Forms of social control in George Orwell’s 1984 and other equivalents in modern-day England
Throughout the book 1984, there are many forms of social control issued by the Party, used subtly in many ways to manipulate the mind. Nineteen Eighty-Four draws a picture of a totalitarian future, based on other totalitarian systems in the Twentieth Century like the Nazis who had some very anti-Semitic ideas. We can clearly see from the Jewish name of the main enemy of Oceania, Emanuel Goldstein, that this system also used Jews as scapegoats, who were held were responsible for all bad and evil thing in the country. Through close examination, we can see that there are certain equivalents to these forms of restraint, no matter how strange they are, in modern England.
Early on in the book, we are drawn to attention by descriptions of an ongoing war between Oceania and Eurasia. War is important for the consumption of the products of human labour and is the economical basis for a hierarchical society. If this workforce were used to increase the standard of living, the control exerted over the people by the party would decrease. In becoming continuous, war has actually ceased to exist. The continuity of war guarantees the permanence of the currently preserved order, thus forming the slogan ‘War is Peace’. The peace is not actually a period of non-violence, but an internal stabilisation, away from riots and rebellions. There are actually very clear similarities in modern times, such as the ostensible ‘war on terror’, which is possibly an excuse to create war in the Middle East. However, no matter the reason, the effect on the nation is astounding: the common hatred of terror had united the people into a brotherhood.
