A treatise against socialism, often mistaken as being pro-anarchy, as evidenced by my friend who has “FREEDOM! FOREVER!” tattooed across her collarbones (in honor of V for Vendetta) loving this book. This is the type of girl who would spend her lunch hours eschewing her peers and ranting to a teacher about how ”the man” was keeping her down. She complains so much and has so little to complain about. She doesn’t understand Orwell’s message and she only has a basic understanding of politics and has no concept of the subtleties. She’s a raging liberal, airing on the side of socialism, who thinks she’s an anarchist, and Orwell is her favorite author. How can this man be so misunderstood? It’s beyond me… Orwell has a healthy respect for government in moderation, and believes that socialism gives the government too much power.
Orwell’s view of socialism is clear throughout the entire work. The fact that the government calls itself “Big Brother” shows that the nature of socialism is to present itself as helpful, to make one believe that it has the people’s best interests at heart, which initially, the movement did. The fact that Big Brother is always watching evidences Orwell’s fear of socialism, that given that much power, the government will abuse it. Once commerce is controlled, the next logical step, to Orwell, would be personal lives, so that the government would be able to maintain this power.
A main tool that Big Brother uses to maintain their power is ignorance. The only people who have a remote chance of becoming aware of the hypocrisy and corrupt nature of the government is the bureaucracy. The proletariat hardly matters, because they have no power. Those in the bureaucracy, however, do have a minimal sense of power because they have greater access to information. An example of the government abusing their power to keep both the bureaucracy and the proles ignorant would be one of the great lessons of the book: “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” Events were changed, documents destroyed, to prove that Big Brother was meeting it’s goals, that they were benefiting the people. Because they had no proof to contradict what they were being told, the people were easily and readily lied to.
Much of the book was remniscient of Stalin’s regime in that documents were falsified to convince the people that there was a surplus. People were going without boots, but according to the government there was an overabundance of things like this. The people could not be starving, they could not be without boots and clothing, because Big Brother said that they weren’t. Big Brother said that they were taken care of.
Another way the government controlled the people and maintained power was through distraction. They were always at war. Always. And their enemy had always been their enemy, even if they weren’t. The war actually switches between enemies, but every time that happens, the government denies any switch and said they had always been fighting that war. War brings a kind of unity to a country. The people feel patriotic and united in their fear and hatred of their enemy. This is exemplified with the Five Minutes Hate. One cannot help joining in the hatred, to giving into the animalistic tendencies to hate their oppresser or potential oppreser. Unfortunately, very few are intelligent enough to realize who they are really being oppressed by, and those who are, are terminated, or tortured into submission. They are broken beyond repair, to the point where there is no will to fight, no will to be free. They are also unified with the many group functions that are practically mandatory, and by the usage of the word “comrade” in reference to anyone. That’s straight Russia, right there.
Big Brother also uses propaganda abundantly. In the Five Minute’s Hate, in their portrayal of Capitalists, in their groups, slogans, posters, movies, books. It’s everywhere. No one can escape it. This, again, unifies the people, gives them a common enemy, gives them a purpose: to hate.
Their are some who are intelligent enough to rebel, but as I’ve stated, they are beaten down, psychologically and physically. The proletariat are too unintelligent, or too unaware to resist, should they even want to. And why would they? No matter the governmental regime, they are still in the same place, making barely enough to exist. One can argue that under capitalism, that may change, but under capitalism, the gap between the proletariat and the bourgeosie theoretically grows. The Iron Hand is not fair to all, but picks favorites among the people who already have the resources to succeed. The proletariat lack these resources, and are thus happy in their ignorance. If they cared enough to change things, even for ideological reasons, it wouldn’t get them anywhere worth going, and may even make things worse for them in the interim. They are not taken care of now, but that might be better than some new and unexpected evil if they were to change things.
1984 is not anti-government, it’s anti-despotism. It’s a political and social satire warning against the dangers of too much power invested in the government. I don’t believe George Orwell vehemently supports capitalism, but I do think he prefers it to socialism, communism, and facism, where one group holds too much power. Capitalism allows a free-market, and, theoretically, because the government doesn’t control that, they don’t control the people’s personal lives because people at least have freedom in commerce.
You do know that Orwell was a committed socialist his whole life, don’t you? He was originally a communist, but his experience in the Spanish civil war, where he volunteered to fight with the anarchists and communists against the fascists, showed him that Soviet-style communism, Stalinism in particular, was not a good idea.
The message of 1984 is not that socialism is bad, it’s a warning about authoritarian and illiberal government. It’s a message that’s worth taking heed of in these times when the invisible and permanent ‘war against terrorism’ is being used to justify extraordinary levels of government surveillance. That’s two key themes of 1984 right there – permanent war and intrusive surveillance. It’s also worth noting that the people leading this are not socialists, but right wing free-market evangelists.
If you want a more rounded view of Orwell, pick up a copy of any or all of “Down and Out in Paris and London”, “The Road to Wigan Pier” and “Homage to Catalonia”.
Oops! Guess I should’ve done a little more homework on his history. I do have to say though, that that was just my interpretation of the book. I didn’t go through his history or anything, and that’s the thing about analyzing and interpreting: it’s different for everyone and a lot of the time it’s hit or miss.
Thank you for the book reccomendations! I’ll definitely check a few of those out!
He’s an interesting character – both the left and the right want to claim him as their own, and they both have some reason. Have fun reading the books!
They’re all worth reading, although I have to say I’m not all that excited about Orwell’s novels (other than 1984). “Homage to Catalonia” is probably the most interesting to read about if you’re interested in communism and anarchism. And if you like it, there’s quite a good film that isn’t based on Orwell’s book but covers similar ground, “Land and Freedom” directed by Ken Loach.