* Just a note – format will be slightly retarded. I don’t know why the colours are doing what they are but, hey!
In 1984, George Orwell paints up an image of a truly totalitarian society, a society where those in power are “exercising control over the freedom, will, and thought of others” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/totalitarian). What needs to be taken into consideration when reading this novel is that we, today, live in a world that is not so different to that of the one portrayed in this book. Many similarities can be drawn between our world leaders’ political practices, and those of big brother, which show our world as a much scarier place than most would have imagined.
In 1984, the people of Oceania are (or have the possibility of being) under constant surveillance at all times. How does The Party – Oceania’s government- manage this? One of their ways is with the use of telescreens. Telescreens are “two sided” television sets, which allow members of the Thought Police to drop in on anyone, whenever they want. As Winston Smith (the main character of the novel) explains,
“How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live-did live, from habit that became instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized.”(Orwell, 5).
The main reason for this is to eliminate the possibility of conspiracies against The Party. Although we have not reached the point of having two sided televisions in our homes, we are often under surveillance as well.
“According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras – one for every 14 people in the country – and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.” (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-details/George+Orwell,+Big+Brother+is+watching+your+house/article.do).
One thing to keep in mind is that these are not your typical cameras. “The city has placed speakers in its cameras, allowing operators to chastise miscreants who drop coffee cups, ride bicycles too fast or fight outside bars.” (http://www.bloomberg.com /apps/news? pid=20601109&sid=avL4PSqZrcj4). On December 22nd, 2006, in Middlesbrough, England, Drunken university students were celebrating the beginning of a new school year. One of the students picked up a traffic cone and started running down the street with it, and all of a sudden,
“a disembodied voice boomed out from above: “You in the black jacket! Yes, you! Put it back!’” The confused student obeyed as his friends looked bewildered. […] “People are shocked when they hear the cameras talk, but when they see everyone else looking at them, they feel a twinge of conscience and comply,” said Mike Clark, a spokesman for Middlesbrough Council” (http://www.bloomberg.com /apps/news? pid=20601109&sid=avL4PSqZrcj4) [ ellipses mine].
This incident is eerily similar to one that takes place in the novel when Winston is attempting to do his morning exercises along with an instructress on the telescreen. Unsatisfied with the quality of his bending, she lets him know by screaming “Smith! […] 6079 Smith W! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You’re not trying. Lower, please! That’s better, comrade.”(Orwell, 39) [ellipses mine]. The fact that we now have camera’s that can watch our every move and talk to us if we’re doing something wrong is no less totalitarian than having telescreens in our homes.
Scarily enough, these are not the only tactics being used to monitor people today,
“The powers of security police in Western countries to intercept mail and tap phones have often been extended, police agencies keep numerous files on law-abiding citizens, and more and more public officials have the right to enter private homes without a warrant. Many government departments keep computerized information on citizens…”( http://www .ihr.org/ jhr/v06/ v 06p–9_Bennett.html).
Also, the Bush administration recently announced plans that millions of Americans will be recruited to form a corps of citizen spies who will serve as ““extra eyes and ears for law enforcement,” reporting any suspicious activity as part of a program dubbed Operation TIPS — Terrorism Information and Prevention System”. (http://www. Sfgate.com/ cgibin/ article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/07/28/IN244190.DTL). These tactics have made countries like the United-States, Canada and Britain increasingly more totalitarian. In 1984, you never know who could be a member of the Thought Police around you, waiting to catch you for being unorthodox. It seems that we have almost reached that point.
The people of Oceania, as well as we, are subjected to bombarding amounts of propaganda on a daily basis.
“Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels” (http://e n .wikiped ia.org/wiki/Propaganda).
In both worlds, propaganda is exactly this. In Canada and the United-States, propaganda is widely used by politicians to demonize political opposition members, instead of focusing on any of their own policies. This has been a large part of Stephen Harper’s political campaign as Prime Minister. In 2007, “The federal Conservative party launched a new set of campaign-style attack ads aimed squarely at Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion”. One of the ad’s messages was
“you showed the Liberals the door last year, and they want to come back now to haunt you[…]Another ad shows a red Liberal domino falling, triggering a long line of dominos with words such as “scandal” and “arrogance” to topple. It all comes to a halt when the dominos fall against a solid, Tory-blue domino.”( http: //www .ctv.ca/ s e rvle t/ArticleNews/story/ C TV New s/200 7 021 3/tory _ads_0 70 213 ?s_nam e=&no _ ads=).
