Reviewed: Jul 27, 2002

I originally read 1984 as part of a Sci-Fi Literature class in High School. I chose to re-read it as the subject matter is very relevant today. Orwell wrote the book while living in post-war England. He supported socialism but wrote the book as a warning about possible pitfalls pursuing that path. The story is set in Oceania which is an alliance of the Americas and what used to be England. The government is run by a totalitarian Party called INGSOC. Three powers control the world, Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. Oceania is always at war with one and allied with the other. Everyone knows Orwell describes a society with a single ruling Party and continuous surveillance of its citizens. Some more know that everyone in society, especially children, are trained to turn in anyone questioning the societal order. And perhaps even that the Party arrests people not just for actions against the government but for thoughts against it. But the book also spends a significant amount of time describing how and why the Party conditions people to accept contradictory information. For example, everyone accepts the official line that production quotas are always exceeded but all they actually see are shortages of goods. And no one questions when public announcements switch which major power is the enemy and which is the ally. INGSOC believes that merely forcing people to obey the party, as was tried by the Nazi's and Soviets, will not result in an enduring system. The key to INGSOC's success is to make the people love the party, and to accept its word as the absolute truth. The way the Party ensures people accept its every word is to give them blatantly contradictory information and verify they still believe whatever the Party says is true.

No review of 1984 is complete without some section discussing whether we are moving towards such a system. Well, recently John Ashcroft announced his plans to take 1,000,000 citizens comprising mail carriers, cable repairman, and other service sector professions and turn them into informants as part of his Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS) program. Donald Rumsfeld has said he will announce new enemies in the future and we have no right to question his word. The FBI is capturing US citizens without evidence claiming they might commit a crime in the future. Think about it. Meanwhile, remember the INGSOC Party slogans when listening to our administration:

• war is peace
• fear is freedom
• ignorance is strength