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George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four

Boekverslag 8 April 1998, gemaakt door Walter ter Maten, Son en Breugel.

Author:	George Orwell.
Title:	Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Publisher:	Penguin Books Ltd, UK, 1972.
Pages:	239.
Genre:	Future.
Cover:	A detail from 'The Control Room, Civil Defence Headquarters', by William Roberts.

The most important persons:

Winston Smith, 39 years old, single, works in the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth. He is very good in adapting articles in journals to create proofs for a new true history. Winston is a Party member and so he has to behave himself.
Julia, 27, single, works in the Fiction Department. She becomes the lover of Winston. To love somebody, however, is dangerous. She is not very important to The Party. Julia and Winston love each other in an old room above a shop of old books. They think that they are not controlled here. However, in the end, it appears that there was all the time a working Telescreen behind a painting of an old church.
O'Brien, member of the Inner Party, an important Party man. Inner Party man wear black overalls. He is the man Winston always has wanted to meet. However, he appears to be the severe judge and master: he wants to control Winston completely. Were the dreams and thoughts of Winston about O'Brien Winstons own, or were they sent into his brains by some unclear process? Winston remembers the phrase: "We shall meet in the place, where there is no darkness.".
Big Brother. Does he really exists, or is he just an idea created by The Party? Big Brother is the leader. He knows everything, he decides everything, he controls everything. Big Brother is watching you. But he is the image of the good guy. He is The Saviour.
Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People. Again, it is not clear if he really exists. He is responsible for all crimes against The Party, for all treacheries, for all acts of sabotage. He is the image of the bad guy.

The technical level of the society:

The book is a kind of science fiction. However, it describes a rather poor society. In practice there is shortage of everything. Also the quality of the products is rather poor. All products have the same proud name 'Victory': Victory cigarettes, Victory gin, etc.
However, the Telescreen is a high performance product: it is a kind of wall mirror-radio- televison-clock-microphone, which provides constant information. It can be dimmed, but it cannot be shut off completely. However, the mirror functionality is used to control the behaviour of people. By this, the moves, behaviour, actions of and sayings by everyone can be viewed by those in the Party control rooms. Everything is archived and is used against them when it is needed to 'correct you'. At the minutes for gym, Winston is sometimes instructed to bend lower.

The Society:

The society is controlled by one party: The Party. To control the society, the Thought Police is used to control everyone's behaviour. Everyone can be an agent of the Thought Police. Actually you can't trust someone. The Party controls the life of everybody. By learning 'Double Think' the people have learned to neglect their first thoughts about bad things and to think better in favour of The Party, the society and the country. The important feature in this society is that The Party controls the thoughts of their individuals too, especially that of the Party members. Winston's crime is that he has thought as a free man. He thinks that he is free to write his private history and comments in his diary. In the end, it is clear that The Party and O'Brien know all his thoughts in the past, his dreams and where he is afraid for (rats: the mask with rats is used for the last trick to master him completely). He learns that 2+2=5 (Two and Two make Five) is true and he is satisfied with his new knowledge. Winston has been mastered completely. He loves Big Brother. After showing a Winston to the world that is completely satisfied, he can be eliminated (that implies also from history: there will be no proof that he has existed).
Two Minutes Hate: in public, everyone can scream his hate and his anger while seeing the picture of the Great Enemy of the nation: Goldstein. After this the hate level in you has been lowered. It is very tempting to shout too: within 30 seconds you scream too. And it is a good moment for The Party to observe all people if they show the real amount of hate and that they are not hesitating.
No friendship: The Party wants no uncontrolled clubs, no other parties, no bonds of friendship. They even want no real family life, no love between people. A family is a small party that can be an enemy to The Party. Therefor parents are controlled by their children. The children learn their task in a youth club. Their teachers are proud when the children can tell some mistakes of their parents. By this behaviour, children are little monsters. For the adults, sex is dirty and only necessary to make children.
The Proles: This is the group of the ordinary people. They accept the leadership of The Party. They are a dull group, from which The Party has not to fear a revolution. The Party only consists of 15% of the population, but that is enough to control the society.

The Ministries:

There are four huge ministries:

The Ministry of Truth ('Minitrue', in Newspeak; in practice it means 'very little bit of truth'), which is involved with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. Winston works here and adapts constantly history in old papers and documents. Hence all evidence of changes in history disappears from day to day and is changed into a new firm proof that the new 'truth' was already true for years.
The Ministry of Peace ('Minipax'), concerns itself with war. London is the chief city of Airstrip One, a province of Oceania. Oceania is constantly in war with one of the two other main states of the world: Eurasia and Eastasia. These three huge nations are so large that actually they don't need to have war between them: they have enough people to work, enough raw materials and they have self-contained economies (they don't have economic bonds with one of the others). However, a war is needed to accept control of the society. The states are also that large that they can't win a war.
The Ministry of Love ('Miniluv'), maintains law and order. There are no longer any laws, hence nothing is illegal (as writing in a diary), but one is easily punished by death, or by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp.
The Ministry of Plenty ('Miniplenty'), is responsible for economic affairs. Every planning ends in a success. (In practice there was shortage of everything.)

The basic rules:

Three simple slogans govern the daily life of people. They are formulated as 'one-liners' (simple statements that can be remembered easily):

'War is Peace': Create a constant period of war. Than everyone accepts that things are far from perfect. Everyone accepts that a good behaviour of everyone is needed. So no parties are created that want other things. People easily accept that they are controlled.
'Freedom is slavery': Keep the majority of the people in a slavery situation. Than you can control them and than you have a maximum of freedom within your society.
'Ignorance is strength': Keep the majority of the people ignorant. Than they accept your leadership. So their ignorance is your strength.

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