NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (30 january 2004)
One of the most interesting books I've ever read is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (whose real name was Eric Blair).
The most important quality of the book is definitely not its entertainment value. I think the strength of the book primarily lies in its description of a totalitarian society and the mechanisms used to control such a society.
In the book, the world is divided into three power blocks. The block in which the main character, Winston Smith, lives is Oceania. To be precise, the part of Oceania where he lives is called Airstrip One (the present England).
The society is ruled by The Party (Ingsoc). Society itself is subdivided into three groups:
- the Inner Party (about 1% of the population)
- the Outer Party (about 18% of the population)
- the Proles (the rest)
The government consists of four ministries, which are housed in four huge, ugly buildings:
- the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue)
handling news, entertainment, education, fine arts;
- the Ministry of Love
(Miniluv)
handling law and order;
- the Ministry of Peace (
Minipax)
handling war;
- the Ministry of Plenty (Miniplenty
)
handling economic affairs;
The highest person in this system is Big Brother, although it is unclear if Big Brother really exists. But everywhere posters are to be seen saying "Big Brother is watching you".
The state is indeed watching the people because there are so-called telescreens, everywhere. The telescreens are a combination of a sort of television and a camera that cannot be turned off. The telescreens present party propaganda all day. And at the same time people were watched by it.
Two important elements in the story are:
- Winston starts writing a diary.
- He falls in love with a woman named Julia.
The book was written at a time that memories of the totalitarian nazi regime were still fresh. And Orwell must also have used elements in the book that were clearly visible in the Soviet Union.
It was published in 1949. Since its publication there has been no shortage of totalitarian regimes. Some of them, like Saddam Hussein's and Pol Pot's have fallen. But North Korea proves the totalitarian species is still alive (and kicking).
A last question: does our present sociey resemble Nineteen Eighty-Four in any way? Well, there certainly are elements of totalitarianism in our society. But some of them are so well hidden that they are very hard to see. For instance, multinational companies tend to have too much power, but the complex structure of these companies makes it very difficult to see it or to correct it.
The European Community definitely has totalitarian traits. Who, for instance, remembers ever having seen a referendum on the introduction of the euro?
