As stated, 1984 is a book based on a dystopian society called "Oceania", "and its main purpose is to show readers a world that has no freedom to choice, of action and even of thought. Totalitarianism refers to “relating to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of different opinions and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life”. will or on the thoughts of others; authoritarian; autocratic”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Brother, they control the media and communication in the country and the right to freedom to choose what to think is taken away from the citizens. The characteristics of this type of control over the citizen are highlighted especially at the beginning of the book. In Book 1, Chapter 1, there is a telescreen that cannot be turned off in Winston's apartment, which sends brainwashing messages while acting as an audio transmitter. These telescreens are described as “ubiquitous” and are literally everywhere monitoring people. Alternatively, Big Brother also has other ways to maintain control over people, namely the “Thought Police”. These are personnel who, instead of stopping crime like a police, capture people who do not fully submit to the party and brainwash/torture them in the “Ministry of Love”. The most terrifying thing about these mental politics, however, is the fact that “baby spices” exist. According to the book, in particular, chapter 3, page 168: “ The children, however, systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and point out their deviations. The family had effectively become an extension of the Thought Police. This basically means that not only are television screens ubiquitous, but so are spies. This creates a situation where the people of Oceania can only trust themselves. To some extent, parents also need to keep an eye on their children. This type of situation is happening in our world right now and it would be North Korea and their methods of controlling citizens, which serve as the basis of their brutal regime. North Korea practices similar “ubiquitous” monitoring and observation, to the point that no one in the country (most likely except the leader himself) has any real privacy. Similar to the ubiquitous television screens, the North Korean government intercepts telephone communications and relies on informants to provide information. These informants are just normal people, but due to the fact that there is a reward system (usually rewards food, very few people have food to eat, at the peak, 3,500,000 people died of starvation or related diseases and 10 million are starving. (2) , (3)), they are strongly incentivized to report suspicious behavior to the party. Alternatively, China has also implemented a certain type of public surveillance that bears a striking resemblance to the telescreens of 1984. The Chinese government has established a system that tracks citizens' behavior and translates it into a “sesame credit,” this system is directly linked to public surveillance which is once again “ubiquitous”, anything you do can affect your credit. For example, if a person was caught walking off the road by CCTV, their credit would be deducted. If a person pays bills late or commits indecent activities, his score will be lowered. With the deduction of points, some are destined to achieve alower level, which will then limit their social activities through different methods, such as transportation, medical inconveniences. Reality control is also part of the main theme of 1984. The party (Ingsoc) controls the flow of information and only limits what it wants its people to see. They rule the country with an iron fist of terror, surveillance and propaganda. “Newspeak” is a language created by the Party to limit freedom of thought, due to the nature of its limited vocabulary. An example of this would be “unperson,” a word that means vaporization of a person. In fact, that person is not simply killed or eliminated, he is completely erased from history, thanks to the power of Big Brother, capable of altering history itself, whatever the problem, they can always change it and make it. advantageous for the party. As a matter of fact, Ingsoc has a specific department that “edits history” and that would be the Ministry of Truth. Don't let the name fool you as it is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events. In book 1 chapter 3, Winston thinks to himself: “If the Party could cast its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it would never have happened – this, surely, was more terrifying than simple torture and death ? ”. This symbolizes the horrible and unimaginable stretching of Ingsoc's tentacles, and it is further and deeper than anyone can imagine. It is even stated that: "Whoever controls the past controls the future; whoever controls the present controls the past." It is worth noting that the party makes the environment and society as a whole prosper, once again, shaping reality. An example of this would be at the beginning of chapter 1, where you see "Victory Mansion" and "Victory Gin". Although they contain the word "Victory", they are described as being of poor quality. Also, Winston uses vices in the story to calm himself down or to help himself with his emotions and outlook in life, he is an old man after all. In his case, his vices are cigarettes and gin. However, these vices are not his personal choice, rather they are assigned to him by the party, this is a kind of twisted but hidden method of control over people. Propaganda also plays an important role in creating such dystopians. Ingsoc simultaneously brainwashes citizens through various methods. In fact, the party's slogan is: “War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength” and “Big Brother is watching you”. It is not difficult to realize that these words contradict each other, which, first and foremost, is the manifestation of “doublethink,” an act of simultaneously believing as correct two things that fundamentally contradict each other. Ingsoc uses it to confuse and control the speech and freedom of will of citizens. “Soviet Marxism-Leninism: The Decline of an Ideology” by Alfred B. Evans, Jr., states: “We are for the extinction of the state and at the same time we are for the strengthening of the dictatorship, which represents the most powerful and powerful of all forms of state that have existed up to the present day. The maximum development of state power, with the aim of preparing the conditions for the extinction of the state: this is the Marxist formula. Is it "contradictory"? Yes, it's "contradictory". But this contradiction is a living thing and fully reflects Marxist dialectics." (6) Furthermore, the party's messages are easily accessible while nothing else can be found anywhere. First, everywhere you see Big Brother posters with the party slogan mentioned above, the ubiquitous telescreens show and read party messages... examples are scattered throughout the book. The main point is that the party shapesthe reality in which people live