1984 assignment

The role that the doctrine O’Brien proclaims reveals the reasoning of the party’s behavior. He expresses that “submission is the price of sanity” and anything else is madness. O’Brien basically makes it clear that rebellion is not an option. Oceania’s system of Oligarchical Collectivism is based around three mantras which easily generate their control over the oblivious citizens. They are: war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. The party maintains these mantras by using certain tactics to manage the human’s obedience.
The government has gained such a strong amount of control on the people that they can tell them absolutely anything and the citizens will believe it. The party’s slogans are quite illogical but, the citizens willingly abide by it because they are completely brainwashed by the government. “War is peace” is one contribution to the government’s dictatorship because if the country remains at a constant war the people’s contact to other countries is cut off. Thus, war is one of the party’s tactics which keeps the citizens oblivious to reality and conveys peace within Oceania. The slogan “freedom is slavery” has the citizens believe independence is condemned to failure. This tactic allows the citizens not to desire thinking on their own; which causes fewer rebellions. “Ignorance is strength” represents the people’s failure to realize the truth which increases the government’s power for them to do whatever they please. Another tactic of the party is to induce the citizens with fear for them to have a less likely chance of rebellion. They do so by, placing telescreens in everyone’s home which observes the people very carefully to prevent them from acting up. Not only are the citizens observed by the telescreens, but they are also patrolled by “thought police” and “junior spies.” They are just more contributions to the governments surveillance of the people. The government also rewrites history as one of their tactics of control. The control of the past limits the future. If the past was idealized then people would want to re-enact it. But, since the past is believed as a time of misery they can only strive for limited goals because they are oblivious to anything higher. The party even erases people from history as if they never existed. The reason to this is if a person discovers the party’s secret the party would have them “disappear” to leave no traces of rebellion so others wouldn’t gain any ideas. Winston is one of the people who figures out the government’s system. But of course nothing gets past the party, thus, leads Winston to his fate of torture until he is rehabilitated to “sanity.” O’Brien proclaims that Winston “has failed humility, in self- discipline,” because Winston went against the government. O’Brien also expresses to Winston that reality is only within the party and nowhere else. He is telling Winston that there is no reality in the individual mind “except by looking through the party’s eyes.” Every individual must believe everything the Party says or else they must “relearn” just as Winston had to at the end of the book.