This anti-liberal propaganda has nothing to do with Stephen Harper’s objectives whatsoever, is evidently propaganda, and is very similar to the way Emmanuel Goldstein is demonized in 1984. Everyday, people of The Party participate in what is called “Two minutes Hate”.
“Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which Goldstein was not the principal figure. He was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party’s purity. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching.” (Orwell,14).
In both cases, propaganda is used to point the finger at the opposition. It does not matter whether or not the opposition has good intentions; the fact of the matter is that it is good to have someone towards whom you can turn the negative attention. The conservative government simply blames problems in parliament on the bad job the liberals did prior to them, just as “Big Brother” blames Goldstein for everything that goes wrong in Oceania. “The media in all countries are a vehicle for whipping up hatred against Goldstein-like figures.” (http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p–9_Bennett.html).
Another very large use of propaganda in Canada and the United-States is to get people to believe in and support the “war on terror”. The way that governments do this is by inciting fear of those with who we are at war, as well as demonizing them as much as possible.
“The Bush administration is paltering to the American public with exaggerated misconceptions of worldwide terrorism to frighten us into supporting a global police state. With seven hundred military bases and a budget bigger than the rest of the world combined, the US military has become the new supreme-power force repressing “terrorism everywhere”. (http://www.Glo balresearch.ca/index.php?context = vie wArticle&code=PHI20060520&articleId=248).
It is with strong propaganda efforts in the media and all around that Bush tries to make people believe exaggerated misconceptions about terrorism, to gain support for his every so totalitarian military practices.
Another good propaganda tactic is to focus on the accomplishments, and glorify the idea of war to get people’s support.
“No, the Bush administration doesn’t want you to see the bodies – not the bodies of our men and women, and not the bodies of Iraqi men, women and children. The administration wants you to see the war as an electronic game with bright lights in the distance and good sound effects, or close-ups of our brave warriors firing their guns at an invisible enemy. It doesn’t want you to see the torn flesh, blood, intestines, feces, urine. If you did, you might not support the war, and billions of dollars depend on your support.” (http://www.lewrockwe ll.Com/re ese/reese67.html).
There is only one point of view shown, ours, and that is it. Proud, strong and brave, fighting against the enemy that will rid us of our freedom. The problem is when our freedom is already gone, and when those pretending to fight for it are really those who have taken it away.
These propaganda tactics are not only used within our own country, our leaders also use them in the countries with whom we are at war.
“In November 2005, The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, alleged that the United States military had manipulated news reported in Iraqi media in an effort to cast a favorable light on its actions while demoralizing the insurgency. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, said the program is “an important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents”, while a spokesman for former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the allegations of manipulation were troubling if true. The Department of Defense has confirmed the existence of the program. The New York Times published an article about how the Pentagon has started to use contractors with little experience in journalism or public relations to plant articles in the Iraqi press. These articles are usually written by US soldiers without attribution or are attributed to a non-existent organization called the “International Information Center.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda).
We are now at the point where we actually make up non-existent organizations to spread out propaganda. Whether it’s at home, or overseas, the governing powers of Canada and the United-States are using their power to exercise control over the thoughts of others.
All of these propaganda tactics are similar to those used in Hate Week (a week designed to increase the hatred of the current enemy of the Party) in 1984. On the sixth day of hate week, Winston happened to be attending a demonstration, listening to a man go on about the enemy, from who’s mouth “boomed forth an endless catalogue of atrocities, massacres, deportations, lootings, rapings, torture of prisoners, bombing of civilians, lying propaganda, unjust aggressions, broken treaties.” (Orwell, 188). By always pointing the finger at the atrocities that others supposedly commit through propaganda, it is very easy for governments to draw the attention away from the things that they are actually doing. It also makes people fear this “enemy” and be willing to fight on their governments side against “it”, even if their government is treating them unjustly. “The aim of hate-week incitement is to divert attention from domestic problems, promote national unity, and, where necessary, motivate people to kill other people in wars.” (http://www. Lewrockwell.com/reese/reese67.html).
