stake if they did. Freedom is considered to be blind obedience to the leader.
Physical movements and facial expressions are closely monitored by screens in people’s homes, political prisoners are treated worse than criminals and love does not exist; hatred and fear condition everybody’s behavior. Blind obedience to Big Brother is what matters.
Physical movements and facial expressions are closely monitored by screens in people’s homes, political prisoners are treated worse than criminals and love does not exist; hatred and fear condition everybody’s behavior. Blind obedience to Big Brother is what matters.
Torture and starvation await anybody who dares to challenge the system in any way. Another strategy of the ruling Party is to destroy words. “We’re
cutting the language down to the bone. Don’t you see that the whole aim of
Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?” “There will be no thought as we
understand it now. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”
Winston is a thirty-nine year-old man who works for
the Ministry of Truth. He helps to change the historical facts but, in reality,
he is a free thinking person who would like to sabotage Big Brother’s
dictatorship. He falls in love with a woman, and they both challenge the system
by loving each other and having secret encounters that they must plan in
advance.
When Winston becomes a political prisoner a member of the
inner Party confesses to him, “Our civilization is founded upon hatred. In our
world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement.
Everything else we shall destroy - everything. Already we have destroyed the
habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut
the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man
and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. ..”
“There will be no
loyalty, except loyalty toward the party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph
over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science”.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power”. “We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is
not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to
safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the
dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture
is torture. The object of power is power”.
The truth is distorted to meet the leader’s interests; conformity
becomes the rule.
The society in which the authoritarian regime thrives is
designed carefully to disregard critical thinking and to believe blindly in
their leader. His authority is not to be questioned, and those who dare do it
are punished and labeled as enemies. George Orwell portrays the dynamics of
this society with striking details.
The features that make Big Brother powerful are the
following:
-Fanaticism
-Exacerbated nationalism
-Mindless slogans and repeated lies
-The destruction of language
-Use of songs and ceremonies to venerate the leader
The past becomes mutable for the government can manipulate
history by rewriting the historical facts and changing the data to keep the
dictator in power. This is done because
the omnipotence of the dictator can only be preserved through lies and
irrationality.
In Oceania the
proletarians - also called “the proles”- are the majority of the population.
The Party claimed to have liberated “the proles”, but, in reality, the dictator
does not care about them.
“So long as they continued to work and breed, their other
activities were without importance.”
“All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which
could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer
working hours or shorter rations”.
Contradictions are at the heart of the regime. In
‘1984’ the Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth
with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with
starvation.
The question that lingers in my mind is whether
these totalitarian leaders succeed because of the ignorance and/ or apathy of
the masses or the conformism of the intellectuals. I think it is a combination
of both. As Albert Einstein said, “Few are those who see with their own eyes
and feel with their own hearts.”
