Securing Absolute Control: The Loss of the Individual in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
The preservation of liberty stands as one of the central hallmarks of a democratic government. Deprived of this essential human right, people are no longer free to exercise their individual autonomy to decide for themselves what kind of life is worth pursuing. At the middle of the twentieth-century, the world was emerging from under the shadow of Nazi totalitarianism, while simultaneously being gripped by Joseph Stalin's implementation of a communist state. Several reactionary novels were written during this time, perhaps the three most famous of which are Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Published in 1949, Orwell's depiction of a dystopian future provides an alarmist account of the dangers of totalitarianism, through a fictional rendering of the life events of Winston Smith - a citizen, or perhaps more aptly, a subject, of the totalitarian super-state of Oceania. The world of Winston Smith is a harsh reality, one that is devoid of all vestiges of personal freedom and choice. All aspects of life under the Oceanic government are heavily regulated and controlled, all coordinated in a supreme effort to curb any revolutionary tendencies that
For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then? (Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four 80). Therefore every word, if it does not have to be a direct lie, is nonetheless obliged not to contradict the general, common lie' (Glover 274). But "Nineteen Eighty-four" is a work of pure horror, and its horror is crushingly immediate. Winston Smith's job at the Ministry of Truth stands as one microcosm of this overarching theme, as Winston is but one of perhaps hundreds of other workers whose job it is to secure governmental control by falsifying historical records, since "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four 35). At any given moment, people were bombarded by depictions of "Big Brother," a nameless black-mustached faced that served as a constant reminder that "Big Brother is Watching You" (Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four 2). If that is granted, all else follows" (Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four 80). " This concept, in addition to "Newspeak" is one of the primary methods employed by the Inner Party to undermine objective reality and perpetuate lies in an effort to maintain social control:Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. (Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four 216)The fact that the Inner Party was able to psychologically manipulate its population is perhaps the ultimate demonstration of the far-reaching scope of their power. In its unchanging monomaniac vision, the future was to be a 'horrible brainless Empire in which, essentially, nothing ever happens except the training of young men for war and the endless breeding of fresh cannon-fodder. This fact was recognized by the Inner Party, and in a supreme effort to maintain their authority, they even outlawed free thinking, thereby giving credence to the notion that there were no individuals in Oceania, but merely simulacra of individuals who had collectively submitted their will to an authoritarian power. They provide a distance from the human condition as we meet it in our daily life that preserves our habitual refuge in sloth or blindness or self-righteousness. He wishes to free himself from the overt oppression that is the mainstay of Inner Party politics, but in devoting himself so fervently to his vision of utopia, he unwittingly plays into the governmental machine that is in place to silence any vestige of individuality. In both the Soviet Union and Oceania, the government's sphere of influence extends into the private lives of individuals, to the extent that they have actually have no privacy or freedom; every utterance and action must conform to the dictates of the ruling class, and lend support to the overall illusion of strength and prosperity.
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