Nineteen Eighty Four

The pursuit for a perfect society has always been the ultimate human desire, where inequality, poverty, and repression are alleviated from the face of the earth. Throughout history however, the road to achieving a Utopian society is a problem in itself. George Orwell’s 1984 is a novel that portrays how the world can become when powerful interest groups conflict with the establishment of social freedom and harmony. In this book, the “big” picture that Orwell gives to the reader is that the hope for a better society might just be in our disadvantage, if we we fail to fully understand the nature of power relations. One of the concepts that needs to be undermined is how those in “power” would do their utmost to sustain power and further enforce their influence for the benefit of the beholder. In this book, Orwell creates a setting in which the world we live in, is not as natural as it seems. Rather, a creation of those in power; ranging from the news we absorb, the bombardment of international affairs, wars, and even to the records of history. Powerful groups recreate fantasies for us to believe and to fear, so that people can always look up for the protection of those in charge.

Fear is the engine for absolute control. It is through this method that people will always feel inferior and hopeless. Nineteen eighty-four gives an analogy of how some of these methods of power preservation takes place. Orwell describes the fundamental tool of how the Big Brother exercises its control. Methods such as Hate Crime feeds society with daily false information or as we know in the present day as propaganda, doublethink which is an acknowledged error where people have no other choice but to accept it, and finally the making of individuals or groups that is simply non-existent. These methods are some of the ways that even to the current time is still a valuable tool for powerful individuals to exercise. These tools make us believe what is untrue.

There are many other issues that Orwell brings up in his 1984 novel. Such as how important it is for a regime to flex its muscles through military means. Orwell showed the reader that military supremacy is another way in which the powerful can guarantee their search for available resources. Throughout the novel, military suppression is apparent at every scene. Somehow, it makes us feel as if the role of the military goes beyond national security but as a surveillance to our daily activities.

Before reading this novel, I’ve heard numerous comments on how this book was written to criticize the paradigm of the capitalist system. To some extent, it is true, because the capitalist system degrades the living standards of the non elite through repressive work environments. In addition, workers are no longer identified as humans but as numbers that work systematically like robots, that when it malfunctions, it is disposed at will. In effect, it disregards the well-being of workers once their skills and talents are no longer useful. Such treatment is the nature of capitalism. But such devastating picture can also apply to any regime. Socially and economically speaking, a socialist system would probably have done better in giving back welfare to the people, but politically, a socialist system are not reluctant to use its arms to enforce its rules. In this novel, Orwell reminds us that power is not the means, but it is an end to every administration. The motif of greed and continuous prosperity of the elite can transform every aspect of a regime at a blink of an eye.

bDj.