Topic > Big Brother Loves You: Forced Collectivism in 1984

Following the political upheaval and power struggle after World War II, George Orwell's novel 1984 warns of the dangers of oppression and exemplifies the resulting nightmare world of the near future. The plot traces the struggles of the main character, Winston Smith, as he attempts to rebel against the tyrannically insatiable Party, ruler of the superstate Oceania. In this terrifying glimpse of the future, independent thought, along with all other human values ​​and ideals, is eradicated, and replaced only with fanatical loyalty to the Party and "an unconscious orthodoxy." The Party, also known as Ingsoc, is able to achieve these goals through a complex use of manipulation mechanisms, eliminating free thought through restrictive language, constant propaganda, a degradation of human values, an imposed social hierarchy and control complete virtual reality. The novel 1984 summarizes, if not exaggerates, the horrors of totalitarian collectivism, in which a government can claim that a contradiction, like two and two equals five, is true, and the hive mind will believe it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The concept of language as a tool of confinement is an exceptionally important message of the book, and this is used to its fullest potential in the official language of Oceania, Newspeak. Language, of course, is of primary importance to the human thought process and can be used to expand an individual's expression or severely limit it. In 1984, Ingsoc learned the theory behind communicating with Newspeak, "the only language in the world whose vocabulary shrinks every year." Basically, Newspeak is a way of narrowing the range of thought until "a heretical thought (is) literally unthinkable, at least insofar as the thought depends on the words." Thought crimes, or unorthodox thoughts, would become obsolete, because without a way to express them, they could not exist. The Party constantly updates Newspeak and the Newspeak dictionary to convey its highest intent so that ultimately no one will even be able to conceptualize questioning the Party's absolute authority. Doublethink, the infamous Newspeak word for “reality control,” is itself an example of government oppression. , where reality exists as the Party says it exists and nothing more. To be more precise, the definition of doublethink would be "the power of holding two contradictory thoughts in mind at the same time and accepting both of them." This is crucial to maintaining the idea that the Party is infallible and that Big Brother is semi-divine. Doublethink is the neglect of all logic; if the Party says "two plus two equals five", it is a crime to think otherwise; the Party "could reach (the stars) if (they) wanted to... or (they) could obliterate them." Altering history is not impossible and falsifying documents is a necessary thing, since "he who controls the past controls the present; he who controls the present controls the future". Simply put, doublethink is controlled insanity. Enormous amounts of propaganda perpetuate the madness, from the "ruggedly beautiful" but austere characteristics of Big Brother, evident in the posters plastered on every wall and street corner, to the hate-themed celebrations that arouse mad emotions. by every citizen. Big Brother replaces God in an atheist society, i.e. "BB" is the source of all goodness and righteousness and the target of all praise, whether in real existence or not. All the emotions repressed by the Party are only giventhis outlet to express oneself; an overwhelming and devoted love for the Party and Big Brother, and a deeply rooted hatred for Oceania's "mortal enemy", or more precisely, the scapegoat. Even Winston, who throughout the novel tries to reject Ingsoc's brainwashing, is overwhelmed by the raw emotional flow of the Two Minutes of Hate; "you can't help but join in... a horrible ecstasy of fear and revenge, a desire to kill... to turn someone, even against their will, into a grimacing, screaming madman." In 1984, propaganda is a constant stream of psychological thought stimuli, starting at an early age with the Junior Spies, through adolescence with the Junior Anti-Sex League, and continuing into adulthood under the permanent surveillance of telescreens, barking Round-the-clock orders and information in propaganda results in pent-up emotions released as the Party, and no one else, sees fit. For the Party, the thirst for pure power, the means to its end, causes the state of endless war with the other two. The purpose of war is twofold: first, war ensures that all excess supplies are wasted, and secondly, war provides a certain “wartime mentality” that keeps the people of Oceania obedient and under control, in turn, destroying supplies results in the class system, an important way to be sure that the only group in power, the Higher Party group, remains in power. In this way, the Upper layers reserve the best goods for themselves, the Middle receives the Upper's leftovers, and the Lower is left barely surviving. The Low, or the proles, constantly busy with survival, will always be apathetic towards politics, revolution or government, because nothing takes precedence more than living another day with food in their stomachs. The Party and the governments of the world's other superstates realize this, and so unofficially agree to remain at constant war, to maintain their place in power. To put it one way, "in principle it would be simple enough to waste the world's surplus labor... by producing large quantities of goods and then setting them on fire... but this would provide only economic well-being and not economic well-being" . the emotional basis for a hierarchical society." The emotional basis is that of the wartime mentality; when at war, the natural inclination is to support the country and support the government that runs it, basically handing the country over to be managed as seen fit by the higher order who should know what they are doing. By maintaining the constant state of war, the Party is also able to prevent the lower classes from rebelling against them. Perhaps the most distressing of all methods of subtle manipulation employed by the Party is the condemnation of all emotional bonds between people. Children are taught from an early age to betray their parents at the slightest hint of heterodoxy, causing the separation of the family unit. People are isolated from each other, the which makes them feel helpless and prevents any joint action against the Party. As in Winston's family, relationships are divided by battles over food and shelter, which were taken away by the Party to facilitate this event. People are prohibited from marrying for love, and sex in marriage is also prohibited unless one derives absolutely no pleasure from it. Sex, also called "duty to the Party", has only one purpose: to produce children, fresh minds ripe for brainwashing. The love between Julia and Winston, Winston believes, would be the downfall of the Party, their love an open act of political rebellion, "a blow struck against the Party." Winston's eventual betrayal of Julia below.