by George Orwell, 1949
“Big Brother is Watching You.” Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth for Big Brother, the Party of Oceania. He rewrites history constantly – that is his job. He knows that things are not as they want him to believe. He hates Big Brother. He falls in love with Julia, another worker in the Fiction Department. After a few months, they are discovered by the Thought Police. They are taken to the Ministry of Love and tortured and brainwashed until they become the robots Big Brother wants them to be. They no longer love, they no longer doubt anything Big Brother says. They believe it all.
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
Oceania/Big Brother is run by 4 ministries: “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with Torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.”
Big Brother slogans: “Ignorance is strength. War is Peace. Freedom is slavery.”
‘Two Minutes Hate’ – all workers go to telescreen and watch and hear Emanuel Goldstein, enemy of the party, talk. It brings out hate, rage, violence. Then they go back to what they were doing.
Telescreens – on everyone’s wall – always on – always playing or spouting propaganda and lies – even on while you sleep in case you say something while you are dreaming.
‘Newspeak’ – the official language of Oceania – coming into existence – eliminating words that allow people to think about things against Big Brother. Words like ‘free,’ ‘equal.’
Proles – the people who are not working for Big Brother – ordinary people – “the swarming disregarded masses, 85% of the population of Oceania…” They work and breed.
“If there is hope, it lies in the Proles,” Winston writes this.
The party wants to maintain absolute power forever. The Inner Party members are the only ones with enough to eat and comfortable homes. The rest of the world, including outer party workers like Winston and Julia, live in filthy rundown apartments that are cold and dirty, they never have enough to eat. Nothing is plentiful except for Victory Gin. The Party controls everything and every thought, even memories, because they rewrite the past.
Bottom line: A Godless world sucks, big time.