Techniques of Control
George Orwell cynically depicts a totalitarian system that has been so corrupted by power that power has become its chief objective. He believes that when Governments become almighty and powerful they rule to the detriment of individuals indifferently trampling on their right to freedom. Big Brother has perfected the system of totalitarian government to such an extent that it is hell-bent on exercising power “entirely for its own sake”. It is not interested in improving or safeguarding the lifestyle or interests of its citizens. In this regard, Big Brother is more honest than other corrupt totalitarian and fascist governments such as Nazi Germany and the Communist government in Russia that hypocritically camouflaged their motives. Persecution, torture and power all become ends in themselves.
- Propaganda: all the “beliefs and habits” are designed to sustain the “mystique of the Party” and the complete love and dependence upon Big Brother, who is “invincible”. The purpose of propaganda is to wipe out individuality and ensure that the only possible future for the individual is to completely merge one’s identity with that of the Party. (See Hate Week)
- Slogans/Propaganda: War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength. (18)
- Aim of the Party; “Orthodoxy was unconsciousness.” (58)
Telescreens – physical control
The main instrument of control in Oceania is the telescreen. The telescreen is a two-way television set that is stationed in all residences and public places. The telescreens are a method of constant surveillance.
Telescreens are monitored by the Thought Police, who search for every error. The sets can never be shut off.
- Quotes: There was ‘no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.’ (p. 4-5).
- Winston knows from the beginning that “you might dodge successfully for a while even for years but sooner or later they were bound to get you.”
- Purpose: This creates a sense of constant fear and anxiety in the citizens.
Thought Police : physical and psychological control
The thought police are an army of party officials that are always watching people. They spy and torture people who do not follow the party line. (219)
“A party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone.” “He can be inspected without warning and without knowing that he is being inspected.” Even his facial expressions, his misdemeanours, any eccentricities, any movement of his body, is “jealously scrutinised”. (219)
Winston’s private rebellion makes him a target for the Thought Police. Both Mr Charrington and O’Brien who appear to be helpful are both members of the Thought Police.
The children are also encouraged to spy on people. This is like the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany.
- Thought Police: “It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.” (5) The poster of Big Brother: the eyes “follow you about when you move” (3).
Purpose: to subdue and intimidate activists and snare /expose any “erroneous” or “unorthodox” thought.
Propaganda: Ministry of Truth/ Ministry of Plenty (War)
4 ministries are used to control people. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, which changes documents to make sure that the party is always right.
Slogans: War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength. (18)
Language: mental control
The party controls people through the control of language.
The aim of Newspeak in the totalitarian state in 1984 is to reduce language and thereby narrow the range of thought. Language is constantly reduced so that people cannot think certain concepts.
• “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” It is “cutting language down to the bone”.
• “duckspeak” connotations: (57)
• the language used by the Party is clinical, dehumanising and impersonal. The party talks about “vaporisation” and “purging”. Traitors, like Aaronson and later Symes, become “unpersons” as a sign that they never existed (48).
Double Think : mental control
The Party controls peoples’ thought processes also through double think. Double think is the ability to think two contradictory thoughts at once.
• Quotes: It is “to know and not to know”. It is to know the truth and yet tell lies. “To hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out”.
• “It also follows that though the past is alterable, it never has been altered in any specific instance”.
The party seeks to control external reality – power over the “mind” is the most important type of control
“AS the priest’s of power”… “We make the laws of nature”; “We control matter because we control the mind” (277)
Collective (state) mental control (propaganda/Ministry of Truth)
The party alters the past, almost “minute by minute”. The documents are changed to show that the party is infallible (“to safeguard the infallibility of the Party”). Every document is altered according to the Party philosophy. These include newspaper items, films, cartoons, photographs, leaflets and so on. Expression of opinion and any contradictions were deleted. (221)
Winston rewrites news stories and eliminates references to people who have been removed from society for crimes against the party or Big Brother.
