Totalitarianism and Tyranny
- Pierce Kozlowski
- May 15, 2020
- 9 min read
Updated: May 19, 2022
By Pierce K. Kozlowski
Abstract
This is a semi-comprehensive analysis of George Orwell's 1984. The focus of this paper is to briefly investigate and better understand Orwell's insights on government indoctrination and its social impact on citizens. Though this book has many examples touching on themes of government indoctrination, not every example of it in1984 will be discussed in this review. It is encouraged that viewers read 1984 for themselves.
Political Extremism and INGSOC
One of the fundamental premises of this paper is to understand how the 1984 State Government, Ingsoc, successfully indoctrinated and seized control of its citizens. For contextual purposes, two things need to be discussed and established: The political spectrum that will be used to politically characterize Ingsoc and the meaning of the name Ingsoc.
There are two ideological extremes bred out of left-wing and right-wing political philosophy in Western Culture: Right-wing extremism—Nazi fascism for example—values an autarky economy, hyper privatization of public state industries, and believes in fervently promulgating an ethno-nationalist and genocidal view against the Jewish people; Left-wing extremism—Communist fascism for example—values Stalinist state capitalism, prioritizing the collective above the individual, eliminating class distinctions via aggressive redistributionism, and promulgating a secular-nationalist view against all religion.
The “English Socialism and The Political Ideology of the Totalitarian State of Oceania” is the meaning of 1984’s state party name. By virtue of Ingsoc’s name—“English Socialism” and “Totalitarian”—Ingsoc categorically fits into the left-wing extremist column. The term “Totalitarian” is particularly of interest, as the party name self-declares its own tyrannical and despotic nature and tendencies. This may lend some credence as to why Ingsoc uses exceptionally belligerent and hawkish modalities of government overreach to absolutely indoctrinate and dominate its entire citizenry, which we will discuss in this paper in further detail.
The Question of Indoctrination
How do governments indoctrinate their citizens? And what social impact does government indoctrination have on citizens? To understand these to questions, it must be understood what totalitarianism is and the function it serves. Luckily, Orwell answers both of these questions in his political essay “Literature and Totalitarianism.” Orwell writes, “Totalitarianism . . . isolates you from the outside world, it shuts you up in an artificial universe in which you have no standards of comparison. The totalitarian state tries, at any rate, to control the thoughts and emotions of its subjects at least as completely as it controls their actions.” Orwell's definition of totalitarianism is consistent with the totalitarian government he crafted in 1984, and this definition remains relevant throughout the entirety of this paper.
Internalized Authority
In 1984, Orwell painted the state government "Ingsoc" as being omniscient of their citizen's privacy, autocratic with their authority, and manipulators of their history. This is brought to light by the protagonist of the book, Winston, who says, “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book was rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” Furthermore, Winston talks about the government propaganda broadcast constantly on his TV, which reads “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” His TV broadcast cannot be turned off, and a camera and microphone are planted within his home to watch and correct his behavior in the case it is “inadequately” suited for his assigned task (e.g., annual morning fitness check).
In this example, the tactic of authority Ingsoc uses on Winston is congruous with the Panopticon Effect. According to the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World at Brown University, the Panopticon Effect was an idea developed by 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who designed a prison blueprint where the guards can see the prisoners, but the prisoners cannot see the guards. The idea was that prisoners would internalize the guards as the authority, and therefore, the prisoners would self-impose the prison's rules—blindly following them without posing resistance. In 1984, Orwell applied this concept to the plot; however, instead of prisoners self-imposing the prison's rules and internalizing the guards' authority, it is Winston self-imposing the state's rules and internalizing Ingsoc's authority. Hence the reason Winston follows the instructions on his TV in the morning despite not being directly prompted or physically coerced by Ingsoc party members.
The Thought Crime
Another section of 1984 introduces Ingsoc's state motto: “WAR IS PEACE - FREEDOM IS SLAVERY - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” This motto is shown as a broadcast on Winston's television on an annual basis. The motto successfully brainwashes and exploits citizens on both an individual and collective level, and the state enforces its laws through threats and acts of violence in order to maintain party loyalty. However, while the propagandistic motto is successful in some areas, it miserably fails in others.