In the novel, when Winston is caught by the Thought Police and sent to the Ministry Of Love, he faces innumerable torture methods to be coerced into “admitting to his crimes”, that is, telling his interrogators what it is that they want to hear. Although many people may not be aware of it, we also inflict similar torturous methods upon prisoners; mainly those situated in the U.S military run prison in Guantanamo Bay. When Winston was in the Ministry Of Love, he was starving, and he did not know how long it had been since he had last eaten. He was not allowed to move, and was put in a room without daylight, “In the Ministry Of Love there were no windows”(Orwell, 241). He was beaten repeatedly, “Always, there were five or six men in black uniforms at him simultaneously. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, sometimes it was boots”(Orwell, 252). He confessed to a large amount of crimes that he did not commit, for “His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew.”(Orwell, 254). They tortured him under the pretence of wanting to save him, make him see the truth, which was truly to make him “believe” the lies. He was eventually brought to the torture room, room 101, where he was about to face his greatest fear, rats, when he chose to betray his lover, Julia, instead. This was exactly what they wanted of him, to betray his love to save himself, and then they let him go.
Although the torture methods are not exactly the same in Guantanamo Bay, many similarities are shocking. In the year 2002, a fifteen-year-old boy named Omar Khadr was taken to a military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, after being shot and accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier.
“He was ordered to clean floors on his hands and knees while his wounds were still wet. When he could walk again, he was forced to stand for hours at a time with his hands tied above a door frame. Interrogators put a bag over his head and held him still while attack dogs leapt at his chest. Sometimes he was kept chained in an interrogation room for so long he urinated on himself” (http:// www .nigh tslantern.ca/law/omarkhadr.html).
Sometime later, he was brought to Guantanamo Bay. There, “Meal portions were usually small enough to keep the prisoners in a state of low-grade hunger”, they were given just enough to stay alive. In July 2004, he was moved to Camp V. “In his new cell the fluorescent ceiling lights stayed on twenty-four hours a day. Sometimes he went for weeks without seeing daylight” (http://www.nightslantern.ca/law/omarkhadr.html). Omar was not informed of his rights, he was forced to provide involuntary statements, he was threatened with forced nakedness, he was threatened with sexual violence, he was kept in solitary confinement, he was exposed to continuous electric light in his cell, and much more. All of these things were done to a fifteen-year-old boy.
Omar is not the only one to have suffered from this type of abusive treatment, “A Swedish detainee described being held for a dozen hours at extremely cold temperatures and senselessly moved from cell to cell throughout the night.” In addition, “An Australian detainee described the use of frigid and stifling temperatures, short shackles and random beatings”. A former Guantanamo interrogator described detainees being “shackled for hours and left to soil themselves while exposed to blaring music or the insistent meowing of a cat-food commercial.” This is only the beginning of it, and only a few examples. “The U.S. Army’s own interrogation logs documented the treatment of a Saudi detainee who was interrogated in eighteen-hour sessions for forty-eight days, put on a leash and forced to bark like a dog, given intravenous fluids and locked in a room with no toilet, stripped and straddled and sexually derided by female guards, and subjected to a staged kidnapping that involved being tranquilized, blindfolded and flown to a fake destination” (http://www.nightslantern.ca/law/omarkhadr.html). We now treat human beings as less than animals, under the false pretense of them being an “enemy”.
A point that is extremely important to take note of is that “One military-intelligence officer, speaking anonymously, told a reporter that more than seventy-five percent of the detainees at Guantanamo are innocent” (http://www.rollingstone. com/ pol itics/story /11128331 /follo w_omar_ khadr_from_ an_ al_qaeda_ childhood _to_a_ gitmo_cell/1). This means that they are torturing innocent people, everyday, knowingly, just as in 1984. This is a violation of these people’s freedom, as well as a threat to our own.
The idea of doublethink is one that is thoroughly explored in 1984, and it also something that we are exposed to. Doublethink is
“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them . . . . To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth” (Orwell, 177).
Doublethink, to put it simply, makes people believe two contradictions. It is also a form of reality control.
