In theory, politics exist to balance the various needs of individuals and to moderate conflicts between diverse interests. However, in reality there are no such ideal decision-making system; all governments have inefficiencies caused by manipulations, corruptions, and bureaucracies. George Orwell, in , has depicted the non-ideality of politics by sketching a highly controlled society in various dimensions. In this essay, I will investigate how the Party maintains its power, in two scopes; through its extensive manipulation and its inherent inequality combined with suboptimal standards of living. First, let’s observe how the regime manipulates its population. At the macroscopic level, the Party has Hate Weeks, produces propagandas, and displays …show more content…
Had the proletariat been equal with other classes, they would have thought and stood for themselves, which would be a great threat to the Party. Also, outer party members were provided with low-quality goods and had a standard of living only marginally better than the proletariat, to make small privileges of the inner party appear bigger and to induce loyalty. To realize it, the “Ministry of Plenty” and the “Ministry of Peace” limit the supply of usable goods and exhaust any surplus, to keep the standard of living low enough to maintain the Party’s dictatorship. In conclusion, the previous investigations shed light to how the Party holds its power; it eliminates opposition by brainwashing and tight surveillance, and it stabilizes its power by maintaining a perpetually superior socioeconomic status to its residents, especially the middle and the lower classes. But still, there is an open question. As Winston said, we know how but we don’t know “why”. Why the Party craved power and control to such harsh extent? Although O’Brien answered that the object of power is power, pure power, it is not a meaningful answer because he himself is also brainwashed as an inner party member. Then why such oppressive regimes originate even though humans strive for peace and equality? It is a fundamental conflict of human nature between power, violence and equality, peace; which should be solved to leap one step closer to the
In the process of eliminating the thought of the people, the Party is able to not only monitor the human actions, but also restrict what can and can’t be thought of. In order to make sure that these “robots” stay stable, “It is deliberate policy to keep even the favored groups somewhere near the brink of hardship…”(Orwell 196). The “deliberate policy” shows that it was intended by the government of Oceania to keep the citizens, “favored groups”, near hardship. These hardships, times of deprivation, are a way for the Party to be the fallback for the people. When citizens don’t know what to do, they look up to Big Brother for encouragement. Hardships are also times of when people need comfort, and once again the Party is there with arms wide open to assure that those in need of help are secured. The difficulties of the people are used as a weapon by the Party. Being the one entity that is looked up to during times of despair and confusion allows for the loyalty of the people to strengthen even more so. The brainwashed citizens believe that the Party is the one true savior and are unified by not only a common enemy but by a common guardian. Through feeling this “affection” from the Party the people have a sense of safety and security which makes them believe even more in the words of Big Brother. As a child looks for their parent for assurance that
With psychological manipulation and the use of technology, the Party manipulates the public and controls their mind. “The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic
Totalitarian leaders used propaganda to make their people do what they wanted and
The outer party is more affected by this since the proles have more freedom than the outer party even though they are the lower class. Proles are able to marry whomever they want to, have a family, watch films or football, drink beer, and other forms of entertainment made from the Party. Even though the Proles can overthrow the government through sheer numbers, they are brainwashed that they are in fact not oppressed at all. The Party appears to be kind and kind to the people rather than oppressive and ruthless. At one point the Party had a broadcast while Winston was working that said chocolate ration was to increase to 20 grams per week, when in fact the ration was actually decreased. The citizens did not realize the government’s lies because of the brainwashing and they thought that the government was here making their lives better. This act was successful since Winston’s job, at the Ministry of Truth, is to construct lies so it fits with what the government’s interpretation of reality. He has to rewrite historical papers so anyone that checks the history, will see that the government has been telling the “truth”. This also crushes any dissent people may cause by talking about the past, since clearly the history says something
The Party’s manipulative manner constricts the citizen’s individualism due to the fact that Big Brother is able to control the entire population by constantly watching, enforcing doublethink and enlisting the Thought Police. The Party’s
Eric Arthur Blair may not seem like a familiar name, but it is the birth name of the English author better known by his pen name George Orwell. This author is best known for his works 1984 and Animal Farm. Both of these novels exhibit strong symbolism and convey many of Orwell’s opinions, especially concerning politics. Orwell’s personal background and strong beliefs about politics, religion, and his exposure to many world cultures is clearly evident within his novels. His opinions made his works controversial in their time.
