A Look Inside 1984

So I came across my old research paper I wrote in the tenth grade. I found it very intriguing as I analyzed 1984 by George Orwell. This book was the start to my exciting interests in international ideologies and politics.

Enjoy.

Totalitarianism: The Dystopian Ideology

      The 1930s and 40s was a time of turmoil in the world. Countries were at war, people even thought that it was time for the apocalypse. World War I and World War II dominated the first half of the twentieth century, power was the goal and countries were willing to move mountains to obtain it. It was the power hungry dictators that threatened world peace, as the central figures in the World Wars, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin bought fear into the world’s eyes. George Orwell saw the rise of totalitarian regimes and wrote his books as a warning of these governments. Animal Farm, a famous novel by Orwell, portrays how a society’s ideologies can be manipulated with the wrong people in power. Nineteen Eighty-Four, another famous novel by Orwell, introduces the idea of physiological manipulation, where the mind is the source of control. In this novel, Big Brother is portrayed as a demagogue of a nation, Oceania, and The Party is the ruling body of the state. Nineteen Eighty-Four is about the life of Winston Smith in a dictatorship. Winston lives in a state where fear is the key and opposition is dangerous. Orwell Wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1948, as he witnessed the horrors of World War II and the rise of threatening dictatorships. Orwell cautions the philosophy of the 1940s authoritarian rule through the depiction of the utopian ideology of The Party that has gone wrong.


      Every political ideology has one goal, to create a utopia. Democracy tries to achieve it by giving the power to the people, Aristocracy tries by giving the power to a few individuals, and Dictatorship by giving total control to one individual. Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a mixture between a dictatorship and an aristocracy. Big Brother is portrayed as a despot that instills fear through his depiction of an omnipresent tyrannical ruler, and The Party is the ruling body of Oceania that enforces the laws. Total control is their policy, and The Party believes that totalitarianism is the only way to achieve a utopia. Many people have their own sense of utopias, the Party chooses to “void privacy, emotion, individuality, and freedom” by controlling the people’s mind, the Party can create their own version of a perfect world (Serafin 2964). Totalitarianism was adopted by many governments; dictatorship is often adopted when a country is in need. Adolf Hitler assumed power when Germany was going through disastrous depression as they lost World War I. The people look up to this charismatic leader that assured a utopian society. Dictators try to make their own perfect world, first “seize power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay paradise where human beings would be free and equal” (Orwell 263). Despots assure this paradise, then when put into power they create a dystopia. The Party in Nineteen- Eighty-Four uses a different kind of approach. The Party uses the mind to manipulate ideas and thoughts “and states impositions of will upon thoughts and truths” (“Nineteen Eighty-Four” 1). Using thought control and physiological deviation to make people think they live in an ideal society, The Party creates a perfect ideology. Since nothing in this world can be perfect, Oceania becomes anything but ideal. Newspeak is another example of how The Party enforces their control. “Newspeak is the only language where the vocabulary gets smaller,” this causes the brain to “narrow the range of thought” so that people do not have to think (Orwell 52). Therefore The Party does the thinking and controls the mind for them. Orwell shows a nightmarish version of a dystopia, “the ideological project of Nineteen Eighty-Four is to represent the destruction of human individuality and the human community by totalitarianism,” which was actually a huge fear in the 1940s and the central ideology of Big Brother and The Party (Wanner 7).


      The Party is the ruling class of the totalitarian government that is established in Oceania. The Party created a hierarchical system similar to that of the feudal system of the Medieval Period; Big Brother at the top, then the Inner Party, then Outer Party, and followed by the Poles. The Poles make up 85 percent of the population, however they have no power, freedom, or equality, “poles are portrayed as subhumans…” just as the serfs were in the Middle Ages (Resch 163). The Outer Party members are the educated yet unimportant people. They work as regular people and have to conform to society. The main character, Winston Smith, is apart of the Outer Party and works in the Ministry of Truth. The Inner Party is the Clergy class of the Middle Ages. They are the ones in charge, even though less the two percent of the population, have are the ones with power. Then finally the despot of the nation, Big Brother, even though one has really seen him, he instills fear in the people by having an omniscient characteristic and make sure no one rebels against the party (Serafin 2964). The Party’s slogan, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” is a paradoxical statements that helps assure the citizens of Oceania stay in the hands of The Party (Orwell 1). To help assure this the Party establishes three core ministries that control the nation’s government: Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Peace conducts the perpetual war on the three other nations of the world. This insures that the people’s hatred is focused on the other nations instead of The Party itself. The Ministry of Love is responsible for the recognition, observation, capture and torture of rebels and enemies of Party. Brainwashing is the key to the Party’s success, O’Brian said to Winston in the Ministry of Love, “We convert, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him…we shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves” (Orwell 285). It is stated that privacy is the most important aspect of life. “The world of Nineteen Eighty- Four does not allow privacy for the individual and does not allow the individual to have a personal identity” (“Nineteen Eighty-Four” 1). The Ministry of Love makes sure the adversaries are put down no matter what. Finally the Ministry of Truth is the Party’s propaganda machine. Another way to control the mind is to control history, “thought control is executed through the falsification of history” (“Nineteen Eighty-Four” 1). Winston job is just that, rewriting history to fit The Party’s needs. The Ministry of Truth also invents new language, the concept of Newspeak uses “language as a tool of the government to exercise and ensure control its populace” making the people think less, letting The Party think for them. Orwell brought forth these ideas by observing the totalitarian regimes established in the 1940s. The actions of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Benito Mussolini, directly influenced the structure of the Party.