• Quotes: “Who controls the past controls the present”. “The mutability of the past is the central tenet of Ingsoc.” (222) The “past is whatever the Party chooses to make it” because the Party is in full control of all records.
• The Party’s philosophy is that “one tolerates present-day conditions partly because he has no standards of comparison”. (Propaganda) It is necessary for “him to believe that he is better off than his ancestors and that the average level of material comfort is constantly rising”. This process was regarded as a necessary amendment or a misprint “in the interests of accuracy” (43)
• (Propaganda) The process is necessary to “show that the predictions of the Party were in all cases right”. Any change or admission of error is “a confession of weakness”. Whether Eurasia or Eastasia is the enemy, “then that country must always have been the enemy”. (222)
• Winston believes that when he was working in the Ministry of Truth 11 years ago, there was a photograph showing that Jones and Aaronson were not traitors, but party members (who attended a function in New York). He had seen “unmistakable documentary evidence” to prove that their confessions were false and that they were not guilty of the alleged crimes of sabotage. (258) O’Brien wants him to believe that there was no such photo. They were always traitors and are as easily vaporised as throwing the photograph down the (mind/memory) chute. Symes, 58.
War (Ministry of Peace)
There is no purpose for war. It is not a war about ideas. It is also not about resources. (199) “It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.” (*200) The two aims of the Party are to “conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought.” (201)
• The “essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour” (198). War is about “continuous shortage of consumption goods”.
• It is about using up the surplus of goods so that the masses will not become “too comfortable” or “too intelligent” (199) .
• According to the principles of doublethink, the aim of war is to “use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living” (196).
• The social atmosphere is that of a “besieged city” (199).
• The “consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.” (200). It is to use up the “products of the machine” without raising the general standard of living. They want things to constantly stay the same. It is a way of diverting people’s attention.
• “an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction, indeed in some sense was the destruction, of a hierarchical society.” 197
Hate Week and emotional control (139, 16-18)
The Two Minutes Hate is a form of brainwashing. People gather in front of a telescreen for two minutes. People are encouraged to show their love towards the Party by demonstrating disgust for Goldstein, the Enemy of the People. This gives an emotional outlet, which often reaches the frenzied heights of hatred. 16 – 18
• The greater the hate for Goldstein, the greater the love and gratitude towards Big Brother. Often the hate sessions make people excitable. They reach a “hideous ecstasy of fear” . People end up loving Big Brother totally. BB is transformed into an “invincible, fearless protector”, standing “like a rock against the hordes of Asia,”
• Goldstein becomes “the sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilisation”. He is a “Eurasian soldier” who has his “sub-machine-gun roaring” voice which eventually merges with the face of B B which is “full of power and mysterious calm, and so vast that it almost filled up the screen” (18);
The benevolent figure increases confidence in BB who protects citizens from the Enemy of the People.
Control of Relationships:
• The cult of the personality or Hate Week is also a means of sexual repression. Hate Week is also “sex gone sour”. Love, feelings, sexual instincts are channelled into war fevour and leader worship. p 139 (sexual privation induced hysteria; the sex instinct is destroyed becausae it is “outside the Party’s control”( 139
• Katharine: frigid and ideal party member, p. 69
• Parson’s children: / Hitler Youth – allegiance to the “good father state” rather than to their own parents
In Orwell’s 1984, the party of Ingsoc is a totalitarian government that tramples on individual freedoms. Critical to its success is the total power of its leader, Big Brother. In order to maintain complete power, it fabricates an enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein. As an enemy who is at constant war with Oceania, G provides an evil contrast to BB, thus ensuring that people are dependent on BB and love him completely. G’s theories also provide a focus for Winston and enable O’Brien, who is both friend and foe, to capture Winston and cure him of his rebellious thoughts.
Orwell shows in 1984 that if political parties start tampering with and altering the truth, they ultimately have complete power over the individual. IN this case Big Brother does not want to preserve truth or personal or collective history because this erodes their power over the population.
The party falsifies history and destroys the truth in order to exert complete control over individuals.
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