1984 #9 War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength Notes

War is Peace

Three great superstates

Eurasia = Northern part of Europe and Asia (Portugal to Bering Strait)

Oceania = Americas, Atlantic Islands (including British Isles), Australasia, and Southern Africa

Eastasia = China and south, Japan, and large changing portions of Manchuria, Mongolia, & Tibet

Warfare

            Constant

            Similar to Total War in WWII

            No cause for fighting

            Can’t beat each other

            Small # of ppl à specialists

            Few casualties

            No one knows where the fighting actually takes place

            Shortage of goods and occasional bomb in cities

            Motives have changes

Always the same war

Each superstate too evenly matched for there to be a winner

No longer a real reason to fight

            Each superstate has its own thriving economy – no need for the others

            Can find every raw material needed in each superstate

War used for labor

One section constantly fought over; no one superstate controls it all at once

Disputed areas most used for their cheap labor

            Natives of these areas are reduced to slaves (Freedom is Slavery?)

Society veered off its evolutionary path to a tangential one when the Party took over; science and technology achievements slower b/c experimenting practically stopped since way of thinking changed

Increase in gen. wealth threatened hierarchy since hierarchies need poverty and ignorance

            Ignorance in lower levels of hierarchy = stronger upper levels and society?

Goods must be produced but not distributed, therefore constant warfare

            War b/w superstates keeps peace w/in superstates

Use war to destroy products that would make life comfortable

War effort eats up any surplus beyond the bare needs of the public

Needs of public under-estimated, but advantageous: keep people in need, makes small things more important

War establishes the mentality necessary for a hierarchy

            Party members should have mentality of a state of war

Doublethink – some inner party members must know that certain statements about the war are untrue, but they must act as if it is entirely true, and are on their way to victory being greatest power in the world

Goals of the Party: (193)

            Conquer the whole surface of the earth

            Eliminate all possibility of independent thought

Problems need solving:

            How to discover what another human is thinking

            How to kill several hundred million people instantly without warning

All scientific endeavors concerned with the above questions

Atomic bombs have ceased to be used when their power to destroy civilizations and power was demonstrated but all superstates still make and store them

Dream – attack superstate, sign pact, build up bombs to give devastating blow, give devastating blow, sign treaty with other superstate, do same thing

Essential for superstates not to have contact with foreigners except war prisoners and slaves because they would see how they are all similar and have been told lies

Philosophy in each superstate is essentially the same: ingsoc, neo-bolshevism, and death-worship

Lives dedicated to conquest but they know the war must continue forever without victory

Reality only exists in the minimum, past that it can be changed in any way; each superstate is like a separate universe

War is bad word choice – by becoming continuous, war has ceased to exist

An everlasting peace would have the same effect as a continuous war, thus: War is Peace

Ignorance is Strength

High à stay where they are

Middle à change places with the High

Low à create a society when all men are equal (when they have a goal)

The High are inevitably taken over by the Middle who enlist the Low to achieve their goal and then send them back to the bottom

Low are never successful; they see historical change simply as a change in name of their master

Ingsoc, Neo-Bolshevism, and Death-worship à promote ungood and inequality

            Stop progress, High maintain status indefinitely

Hierarchical society no longer necessary when machinery was made à men should live in a state of brotherhood

Authoritarian political structures became the general consensus around the world

High create oligarchical society in Oceania

            Party owns everything in Oceania

            Party members own nothing but their personal belongings

Four Ways to Fall From Power (207)

            Conquered from within

            Masses revolt b/v gov’t is so inefficient

            Strong and discontented Middle comes into being

            Loses self-confidence and willingness to govern

If you could guard against four above, remain in power forever; determined by attitude of High

High only conquerable through slow demographic changes (in current society)

Masses won’t revolt if deprived of all means of comparison b/c won’t realize they’re oppressed

In the eyes of the party, only real threats:

            Spliiting-off of new group of able

            Underemployed

            Power-hungry people

            Growth of liberalism and skepticism within Party ranks

Ignorance of society = strength in the Party’s leadership?