By manipulating history and giving no opportunity for inquiry the government dehumanizes the people even more by destroying free thought. The Party knows that memories will lead to questions, and then to critical thought. So it implements Doublethink and Newspeak as tools to negate the urge to question the legitimacy of the Party’s history. “The Party tacitly acknowledges the limitation of its control of the material and by implication the circulation of stories and memories by the implementation of both Doublethink and Newspeak. Doublethink can only be thought of as an imperfect system of thought control most at
The insidious manifestation and nature of the Party’s power culminates through their manipulation of all aspects of life. History becomes a palimpsest wherein anything can be altered so as to favor the doctrines of the party. Language is slowly becoming eradicated and “ It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words”. This illustrates that the party wishes to create orthodoxy wherein independent and singular thought which repudiate any vestiges of humanity and digress from the principles of the party are blatantly impossible. Winston is of the belief that
As George Orwell wrote in his essay “Politics and the English Language,” “One ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language.” In his essay, Orwell stresses the corruption of language, especially when used in politics, and urges readers to be aware of the ways politicians manipulate language and rhetoric in order to brainwash voters into allocating their support. The misuse of language is evident in the battle between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton who, in the presidential debates, have demonstrated the political manipulation of language George Orwell exposes in his essay.
If a person only taught some children how to say “ Candy is bad ”. Those children, who tell each other candy is bad over and over, will believe that candy is bad without a doubt. The party is acting in the same way, they are telling people the Big Brother is their leader. They have to do that to control people’s thoughts. “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”(1984) is a propaganda that surrounds people in the Oceania.
Any beginning of questioning about the government they live in is quickly destroyed by alcohol, sex, pornography, and lottery tickets. This manipulation method is so significant to the Inner Party that there is a section where the Outer Party members work is dedicated to creating pornography for the Proles. These elements are used to keep the Proles focus elsewhere instead of on the Inner Party activities. In addition to these three elements, the Proles are also manipulated to become paranoid about their environment, especially, the war they think is happening, but it's actually made up by the government. This is not confirmed in the novel; however it can be hypothesized by readers given the extremities of the Inner Party methods of control.
In order for human nature to overcome the party, there has to be exposure to the methods and the application of those methods by the Party. Let us begin by studying how the Party makes use of the system to completely breaking down an individual’s independence or the practice of the mental brainwash. In addition to torturing, the author lists the most common techniques which are alienation from the truth, not allowing any individuals to keep any type of “physical record”, daily propaganda streaming through the “telescreen”, hate sessions toward their rival nations, and the “Junior Spies” that are created
Many authors bring in the theme of politics into their work in order to make their creations more appealing and as a form of expressing their personal views. George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-four” is a novel that contains many political messages to the world. Orwell felt that part of his role as a writer is to serve as a voice of conscience to our society by trying to express the truth as he saw it. The novel was written in a crucial time period in modern history after the Second World War and at the beginning of the Cold War. One can see that the book was influenced by current events of its time mixed with Orwell’s standpoint. He focuses on three major political issues that effect society, which are the dangers of war, class differences
At the far end of the room O’Brien was sitting at a table under a green-shaded lamp, with a mass of papers on either side of him. He had not bothered to look up when the servant showed Julia and Winston in” (Orwell 167). The quality of their possessions, like the carpet, just continue to show you how luxurious and perfect everything is for them and how many things they have. They have the power, the money and the resources it is all in the palms of their hands. But most importantly they have the power and they hold onto it very tightly for a specific reason. In their minds, “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing” (Orwell 266). The party knows what they are capable of and they use it to their advantage. They make the people think a certain way, they control the rations, they deem who is smart or not and they are in control of who is wealthy or not. All of this amounts to a Utopia because all the disease, poverty and inequality is left for the outer party; it is not part of their
Ritchie: Your guidelines are dreadfully stringent, you can't tail them yourself, Orwell. Your written work softens every principle up turn while you expound on it. Your assessments with respect to the laws on writing in the English dialect are silly. While its critical to utilize dialect appropriately to eloquent thoughts, its not obliged that laws be taken after.