An example of Ingsoc's failure to fully indoctrinate its subjects is when citizens such as Winston commit thought-crimes: an instance of controversial thinking directed at the state. Winston committed a thought-crime earlier in the book when he wrote in his diary “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER,” obviously implying that Winston had controversial thinking directed at the state and desired the destruction of his own government. Moreover, Winston physically expressed this anti-state sentiment on paper—hence the “thought-crime.” Logically, since Winston committed a thought-crime, he is reprimanded and punished by a state enforcer named O'Brien. O'Brien exploits Winston's fear of rats by releasing Winston into a room full of them at an Ingsoc interrogation site.
This is a perfect instance of the state failing to fully indoctrinate its citizens by means of propaganda, since they are instead substituting efforts of indoctrination for violent disciplinary repercussions. Hence, why Ingsoc's propaganda fails in some areas, particularly in areas of regulating and preventing thought-crimes.
Now when Winston is being interrogated, he is severely beaten for officially confessing to the thought-crime during the interrogation, and his interrogation was a consequence that he had anticipated after he committed the thought-crime. Winston proceeds to remark about the sentiment of his thought-crime, saying that “nobody spoke of such things, yet everybody knew of them.” And contrary to what the term “thought-crime” implies, as we established earlier, the mistake Winston made was not just a controversial thought made against the state—something that the state cannot detect—but rather the physical and written expression of it in Winston’s diary.
Propaganda and Why It Falls Short
If the legal punishment for a thought-crime applies to all Ingsoc citizens, and the state possess the wide scope of influential control that it does, one could reasonably ask why does Ingsoc bother with propaganda if pure violence could achieve the same, if not a better end? Answering this question requires the asking of another question: As a piece of propaganda, what function, then, does the state-motto actually fulfill if it is still employed by the state?
First, the state believes it can endlessly engage in a war or appear to be at war with other enemy regions in order to keep a peace or a sense of false unity in the country. As citizens focused on enemies of the state, they shifted their focus away from their unhappy lives in lieu of the supposed threat of enemy regions. The benefit of this is that the state will not have to be concerned about a collective uprising.
Second, the motto can create and promote doublethink ("The acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination.”) The benefit of this allows the state to have people deliberately forget memories, and it severely circumscribes a citizens capacity to form independent thoughts that would otherwise dissent or be destructive against the state.
Why use propaganda? Because while the state’s propaganda may be inefficient in seizing the complete agency of its citizens, it is very efficient in manipulating its citizens into purchasing false realities. As proven with Winston, this fact holds true even if the state’s citizens have a low probability, or even a latent susceptibility, to committing a thought-crime.
In essence, the true function of the state’s interrogative punishment for committing a thought crime is not to make up for the ineffectiveness of their own propaganda, but to reinforce the idea that the citizens must put the state above themselves and have the state be the higher power. If a citizen fails to recognize and consistently satisfy this compulsory standard, they thus suffer the consequences—inevitably increasing the fear factor and enforcing the authoritative influence of the state.
Replace God, Rewrite History, Recruit the Next Generation
The idea that citizens must put the state above themselves transitions to the next point. The way the state secures control over its citizens is by disrupting loyalties that citizens have outside of the state.
A prime example of this is the state outlawing religion. Protecting religious freedom would prevent certain citizens from placing the power of the state first. The first of God’s Ten Commandments in the Old Testament addresses this very issue in Exodus 20:1-3 (NIV): “I am the Lord your God . . . You shall have no other gods before me.” This means we are to place God first, before all else; No other gods, idols, institutions, governing bodies, or organizations come before our relationship with God. If you were a practicing Christian in 1984 under Ingsoc’s vicious anti-god regime, you would be told to violate the first commandment God gives you. By replacing God and quashing religious freedom, the state then makes sure it is put first in lieu of God. In doing this, the state, by replacing God with itself, becomes god—thereby further securing its domineering influence over its citizens. In a nutshell, the state makes themselves the citizen’s first priority.