Big Brother = made up character used as the focal point of all emotions of Party members that are usually felt toward an individual

Admission to each level of societal hierarchy by exam at the age of 16

Low level of education because society doesn’t call for it

Party membres can’t have the slightest deviation from the Party’s platform

Party members never alone

No laws, and punishments not given out for committing a crime rather for the potential to commit a crime against the Party at a later date

Crimestop à protective stupidity

Big Brother = omnipotent

Party = infallible

Black-white à to opponent = contradicting plain facts; to party member = willingness to say black is white when Party says so (to know, to believe, to forget the contrary) – doublethink

Past must be manipulated

            So can’t compare current ways of life with anything, so must accept them

            Protect perfect picture of Party

Past is whatever the records and memories agree upon

Doublethink

            If you must change a memory, you must forget you did so

            Hold two contradictory beliefs at once and accept both of them

            Must be conscious but also unconscious

            Able to change history w/ doublethink

Those with the best knowledge of what is happening are the farthest from seeing the world as is

“The greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent the, less sane” (215)

World conquest believed most by those who know it to be impossible

Ministries = delibeate examples of doublethink

Mystery of Party depends on doublethink

1984 #3: The Party’s Hypocrisy in Relation to Syme

            Most all of the ministry workers in Airstrip One are essential to the Party’s mission, but many of those same people are at the most risk of being vaporized for thoughtcrime.  People like Syme, the genius tasked with eliminating adjectives for the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak dictionary, are irreplaceable to the Party.  For the Party’s mission to succeed the Newspeak dictionary must be cut down as much as possible and all alternate meanings stripped so that thoughtcrime becomes impossible.  However, those stripping words of all their meaning are the same people in direct contradiction to the Party’s slogan “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 4).  Syme and his dictionary-making colleagues know way too much information about Oldspeak to be safe from a thoughtcrime conviction, but are also essential to the end goal of the Party.  Winston sees this contradiction when Syme talks to him about the future of Newspeak: “Syme will be vaporized.  He is too intelligent.  He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly.  The Party does not like such people” (53).  The irony in this thought is that the Party has to like Syme because he is creating the language that achieves the end goal, but they cannot like him because he knows too much about it.  Although the Party has a use for Syme now, he will soon be out of a job because they are currently working on the Eleventh and “definitive edition” of the Newspeak dictionary (50).  The publication of the final dictionary will mark a time when those, such as Syme, that know too much about Oldspeak can finally be vaporized because their knowledge is no longer needed.  The elimination of Syme and his colleagues is inevitable because of their knowledge of Oldspeak, which can threaten the Party’s goal to communicate solely in Newspeak and eliminate thoughtcrime.  Although an unknowledgeable bystander might think that killing the same people that help you accomplish your goals is unfathomable, it must be done for the goal of the party to be achieved.  The hypocrisy behind who the Party has working for them is astonishing because they need extremely intelligent people to eliminate all intelligence in people, but these same intelligent people know way to much to be considered ideal party members and must be vaporized.

1984 #1: The Inherent Paradoxical Nature of The Party

            In chapter one part one of George Orwell’s 1984, the reader is introduced to the Party. The Party is synonymous with the government and controls all aspects of people’s lives.  The Party’s slogans are one of the first things the reader learns about the Party; “WAR IS PEACE / FREEDOM IS SLAVERY / IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 4).  These three statements are mind-boggling to those living in a non-socialist environment and seemingly paradoxical.  War has an exceedingly negative connotation whereas peace has quite the positive connotation and equating the two of them leads to quite the paradox.  With the comparison of freedom and slavery the same thing occurs; slavery and freedom are considered antonyms so their equating creates a paradox.  The third slogan, “ignorance is strength” is a paradox as well; knowledge is power is the socially accepted belief, but to say that ignorance, an antonym to knowledge, is strength, a synonym of power, creates a statement that makes no sense in accepted societal context, therefore creating a third major paradox of the Party’.  The fact that the Party is based on three seemingly paradoxical ideas indicates that the Party is attempting to instill false truths in its subjects.  This false representation of the truth by the Party, although fairly synonymous with politics and government (when looked at with a cynical view), tells the reader that the Party is ungood (as one would say in Newspeak).  Orwell is metonymically comparing the Party to what he sees all governments becoming in the future, and he uses paradoxes as the Party’s slogans to portray his beliefs that oligarchies are inherently bad and this progression of the world’s governments must be stopped before it is too late.