and makes sure that they are always under the influence of the party and do not subject themselves to other thoughts, presumably rebellious thoughts. As for real-life counterparts, or even George Orwell's inspiration for the book, that would be Germany under Hitler's rule in 1933. The Nazi Empire created: "Hitlerjugend," which directly translates to Hitler Youth . This is an organization that focuses on brainwashing the younger generation into “super soldiers” with constant education in Nazi ideology and the greatness of Hitler. Eventually, at the start of World War II, these trained teenagers are put into battle. This organization represents a quite notable presence in the whole of German society. They present themselves as a sort of German version of the boy scouts. Children are taken away at a young age to join this type of camp and receive training with the sole purpose of joining the army. This also poses a threat to those parents who may have anti-party thoughts, as their children are in the hands of the party. At the same time, the party that adapts to the “Gleichschaltung” must control and maintain coordination on all aspects of German society through the creation of organizations with mandatory membership. This type of control adopted by the Nazi Empire is not as blatant as that stated in 1984, but it is a seemingly peaceful but not humane way. At the age of 6-10, children, regardless of gender, are placed in organizations that help "train" them in the Deutsches Jungvolk (Young German Boys) or the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) which are potentially useful for the army. (5) Together with other policies, this radically changes people's view of Hitler and the party. Some may think that the aforementioned “Newspeak” is simply a work of fiction and no longer exists in the world. However, the truth is much darker than that. There are cases where governments use refined language or justify their behavior, these are called politically correct language, which is undoubtedly the newspeak of today. An infamous example of the use of such language would be the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland, along with other military support, launched an airstrike on Baathist Iraq which kicked off the month-long war. George Bush, president of the United States of America, claims that the operation, code-named Iraqi Freedom, had the sole aim of disarming Iraq from "weapons of mass destruction". At the end of the operation, 1 month and 4 days after the attack. After the initial air strike, military forces have failed to locate the weapon and there is apparently no evidence of the weapon's existence. However, according to a poll conducted by CBS News in the same year, entitled: Talk First, Fight Later (13), it appears that 85% of people believe that Iraq possesses such "weapons of mass destruction". This is a demonstration that the government has perfected its actions and from a statement by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations Security Council, he said: “We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to maintain his weapons of destruction mass; he is determined to do more. Given Saddam Hussein's history of aggression. given what we know of his terrorist associations and given his determination to take revenge on those who oppose him, we should run the risk that one day he will not use these weapons at the time, place and manner of his choosing, at some point in time which the world is in a much weaker position to respond to? "(14) The use of puns here is a clear demonstration of “Politically Correct Words”, although the evidence of the existence of such a weapon is nowhere to be found and weakens the argument, it plays a huge role in convincing the public, especially the people of the United States. Censorship is one of the key components of a totalitarian government body, as it limits all information flow and only allows those who fit their values ​​and views. In 1984, Winston got a job at the Ministry of Peace, where he received an order from the party: “'The reporting of the Big Brother Agenda published in the Times of 3 December 1983 is extremely unsatisfactory and refers to non-existent people . Rewrite it completely and present the draft to the higher authority before filing it away.' This rewritten part of history will presumably be made public to the general public, which helps create a positive outlook for the party, which is key to controlling people. The Tiananmen incident in China has some similarities when compared. In normal search engines like Google you can find images of a tank hitting a protesting student commonly among millions of results. However, on China's hidden network and search engine Baidu, none of these images, or any others that pose a threat to China's prospects, are anywhere to be found. Propaganda, as mentioned above, is a key element of reality checking, it is essentially waved after a wave of advertising-type messages that the government sends to its citizens. Constant exposure to these types of messages can actually brainwash a person. Propaganda can be spread in many different ways, such as posters, education, speeches, or any type of message delivery. In 1984, posters of the face of the party, Big Brother, were seen everywhere and even television screens contributed to sending messages. North Korea and its political party: The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is a prime example of this as their use of propaganda is infamous across the world. First, youth education is based on materials designed to convince North Koreans that America is the most evil country in the world, claiming that their sole purpose behind every move is to pursue “global supremacy.” In an interview conducted by Sean Illando from Vox towards the North Korean propaganda book, written by three state-sanctioned North Korean academics, titled: “US Imperialists Started the Korean War.” The book states, when asked about the purpose of the United States and its objectives to conquer Korea: “The trend of revolutionary developments towards peace and democracy, national independence and socialism constituted a fatal blow to the aggressive policy of world domination pursued by the United States." The US imperialists who had called for “global supremacy” immediately after the Second World War.” (7) In addition to education, North Korea, being a totalitarian government, has full control over the media. Films, music and art not related to propaganda are considered rubbish. It is also worth noting that "non-personal executions" (executions carried out both publicly and privately) are very common as the North Korean government controls its citizens to some extent with a set of rights rules. Once caught disobeying the rules, a hike will most likely follow. The trigger conditions are also bizarre, from the basic “not trusting the government or conducting activities that the party deems harmful to society” or “not crying realistically enough when inner-party members die.”,.