NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR

1
The Perpetual war. – The Perpetual war consumes all surplus production, halts all
economic growth or increase in production; the proles, middle class, and the upper class are
all kept in a state of steady stagnation. People’s jobs keep them properly surveilled and
occupied for at least half the day, distracting themselves from their horrible living
conditions and from whom they have to blame for this; the tiresome work leaves them
pacified and debilitated by their exhaustion. The example of the restless dog portrays the
citizens of Oceania perfectly: Boredom and restlessness can lead to destructive behavior,
which holds especially true in the case of a dog; it will run around in circles in the house, it
might even bite you at times, for you have not allowed it to expend all its pent-up energy!
Of course, you should get bitten! – After walking your dog, it would surely be calmer, the
chances of it biting you have drastically decreased – the same holds true, metaphorically, of
course, for those under the rule of Ingsoc. It is also why they host the Two Minutes Hate; the
party allows its people to let out all that rage that has been festering inside them by
redirecting people’s repressed hatred of the party into contempt for the ‘enemy’ (Goldstein)
instead. Purging citizens of all their energy, as well as their anger, allows them to remain in
this pacified and indoctrinated state for prolonged amounts of time, for who could muster
up the strength to revolt after that purge?
2
Manipulation of speech and thought. – Thoughts are like gas, they are fleeting and
difficult to get a handle of, and if you do get a hold on it, it is tough to sublimate it into solid
matter, or in this case, translating it into words. I have previously pondered upon the notion
that many great ideas are lost to the difficulties of articulating, and in the process, losing
tremendous amounts of profound material; if you can hinder or manipulate this translating
channel, then it will also be possible to control the output (and the conception) of thoughts.
The goal of Newspeak is just that, to alter language in such a way that thought crime
becomes impossible, to manipulate the cognitive schemas of a person to such a degree that
politically incorrect thoughts become incomprehensible, they become impossible even to
produce! But the method used in 1984’s Newspeak is to restrict language by removing all
synonyms and boiling down valuations to simplistic phrases and words, like in Animal farm
– “2 legs bad, 4 legs good.”, but the modern problem is instead the lack of restriction.
Providing everyone with a gross excess of information overwhelms them, alienating them
from all knowledge sources, leaving everyone with only themselves as their source.
3
Anti-intellectualism. – In general, Twitter, or social media, illustrates the herd’s
enforcement of the rules through social pressure. Persons with even slightly unorthodox
opinions are regularly ostracized, shamed, or ‘canceled’; social media is merely a place
where people exercise this ideological and intellectual restraint upon themselves. It is
symptomatic of a widespread illness: a sort of voluntary collective blindness; we close our
eyes – and wander cluelessly yet carefully around in life, and as soon as we step an inch out
of line, we get whipped into place. The state needs not free-thinking intellectuals; it merely
requires people who believe that ‘2 + 2 = 5’ without question or hesitation, people who are
willing to blindfold themselves and let their masters guide them. It needs people like Boxer
from Animal Farm; yes, Boxer is strong and works hard, but he stands by the dogma of “if
Napoleon said it, then it must be right”, this obedient-no-matter-what and non-confronting
attitude towards leadership figures are exactly what Big Brother needs and giving it to him
is like putting out a fire with gasoline.
4
Is Big Brother real? – It does not matter; he serves his purpose either way, and the same
goes for Goldstein.
5
You cannot keep chaos at bay, therefore, own it. – Say you have been married for ten
years, then you assuredly know where you have been and where you are presently, but you
also know pretty much what the future holds for you. Later, if you discovered your spouse
was engaging in extramarital affairs, not only would you be unsure of your present and
future, but also your pas! – everything you thought about your marriage was, as well as
your life, was false! After an experience such as this, the state you are in, which shatters your
fundamental conception of reality or life, has a name – chaos. Everyone will experience
chaos at some point or another, for you cannot keep it at bay indefinitely, just like in the
garden of Eden: the snake is an inevitability. 
