1984 War Is Peace, Ignorance Is Strength Notes

1984                                                                   Mika Gonzalez

War Is Peace

·      Eurasia consists of Northern Europe and Asia

·      Oceania is made up of the Americas, Atlantic islands, Australia, and southern Africa

·      Eastasia comprises China and countries south of it, Japanese islands, and some parts of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet

·      The regions have been at war for 25 years

·      The ongoing nature of war between the regions continue going for no explainable reason, not one of them ever winning or coming close to it.

·      War affects citizens in each region, suffering from food and good shortages and the occasional air raid. Each is heavily protected and not separated by any set of beliefs.

·      Each region is protected enough so that conquering is unlikely

·      The superstates fight a war for labor power, trying to win over as many densely populated areas as possible

·      Powers controlling equatorial Africa, the Middle East, or Southern India use the cheap labor to expend oil and coal, and these millions of workers are fought by the fluctuating borders of each region

·      The major goal of the warfare is to “use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living” (188). Uses doublethink to try to accomplish this

·      Before the Revolution, people dreamed of a world “unbelievably rich, leisured, orderly and efficient” (189) with the development of science and technology. Once the regime took hold, all these visions perished mainly due to the prohibition of free thought.

·      The machine came to dislike the happiness and comfort of the people and the disappearance of a hierarchal society. Therefore, they managed to think up a way to keep the most esteemed members of the machine rich as all the rest remained with little: to keep the poor ignorant and illiterate, unable to think for themselves and therefore rebel.

·      They also wanted to restrict the majority of the population without having to restrict output of goods, thus not distributing goods but only producing them in a state of constant warfare.

·      The people living under the regime are expected to be living as if in warfare: industrious, somewhat intelligent, frightened, angry, and triumphant. All are forced to believe the Party will win the war and that the war exists with the process of doublethink.

·      The Party wants to be able to know what everyone is thinking in order to control thought, and kill millions of people without warning

·      There has been little development in the three powers concerning weapons that are not already created by each of them. The atomic bomb is not used, but owned.

·      Citizens are prohibited to come in contact with foreigners, with fear that the illusion of their evil will be destroyed

·      The fact that the war does not actually involve danger of conquest makes the people live in a false reality and therefore owned by Ingsoc.

·      The goal of the war is to keep the established society intact

·      “A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war” (199).

Ignorance is Strength

·      The normal society consists of the High, the Middle, and the Low: the High stay the way they are, the Middle try to become High, and the Low want an equal society. The High is sometimes taken over by the Middle due to poor leadership, and the Middle breaks the promise of helping the Low and leaves them as they were before. The High then becomes the emerging Middle. The Low, throughout history, does not change.

·      Unfreedom and inequality used stop progress and history, therefore making the High group able to keep their position as the top of society. Human equality becomes a danger to be avoided due to the destruction of social and economic levels.

·      With the invention of print, and therefore of radio, film, and television, manipulation of the opinions of the pubic became easier. With the television, now arose the destruction of citizen privacy, now with the police’s ability to watch those needed to be watched at all times.

·      There are four ways for the Party to lose power: “it is conquered from without, or it govern so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, or it allows a strong and discontented Middle Group to come into being, or it loses its self-confidence and willingness to govern” (207). The first is unlikely, since all three superstates are unconquerable. The second can be avoided by the Party’s ability to keep the masses from having a comparison to other lifestyles and therefore living unaware of their oppression.

·      Big Brother is the mascot of the Party, a being that is seen everywhere on posters, who takes credit for all glories of the Party and stirs inspiration and leadership. The people make him the object of their human emotions.

·      The High is the Inner Party, the Middle is the Outer Party, and the Low are the proletarians. Entrance into each section is not hereditary, as long as the structure remains the same.

·      Rebellion is not possible. The prolitarians live their lives unaware of a life that could be different due to lack of education. Those living in the Party are constantly watched by the Though Police, without freedom of choice, but there is no law. A Party member must have good instincts.

·      The word crimestop, meaning the instinct to stop before thinking too far into a dangerous thought, keeps the people in a state of “protected stupidity” (212).

·      Blackwhite refers to believing that black is white despite other facts, whether out of loyalty or impudence. This requires the alteration of the past with doublethink. This readjustment occurs when the Party constantly rewrites history to make the predictions facts and the results what the Party wants to see and be believed.

·      Past only exists in written word and memories, therefore whatever the Party means to make it. This power has made their power able to last.

·      “The greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the less sane” (215)

·      Linking of opposites shows the contradictions, the doublethink, rejecting principles from the pre-revolutionary days of Socialism while also preaching Socialism.

·      Ministry of Peace deals with war, Ministry of Truth with lies, Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. Doublethink. The High keep their position, and the minds of everyone continue to be controlled.