      Absolute power was the goal of the dictators in 1930s and 1940s. The totalitarian faces were ready to go to extreme means to obtain supremacy in the world. Many can say “the role of Big Brother can be found in Adolf Hitler…” (Wanner 1). The well known Nazi dictator rose from nothing to one of the most powerful leader in the world. As a soldier of the Great War, he began his hatred toward the world. When Germany was in a time of need, they would look to one person that would assure protection. Just as Big Brother, Adolf Hitler used many appealing and charismatic language to attract the people, Hitler offered safety and a utopia to Germany; therefore people fell to his feet (Wanner 1). Right when he was named Chancellor of Germany he abolished the democratic ideals and declared himself the dictator. In Orwell’s review the Hitler’s Mein Kampf he states “Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life” (Wanner 1). From his book he declares his ideology superior and therefore a reason to spread it by many means necessary. Joseph Stalin was another cruel and unusual dictator. The Soviet Union actually sided with the Allied Forces in World War II. “The enemy of your enemy is your friend,” by this statement, the United States and the Soviet Union had a common enemy: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. The reason was that was so was because Communist ideals and Fascist ideal are totally opposite. The battle of power and influence was the central goal. Stalin was also known for his inhuman actions against his people, brainwashing, torture, and void of privacy were the central philosophy of the Soviet Union just as The Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Stalin’s cruel tactics influenced Orwell to incorporate it into his novel. Nineteen Eighty-Four was written to warn the threats of the power hungry dictators of the World War II era, it was the “… 20^th century totalitarianism, which provided the primary inspiration for the dystopia of Orwell’s novel” (Wanner 1). This novel was meant as a caution against the evils of totalitarianism.


      Orwell based this book on the events that were happening in 1948, when he wrote this book, “living through the atrocities of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin…of mental and physical tortures…Orwell painted a picture of 1984” warning the outcome of these ruthless demagogues (“Nineteen Eighty-Four” 1). Something needed to be done; Orwell had the idea of writing this book as a propaganda tool against absolutism. Having seen two devastating World Wars, “Orwell was greatly influenced by the social and political events of the period,” Orwell also witnesses the “world situation becoming increasingly more threatening” as communist Soviet Union was becoming more powerful (Wanner 2964). Orwell sought end the spread of this totalitarian ideology by creating a novel solely to ridicule the ideas of it. The idea of an absolute political system may look good on paper, but the sole purpose of a dictatorship was power “not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power” (Orwell 263). To satisfy this greed government would do anything, even if it meant the destruction of lives. To stress the importance of the people of a nation, George Orwell introduced the poles in Nineteen Eighty-Four as the hope of the country, “If there is hope, it lies in the poles,” 85% percent of the population was the poles (Orwell 69). Orwell tries to educate to mass populations that it is in the hands of the majority, not the few to govern a nation.


      Orwell observes the future as a totalitarian state, “Oceania is a dystopian negation of Orwell’s vision of England” with a “government with wrong members in control” (Wanner 1547). Nineteen Eighty-Four is about a regular man, Winston Smith, defying the laws of conformity and the laws of the land, knowing what is right he faces the oppressing government knowing the outcome would surely be death. This novel portrays totalitarianism as a dystopian ideology, “…the horrors of world war, the subsequent division of Europe into Eastern and Western blocs, and the formidable reality of atomic warfare,” Orwell created a nightmarish version of the mythical future (Serafin 2964).

Works Cited

"Nineteen Eighty-Four." Masterplots, Revised Second Edition (1996). Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. CHS Media Center, Carrollton, GA. 21 February 2008. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=MOL9320000231&site=lrc-live>.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 1950.