An example of this in the novel would be the fact that one of the ministries that governs Oceania, the Ministry Of Peace, serves as the militant wing of government. It is in charge of the country’s armed forces. It is constantly at war. It has absolutely nothing to do with peace. These are two extremely contradictory terms. They are not only used this way in 1984. Our military claims to fight for peace, but you cannot be fighting with weapons, in the name of peace. The same thing applies with the idea of peace keeping forces. You cannot send your military to an area, with guns, and claim that they are there to keep peace. These actions completely contradict each other. We are exposed to doublethink on a daily basis, just as in the novel. Even President Bush has said it himself, “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.” (http://studentsfororwell.org/). He is implying that the reason that we have war is in the name of peace, which is doublethink at it’s best.
Another example of doublethink from the novel would be the fact that who it is that Oceania is at war with is constantly changing. One day, it is at war against Eurasia and has always been at war against Eurasia, and the next day, Eurasia are it’s allies and it is and always has been at war with Eastasia. The people of Oceania go along with this, and believe what it is that they’re being told, while exercising doublethink.
“The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated”. (Orwell, 37).
Here, we are shown how people become conditioned to the world of doublethink. They simply go along with the lies, although they know that they are lies. This is the power The Party has upon tem, just as our government has power upon us. Think of how Canada put the United-States and Israel on their list of places with greater risk of torture, then realized that “oops, they’re our allies, we should not have done that. They might get angry”. In the end, they apologized to both countries for putting their names on the list, but they never denied that fact that they were countries that inflicted torture on people. They are our allies, and they use methods of torture on people; this is indeed quite a good example of doublethink. We are supposed to go on accepting both, accepting that our ALLIES support TORTURE, without ever questioning it, just as in 1984.
We truly are living in an Orwellian society. When examining the surface, it may be easy to overlook, but otherwise, there is no denying that it is there. There are too many similarities to be ignored. We are, just as the people in the novel, under constant surveillance, our leaders use propaganda to get us to agree and go along with falsehoods that greatly affect our lives, we torture innocent prisoners in preposterous ways, and we live through doublethink. We are, right now, living in a society where those in power are exercising control over our freedom, will, and thought. We lack freedom, our will’s are twisted, and we are told what to think. Orwell evidently wrote 1984 as a warning for the future, and we, as a human race, must take action against these totalitarian ways before they completely take over. As Orwell wrote himself “And I believe that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph again” (http://www.theorwellreader.com /essays /sedlak.html).
This is just some aditionaly information I got that I couldnt fit into my essay that I still think is quite interesting!
Reason Winston, the main character of the book, works at the ministry of truth, where his job is to re-write and falsify history (another example of doublethink).
“The popular perception of history is based on brainwashing by the mass media, indoctrination by the education system, peer group pressure, self-censorship and television “docudramas.” Docudramas such as Winds of War; Tora, Tora, Tora; Gandhi; Gallipoli; and Holocaust, which pervade people’s 1984-like telescreens, are a blend of fact and fiction. They give a clear and believable, but usually completely misleading view, of historical events” (http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p–9_Bennett.html
- April 7, 2003
The headlines read, “Body of ‘Chemical Ali’ found”. CNN tells us, “The notorious Iraqi general known as ‘Chemical Ali’ … was killed in a coalition airstrike on his home over the weekend, U.S.-led coalition officials said…” Rumsfeld told us, “We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end.” The Kurds breathe a sigh of relief.
August 21, 2003
The headlines read, “‘Chemical Ali’ in custody.” CNN tells usthat the military has indicated Ali Hassan al-Majid was taken into custody several days ago.
(http://beta.morons.org/tally-ho/article/read/3836)
From “A Chilling Inheritance of Terror” by Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times, 30 Oct 2002:
Ever since the frenzied shootout last month on September 11 in Karachi there have been doubts over whether Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed head of al-Qaeda’s military committee, died in the police raid on his apartment.
…
Now it has emerged that Kuwaiti national Khalid Shaikh Mohammed did indeed perish in the raid
From “Pakistanis Arrest Qaeda Figure Seen as Planner of 9/11″ by Erik Eckholm, New York Times, 2 March 2003:
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, suspected of planning the Sept. 11 attacks on New Yorkand Washington and one of the F.B.I.’s most wanted terrorists, was detained by Pakistani authorities this morning and is now in American custody, officials said.
