1984
Guiding story
Winston Smith, 39 years old, worked in the ministry of truth. And he was an outer-party member of Oceania. The world in 1984 has been divided into three political entities, Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia over thirty years. And the three superstates were continuously waging war against each other.
Every party member lives under the constant surveillance of telescreen, from which Big-Brother watched every movement and catched everything even like the facial expression. There was always the danger of being denounced for unorthodoxy by colleagues or even family members. Once someone was found guilty of committing thoughtcrimes, having unorthodoxy thought, he was erased from the record and completely vaporized so to be nonexistence. ‘Thoughtcrimes does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.’ (28)
Winston himself worked for the task in the Minitrue. He corrected all the unorthodox past history to conform it to the present Party’s direction. The aim of this laborious work is to prove party’s omnipotent, flawless, and always correct-decision-making. For example, if Eurasia was now the enemy and Eastaisa became ally of Oceania, from the beginning, Eurasia should be eternal enemy of Oceania, because the Party should be always right. And all the past records that indicated Eurasia was the ally and Eastasia was the mortal enemy should be corrected and republished, after which the original records must be wasted.
Winston faintly felt nausea to that reality. He started to write down his rebellious thoughts like ‘Down with the Party’ and hated the Two Minutes Hate, when party members gathered and watched the venomous traitor Goldstein’s images and erupted rage against the despicable remarks and behaviors of him. Every member who presented at the campaign competitively showed off his disgust toward the defector. Winston then saw two persons, one was O’Brien, an inner-party member who looked ugly but intelligent and the other was a young girl who seemed to occasionally watch him and try to find his any symptom of thoughtcrime. He thought that she might be a hidden member of the Thought Police.
In Oceania, family was not made of love. Making babies was only a duty to the party, so marriage life should not be based on love for each other. Actually there were only arranged marriages. Winston married Katherine who disappeared 10 years ago. But they didn’t love each other. The party committee intentionally chose people as a couple who seemingly had no sexual appetite for each other.
Winston felt strong desire for her and simultaneously he abhorred and feared her because he believed that she was an orthodox and faithful party member and she might be a spy to report him to the Thought Police. One day they met in a corridor in the ministry. Approaching Winston, the girl abruptly stumbled and fell almost flat on her face. Winston stopped and started forward to help her. She held out her free hand to him, and he helped her up. For in the two or three seconds while he was helping her up the girl had slipped something small and flat into his hand. It was a scrap of paper folded into a square. (105) Winston was embarrassed at it. Winston thought two possible meaning of that memo. Whether for good or for evil, it might have political meaning. As he thought, she could be an agent of the Thought Police and the memo may inform him of summon. Also it was possible that she might be a member of ‘Brotherhood’, a rebellious group. The message might invite him to the secret organization. But on it was written ‘I love you.’ she loved him. The fervent rage toward Goldstein was just a kind of protective color.
After that, they found a shelter to secretly meet and make love in a junk shop on prole street. Winston said his rebellious thought to Julia. He told her that even if he participated in the ‘Brotherhood’ and waged war against the party, there would be no concrete result and the party would remain right as always. But he added by leaving a few records of rebel, the next generations could carry on where he left off. To his remark, Julia replied “I’m not interested in the next generation, I’m interested in us.” (155) She accepted the Party as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it. (131)
The time to meet O’Brien came. Winston believed that O’Brien must be the same person as him. Like in his dream, he told Winston to meet together somewhere brighter. As expected, O’Brien proposed Winston and Julia to join Brotherhood. O’Brien said. “You will have to get used to living without results and without hope. You will work for a while, you will be caught, you will confess, and then you will die. Those are the only results that you will ever see. There is no possibility that any perceptible change will happen within our own lifetime. We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone.” (176) Winston and Julia agreed to that suggestion.
There were three slogans in the Party. ‘War is peace’, ‘Freedom is slavery’, ‘Ignorance is power’ The slogans contain the main theme of this novel.
1. War is peace
– Economic abundance could wake the prole’s subdued consciousness, which could threaten the Party’s eternal ruling. So constant war is needed to absorb the residual goods which otherwise could be put to usage in improving the living standard and eventually increasing the number of eduacated proles. War is a mean to maintain the dictatorship of the Party. War can make an useful outlet to solve all the discontent and fury aroused from suppressed material and sexual desires. On the same premises as above, the three entities wage a low-intense war against each other. The war is not aimed to subjugate other superstates because it is unrealistic to take hold of the other’s territory. Each block is a self-sustained system and has vast resources that even two combined forces cannot conquer the remaining one. The real aim of war is to preserve a totalitarian system. Unlike the conventional war, there is considerably small number of casualties but war is a constant one. Becoming constant, war ceases to be a war in a real sense. The slogan, ‘War is peace’, means this.