But what is a garden? It is an enclosed space in which order is to be maintained by
human intervention, and beyond the borders of the garden, you may see entropy at work in
nature: overgrowth, death, and snakes (a symbol of chaos) are all par for the course. No
matter how hard you try, chaos will find its way into your safe-haven; the snake – is an
inevitability. Protecting something, presumably of value, from chaos reminds me of an
image representing the archetype of the benevolent mother (as seen on Figure 1, the last
page); yes, she can protect her child from the serpent – for now, but the mother will not live
forever, and the child will not remain as such indefinitely.
As the saying goes: If you cannot beat them, join them, this is necessary. You should keep
your friends close, but your enemies closer! And how can you be closer to the enemy, closer
to chaos, than becoming it yourself? In the case of the totalitarian party in 1984, the
instigator of chaos would be their political rival: The Brotherhood, the snake in the garden
that is Oceania. Ingsoc should recognize their faults and infiltrate the institution that
opposes them, anyone that joins this rebel group believes they have contributed to the
party’s downfall, but little do they know that they have merely joined them once more!
Many totalitarian regimes have failed to do this; owning the opposition is crucial for being a
successful tyrant to the herd. 
6
Fear. – They will consider you scary if they cannot figure out what you are up to; being
unable to read your motivational or emotional state inspires fear in the observer because you
are unpredictable, which translates to predatory. Making yourself seem harmless, while it
makes people less scared of you, is counterproductive; it makes you look pathetic instead.
The solution is to lie; create a false persona, you shall seem as if you are an open book to the
public. What is the culmination of this line of thought? – the creation of Big Brother, the
personification of Ingsoc’s will.
“But why should you combat fear? Is it not of the greatest utility?” you might ask; yes, it
might be, but fear invokes two reactions: fight or flight, and neither is desirable. Therefore,
Big Brother must erase fear.
7
Intellectual sterility. – If Winston got a higher position after having his spirit broken by
torture, would this hold true for others of high standing in the government? Have those in
the ministry of love already been (excuse the vulgarity) intellectually castrated? I ask this
because Winston was, in the beginning, mentally fertile – he produced thoughts of his own;
but at the end of the book, Ingsoc had sterilized him, he is now only able to bear the views of
the party, for he can no longer birth original ideas. Is this ‘castration’ necessary for people of
power? – because anyone who has endured what Winston did would never again be able to
constitute a risk to the party, even if they tried.
8
Child of Ingsoc. – ‘Fulfilling your duty to the party’, also known as sexual intercourse,
produces the castrated soul’s offspring. However, this child is not born from a mother or a
father, but from an idea. In this way too, the citizens are sterilized.
9
Manners. – “There are three types of secrets: Those you would not tell strangers but to
friends, those you would not tell friends but keep to yourself, and those you would
withhold even from yourself! – and the decent person is the one who withholds the most
from himself, for it is bad manners to be honest – it is bad manners to be anything! I would
be happy to have lied because I’m a liar or tell the truth because I’m truthful: for at least
then, I would have one solid attribute, but I am empty and characterless. There are no words
to describe me; I simply do not exist. I am not a true person, merely a coincidence of nature
seemingly with a pulse. – I am whatever they wish me to be”, says the citizen of Oceania.
?
Ingsoc has refined its method of tyranny to the point of it being considered an art! – it is
beautiful, in my opinion.

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Owning the opposition. – Killing your foes is not always the best strategy, for if you can
turn them to your side, they become an asset; therefore, you should keep your friends close
– but your enemies closer! And how can you be closer to the enemy than becoming them?
Recognize your faults and infiltrate the institution that criticizes them, anyone that joins this
rebel group believes they have succeeded in a battle against Ingsoc, but little do they know
that they have joined them once more!
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You cannot keep chaos at bay forever. – The snake will eventually reach the garden of
Eden, so become the snake! This is something many totalitarian regimes failed to do.
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The herd’s self-regulation. – adsf.
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“Big Brother is watching.”
Figure 1