The Government Structure of the State - Essay Example

Orwell’s Vision of the First Last Dr. TeacherFirst TeacherLast Section 29 April 2008 Introduction George Orwell wrote the novel 1984 in the year 1948 and it was published in 1949. Known for his writings on the betrayal of revolution and in favor of democratic socialism, 1984 is a reflection on the events leading up to the second world war, their aftermath and the a future possibility of how the world may look like in 1984. This essay examines the government structure of the state, how it functioned and its relation to the post-second world war world. The Government in 1984 The novel is set in the state of Oceania. One of the three “superstates” in the world, it has a pyramid society structure in which, at the top, the government is led by Big Brother. The ideology followed by the government is Ingsoc, or English Socialism, and represents what the socialist revolution has evolved into in the English speaking state of Oceania. The single party government is totalitarian and has a carefully constructed structure to perpetuate its rule. This structure is founded on basic principles of restricting freedom of thought, surveillance of population, perpetual war, and obliteration of history and facts. Strictly enforced class difference is also part of the government’s philosophy of a way to stay in power. Restriction on independent thinking is enforced by creating a new language called Newspeak, devoid of any words or phrases even remotely linked to freedom or independent thought. Everyone in the state is expected to learn and adopt Newspeak and the party’s rationale is that, over time, all vocabulary relating to freedom would be removed from the language and, therefore, thought could be controlled. The party believes that since all crimes and negativity originate initially from a thought, people in the state can be controlled by controlling thought itself1. Another dimension of thought control is the concept of Doublethink. Doublethink allows the government to construct realities by introducing lies which could be told blatantly, believing them to be true. This is done by manipulating distortion of belief where contradictory meanings of words and situations are accepted. The government, depending on its needs, could change the context and use alternate meanings to suit itself at any time. Changing these contexts and creating justifications to lies is done through obliterating or changing history itself. Any references in history which are contrary to desired contexts are removed and, as a consequence, a lie is taken as reality. In Orwell’s words, this was “controlled insanity” through which the government controlled opinion and its own party in Oceania. Oceania is a police state where everyone is monitored through surveillance. Anyone deemed to be against the party or its ideology is caught by Thought Police and tortured or killed. This structure is implemented through its contradictorily named four ministries of Truth, Peace, Love and Plenty. The Ministry of Truth is responsible for propaganda and control of information, the Ministry of Love is responsible for enforcing loyalty to Ingsoc and Big Brother through torture and intimidation, the Ministry of Plenty is responsible for the economy, and Ministry of Peace is responsible for war. The government party in Oceania also enforces a strict class difference. The upper class, Inner Party, takes on the more important roles in the government, the middle class, Outer Party, gets mundane positions of work while the vast majority of population, proletariat, termed as “proles”, do not get any share in the government. The Party believes in the precept that change usually comes from the middle class which then rallies the proletariat for its cause. While the upper class is privileged, the middle class is heavily monitored. Social and economic living conditions are made difficult for the middle class and even more for the proletariat. Historical Antecedents and Influences for 1984 Orwell has skilfully woven a story in 1984 with parallels in historical events, the life in Britain and his own personal experiences. The totalitarian style of government could be traced back to both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. The central theme of “betrayed revolution” present in Orwell’s works including 1984 reminds one of the socialist revolution gone wrong in the Soviet Union. The character of Big Brother, who is aloof, all powerful and from whom the party derives its strength is reminiscent of both Stalin and Hitler. Like Big Brother, Stalin too did not appear in public view frequently and maintained an aura of power and distance. Even the Two Minutes Hate sequence in the book is similar to the fanfare and expectation that preceded Stalin’s speeches on radio, especially during World War II2. Emmanuel Goldstein, the declared evil character in Oceania, is considered a parallel of Trotsky who fell out of favor with Stalin. Oceania is a police state just like the police state of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and during the war. In Germany, Gestapo ruled the domain of fear in public and this role is taken by the Thought Police of Oceania in 1984. In Stalin’s Soviet Union too, the party dominated the society through its secret police as well as bureaucracy that controlled every aspect of social life3. Propaganda is critical to the Party government in Oceania. The continuous tirade of praise for Big Brother, hate for his nemesis Goldstein, and lies constructed by the Ministry of Truth again remind one of Hitler and Stalin’s governments. Hitler too had set up a ministry for similar purposes by the name of Ministry of Propaganda and National Enlightenment headed by Joseph Goebbels4. Policies too were eerily similar as illustrated by the example below: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” — Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels "And if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became the truth." — Orwell, 1984 Like in the superstate of Oceania, the revision of history to suit current needs as a propaganda tool was extensively used in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Stalin frequently had photographs edited to remove his erstwhile friends who had fallen out with him. Similarly, at the peak of Hitler’s power in the 30’s, Nazis controlled the cinema, libraries and publishing to destroy everything deemed against the Nazi party’s doctrines. Finally, the class difference depicted in 1984 and the power and control of the Inner Party is very similar to how the Nazi Party operated in Germany. The Nazi Party, like the Inner Party of Oceania in 1984, was privileged and had access to better social conditions. Orwell’s Message in the Post War Period Orwell’s novel 1984 was written just a few years after the World War II ended. The war brought countries having disparate ideologies and leanings together as Allies in a common pursuit to fight against the aggression of fascist forces led by Germany. After the war ended, each of these countries including the US, Britain and Soviet Union began to exert their influence globally, particularly in Europe. Soviet Union swiftly provided military and financial support to socialist groups in Eastern Europe resulting in socialist regimes taking hold there. In 1946, during a visit to US, Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech exhorting the English speaking world to unite against the designs of Soviet expansion5. This period marked the beginning of the Cold War in which two major spheres of influence of Soviet and American influence emerged. Interestingly, the book 1984 defines Oceania as a superstate of the English speaking world, in an obvious reference to Churchill’s speech. The other two superstates, Eurasia and Eastasia are defined as having Soviet and East Asian (Japan) influences respectively. Each state in the novel follows a totalitarian government. Orwell seems to have tried to project that well intentioned movements marked as egalitarian or harbingers of social justice can terribly go wrong when power is achieved. Power feeds into itself and the state ends up in the worst form of social and government structure. Using parallels from the recent history of Nazi Germany and Soviet Union where totalitarian governments came into existence, he projects the effects of Cold War into the future and presents the possibility of a global decline into repressive governments. In his projection, the superstates are shown to have reached an uneasy equilibrium between each other where, on the one hand, they cannot go to war with each other, and on the other hand, they use the fear of war and evil to bolster their hold on their own people. At the time this book was written, there were debates on whether a state managed socialist economy was better than a free market economy. Using examples from history, as noted earlier in this essay, Orwell presented the possibility of totalitarianism if such a socialist system took shape. He shows that even though the proletariat could go about the business of their lives, totalitarianism imprisoned them “spiritually and intellectually”, a far bigger form than mere “gulags or other forms of imprisonment to stay in power”6. Read More