2. Freedom is slavery
- Do not make thoughtcriminal die as a martyr. Past totalitarian systems stirred comprehensive rebellious movements by letting the traitors considered as martyrs and eventually they failed to maintain their systems. There is a need to make thoughtcriminals themselves loyal to the Party and love Big Brother. Until that, Miniluv(the ministry of love) should ceaselessly ‘educate’ them. When the criminals are to be made perfect, they will be executed confessing all their vices and their love for the Party and Big Brother. (For Winston, he thought that from now onwards he must not only think right; he must feel right, dream right to make a perfect camouflage. At the last time, his heretical thought would be unpunished, unrepented, out of their reach forever. They would have blown a hole in their own perfection. To die hating them, that was freedom. - 281)
- Power is always collective. The rule by the Party doesn’t mean the rule by an individual. The Party’s permanent ruling is unchangeable with all the changes in the individual party members. It seems like that the capitalism logic of growth and competition would be sustained while the individual capitalists rise and fall. Party member can enjoy freedom by being fully subjugated to the Party and then they become the Party itself. They are both part of the Party and the Party itself. In that meaning, power is collective. (Doublethink would make it possible to forget this kind of self-contradiction.) ‘Freedom is slavery’ means this.
3. Ignorance is power
- There is no need for science, which leads to material richness and the development of reason, except for the realm of war practicing and espionage.
- There is need for Newspeak. Newspeak will replace Oldspeak. Newspeak has reduced vocabularies. For example, good is enough to express ‘good’ and ‘bad’ altogether. Ungood will replace bad or other words having similar meaning. The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. In the end, it shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. (52) Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to thinking. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
- Power which can control the past controls the present and the future world. Every plan and direction made by The Party should be always right. Past records that are not compatible with present results should be revised and the original records should be burnt to dust. Due to the constantly revised past, there is no evidence to prove the Party’s failure and fallacy. Anyone who rebels against the Party will be considered insane.
- Due to the regressing development of science and material life and the complete replacing Oldspeak by Newspeak, the proles will be unable to notice their miserable life, and even if they noticed it and felt anger against the Party, they couldn’t express it and organize rebellious movement. Also the proles have no standard to compare their present life because all the comparable past records were destroyed and there is perfect insulation from outer worlds. Ignorance of the proles will enable the permanent ruling by the Party. ‘Ignorance is power’ means this.
War is peace
- 물질적 풍요가 민중들의 의식을 깨우고 당의 독재를 위협할 우려가 있다. 따라서 끊임없는 전쟁을 통해 잉여물자를 소비한다. 전쟁은 당의 독재를 위한 수단이다. 또한 전쟁은 사람들이 당에 대한 불만과 개인적 욕구 불만을 해소할 증오의 대상을 만들어내서 사람들의 의식을 지배하는 수단을 제공한다. 3개의 지배 블록이 모두 이 같은 전제하에 저강도의 지속적인 전쟁을 수행한다. 전쟁은 타 블록을 지배하기 위한 것이 아니라 당의 존속을 위한 것이다. 전쟁은 일시적인 것이 아니라 지속적인 것이 됨으로써 전쟁으로서 그 전통적인 의미를 상실한다. 이것이 ‘전쟁은 평화’ 슬로건의 진정한 의미이다.
Freedom is slavery
- 사상범죄자들을 순교자로 만들지 않는다. 과거의 전체주의체제는 사상범죄를 순교로 인식시켜 광범위한 반체제 운동을 야기했고 결국 체제유지에 실패했다. 사상범죄자 스스로 당에 대한 충성, BB에 대한 사랑을 깊이 깨닫게 만든다. 그 전까지 처형하지 않고 끊임없이 교육을 한다.
- 권력은 집합적이다. 당의 지배는 사람의 지배가 아니다. 지배집단의 구성원은 변하더라도 당의 영구지배는 변하지 않는다. 마치 경쟁과 성장의 자본주의의 지배논리가 자본가들의 개별적인 지위변동에도 영구히 유지되도록 하는 것과 유사하다. 당원은 당에 저항하지 않고 당의 노예가 됨으로써(당을 의식적으로 사랑한다는 것을 의식하지 않는 이중사고’doublethinking’수준으로) 자유를 누릴 수 있다. 자신을 개별적인 존재가 아닌 당 자체로 인식하는 집합적 사고로 권력을 누릴 수 있다. 이것이 ‘자유는 노예’ 의 진정한 의미이다.
Ignorance is power
- 과거를 지배하는 자가 현재와 미래를 지배한다. 당의 모든 계획과 행동이 언제나 올바른 것이 되도록 하기 위해 현재의 물질적 산출과 당의 발표에 어긋나는 모든 것을 고치고 이전의 자료들은 모두 사라진다. 이로 인해 당의 모순과 오류를 지적하는 사람들이 자신들의 정당성을 입증할 어떠한 근거도 남아있지 않게 된다.
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