Winston’s job at the Ministry of Truth is to erase, destroy, and rewrite events regarding the state that, if otherwise left in its authentic and natural form, would compromise the state’s legitimacy or quasi-benevolent reputation. By Winston covering for the state, the state supposedly holds its long trusted & earned reputation & authority over its citizens. If the real and unsightly facts about what the depraved atrocities the state committed are never revealed, what ammunition does the citizenry have against the state? What motivation would they have to rise up and rebel against that tyrant of a government? They would have none. Hence the state’s desire to control the entirety of the information that can be seen, heard, or read by the general population.
The state also violates and disrupts family loyalties, as the state encourages children to spy on their parents and to report anti-state behaviors. Make no mistake, Orwell was unmistakably referring to past regimes which have used this exact same practice. The 1st premier of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, designed the roadmap for this vision by creating the Pioneers in 1922; the 4th premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, brought that road map to life by successfully indoctrinating the Pioneers in 1941. When Joseph Stalin became the 4th premier of USSR, he had made the children of Russia young emissaries of the state by systematically breaking up the family. He would then have the children spy on their parents in order to report behavior that denounced or showed a lack of allegiance to the Soviet State. This is reflected in 1984 when Winston’s neighbor’s children report him for his thought-crime. The idea was for the state to teach and train children to become indoctrinated ideologues and emissaries of the state once they’ve achieved adult maturity, granting the state unwavering support and power of entire generations.
North Korea and the Songun Policy
Orwell’s fantastical and terrifying world in 1984 is not so distant from current realities. A nation very similar to the despotic and draconian regime Orwell paints for his readers is the North Korean Government, dictated by Kim Jong Un. According to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, an article titled “Songun Politics” explains what the Songun policy is and its function.
On the surface, the Songun policy is a military-rooted policy requiring every North Korean citizen to serve in the military. However, the Songun policy stretches back to the Juche ideology, which was initially founded by President Kim Il Sung. This policy, which never loses effect, is justified by North Korean authorities as a revolution that had taken place in the mid-1920’s. This supposedly prepares the North Korean forces to face enemies and to be ready to fight until there is no longer a threat. In reality, this is a malicious policy tactic directly out of the authoritarian playbook. Just as Ingsoc perpetually engages in war to deceive and distract its citizenry from their cold, impoverished, depressed life and onto the enemy of the state; the North Korean Government also uses the Songun Policy as propaganda to keep the majority of the population focused on the possibility of war with an enemy. This in an effort to keep the citizenry’s focus off their largely impoverished and destitute life, which as mentioned before, mitigates the probability of a collective uprising against the DPRK.
This obviously manipulates the citizens into conformity under the DPRK Party (North Korean Government). The DPRK government, similar to Ingsoc, also happens to be a strictly run, top-down, and totalitarian government with severe impoverishment nationwide; and similar to Ingsoc, it too is bereft of social classes and socio-economic hierarchies. According to the Humanities and Social Sciences, more than 60% of North Korean citizens were estimated to be below the poverty line for 2018. Furthermore, the DPRK's economy is highly volatile on the national level.
Conclusion
The state government in 1984 is an amalgamation of varying past and present totalitarian regimes, ranging from the Nazi Socialist Party to the Soviet Union—all of which had perniciously indoctrinated and grossly violated the natural rights of their citizenry. George Orwell wrote a brilliant work of literature and crafted a political masterpiece. From cleverly critiquing fascist and totalitarian features of government, to perfectly communicating the warning signs and red-flags of government overreach through storytelling. Lastly, this book possess valuable lessons and insights to offer regarding both the psychological and sociological impacts government indoctrination has on its subjects, particularly under an overtly fascist state.
References
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4. Songun Politics. (2011). Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.korea-dpr.com/songun.html
5. Internalized Authority and the Prison of the Mind: Bentham and Foucault's Panopticon. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2020,
6. Dmitriev, O. (n.d.). Of Russian origin: Pioneers. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from
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