Resch, Robert Paul. "Utopia, Dystopia, and the Middle Class in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four." boundary 2 24.1 (Spring 1997): 137. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. CHS Media Center, Carrollton, GA. 21 February 2008. <http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=9706253030&site=lrc-live>.

Serafin, Stevens. “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Beacham’s Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction. Ed. Kirk H. Beetz, Ph.D. 1996 ed.

Wanner, Adrian. "The Underground Man as Big Brother: Dostoevsky's and Orwell's Anti-Utopia." Utopian Studies 8.1 (1997): 77. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. CHS Media Center, Carrollton, GA. 21 February 2008. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=4788703&site=lrc-live>. 

GOP Conference

The President takes questions from Republican members of the House of Representatives at the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore, MD.


Enjoy.



-Akshar Patel

Outliers- The Story of Success

We might dismiss Microsoft founder Bill Gates as an anomaly - someone who has super human drive and intellect and an ability to see opportunities before others. We might call him an outlier from the normal population, in many ways. Maclolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, takes a slightly different and deeper look at what makes Gates and other highly successful individuals and organizations so successful. Gladwell unpacks the patterns of outliers – unusual situations that deviate from the norm – and he finds that there is indeed a pattern of sorts to circumstances that produce results that we are likely to dismiss as “outliers.”

For example, Roseto, PA had unusually low death rates and a very high life expectancy compared to other cities in and town in the region and even in across the country during the 1950s. A physician named Stewart Wolf began to study Roseto to understand what Roseto was doing right that other places weren’t. What he found was that it wasn’t diet or exercise that helped Roseto’s residents – in fact, many were eating foods high in fat and the degree of exercise was not unusually high in Roseto. Genetics didn’t play a large part either, as many of Roseto’s relatives had died much earlier than those living Roseto. It had to be Roseto itself. Wolf discovered a very high degree of community in Roseto and this was contributing to people’s longevity. A high percentage of Roseto’s residents had immigrated from Italy. Roseto had more civic organizations per capita than many

A key theme of the book is the impact of where you are from in Other Gladwell examples illuminate how tendencies towards violence in early Appalachia have implications on people from the region, decades later. Without going into too much detail, this is illustrated by a study done at the University of Michigan which found that people from certain parts of the US reacted more angrily to a certain stimulus than others. Education is affected by where you are from. Schools in the US still use a model where the summer is spent outside of structured school since students used to be needed for farming in a largely seasonal, agrarian society. China, on the other hand could farm rice year round and the work was not as labor intensive so children could go to school year round. Summer learning loss is a major issue in the US and especially in lower-income areas where children do not have the same access to cultural and academic resources during the summer as in more affluent areas. KIPP is an outlier in the sense that it has developed a model where its students, largely low-income, achieve at a higher level than those at peer schools, with performance more similar to affluent peers. The KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) borrows several ideas from the Asian education system and uses its freedom as a charter school to incorporates more learning time during the school year and summer. The results pay off. This is an example of the ‘Outlier’ phenomenon that Gladwell is so interested in: Where are things different from what you might otherwise expect and why?

Gladwell tells these and other stories in Outliers, describing his own and others’ work in a highly readable fashion that exemplifies ethnography at its best, which is a key aspect of design work. Gladwell finds stories and anecdotes that illustrate larger ideas and he tells stories in a very personal and engaging way.

The Future of Technology

Portland is only the beginning of what can be done to erase our carbon footprint. Though sustainability and environmentally sound architecture has been the central focus of many developers and city planners, no one has been able to efficiently use technology to completely rid carbon emissions. This video points out major and vital improvements that should be undertook by these new developers. Connected Urban Development, the creators of this video, suggests that our growing technology can help create an extremely efficient and energy saving community. The video states, “cities must innovate more proactively than ever before.” This means city innovation should incorporate research and technology to reduce carbon emissions and reduce our carbon footprint.

A network of wires and sensors can help reduce the use of energy from coal burning power plants and increase solar power technology. We have gone beyond the age of archaic oil and gas to power homes and cars. The age of technological advancements can redefine the way people live in a world dominated by digital creations. Advanced technology will aid us in moving into a post carbon era, which will become far more efficient and change the way we interact with others and the world around us.

The video states that for this next step to occur cooperation is needed between all three sectors: the government, the business community, and civil society. Climate scientist state that greenhouse gases must be reduced by 60% by 2050; however, it is the cities that produce almost 50% of the total emission and cause global warming. Therefore, by using technology that is already in place, this world can be brought into a clean and environmentally friendly era where energy is not made by the burning of toxic coal; however, made by natural sources like the sun and hydrogen.

Connected Urban Development: Website

-AKSHAR PATEL