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Research/Analysis George Orwell's 1984 is the best-known novel anti-utopia of modern times. He wrote it in 1949, before the advent of Cold War. Back than, it was considered a bad taste to criticize Soviet Union in Western countries, as Soviets still were considered great allies that helped so much in bringing down Hitler. There was a wide spread notion among people that Soviet way of life is actually a progressive one and evolutionary changes within Western societies would lead to the same result elimination of economical exploitation to a large degree. In 1933 for example, there was a famine in USSR and many cases of cannibalism were recorded; yet Western press largely overlooked it. Most of Americans were unaware that when USA officially recognized Soviet Union in the same year, it was a country of cannibals that Roosevelt made friends with.
George Orwell used to be a socialist himself, but by 1949 he got disappointed in this concept and what is most important he was able to foresee what society would become to look like if communist principles were deployed to its fullest. The most striking feature of Orwell's society is its drive to suppress peoples feelings and desires that didnt have anything to do with official Partys doctrine. Those in charge of adopting such social policy knew very well that if these feeling were allowed to exist, it would threaten the system in the long run. This would happen because peoples personal objectives would contradict those of the state, thus undermining the principle, which Communist society is built upon. Orwell rightly noticed that in totalitarian country the government would try to deprive people of the sense of personal uniqueness, by making them to feel being just a particle of huge social machine. Since there is no way that people can be effectively deprived of their emotions and physical drives, Communist society will try to redirect them in such way that these emotions would be harmlessly released.
The best way to do it is when person is encouraged to become emotional only within certain boundaries. Individual can be happy as long as it a social happiness and he is also allowed to feel hate, but only towards Partys enemies: All over Oceania this morning there were irrepressible spontaneous demonstrations when workers marched out of factories and offices and paraded through the streets with banners voicing their gratitude to Big Brother for the new, happy life which his wise leadership has bestowed upon us. (Orwell, p. 15). Orwell's vision of totalitarian future wasnt too far from realities of Soviet peoples everyday lives. This is why his novel 1984 was banned from public libraries. 1930 - 1950 is time when Communism in Russia was in its purest form. The only purpose of art, literature and music was to glorify Communism and Party. Up until sixties, there was only one form of art allowed social realism, where everything revolved around industrialism.
For example, a certain amount of steel had to be produced and this would be only a story line, peoples role was secondary. Orwell was able to foresee that communist society will end up in denying human basic drives, such as sex. In his novel he tells us about so-called Junior Anti-Sex League, which was to prevent people from having sexual relations as it would undermine society's unity. Yet, people still had a sexy thoughts, despite the partys efforts: A narrow scarlet sash, emblem of the Junior Anti-Sex League, was wound several times round the waist of her overalls, just tightly enough to bring out the shapeliness of her hips. (Orwell, p. 20). Many consider Communism as a theory that was doomed to failure, since it denies peoples vital impulses in order to dominate their lives. Yet, throughout the ages we can see the examples of successful psychological manipulations of public conscience.
Apparently people can be trained to act just as if they were robots. The downfall of Communism was caused not by the fact that this theory is totally unnatural, but because Communism had failed to embrace the whole world, just as it proclaimed world domination to be its main goal. People can be forced to do anything, they can easily adapt to a new circumstances (some historians consider this ability as such that allowed human kind to evolve), yet they can also make comparisons. Communism was doomed to a failure as long as there were other free countries existing at the same time. When we look at history, well realize that there are always an attempts being made on the part of governments to gain control over peoples personal lives. In classic societies, soldiers are being made to act army way, which is being illogical yet effective.
Apparently society need to function as one, when it wants to reach some objective, and this requires that all people do act as one when special circumstances arise. Does this also apply to democratic societies? Let us look back in time, when the idea of democracy is being formulated for the first time. In ancient Greece, democratic form of government was effective because there wasnt much burocracy attached to it. The whole idea was that every individuals uniqueness only added to the strength of the country. Yet the quality of masses made it possible for democracy to be effective as form of government and not other way around.
Even later in time, when elite minorities were ruling European societies, it was still a form of democracy as it allowed people with outstanding qualities to gain prominence. When we talk of Renaissance era, it appears that it didnt matter at the time from what social class every particular individual has come as long as he was able to contribute to the society as whole. Italian poet Petrarka is a best example, he came from lower social strata, yet his genius allowed him to become the father of modern European poetry and his ideas shaped up what we now refer to as Renaissance period. Thus one persons talent contributed to European history taking certain course. This, of course, could never happen in any Eastern countries that even up to this day enjoy despotism as the best form of government.
Nowadays, democracy is being accepted as form of government in most of countries. For some of them, this comes very unnaturally because they dont have democratic traditions. Countries like Pakistan, Turkey and all African countries can refer to their governments as being fully democratic all they want, but it wont change the despotic nature of such governments. Still, as time passes, we get to realize that even European societies become more and more despotic as their citizens can enjoy less freedom even comparing to what they used to like 20 years ago. What signified a full-scale onslaught on peoples rights and freedoms is an advent of so-called political correctness. For those who used to define subjects according to its essence, political correctness appears to be nothing but policy of thought control.
The part of being politically correct is being genderless as there is no worse crime than being announced sexist, which makes it sound like we already live in Orwell's anti-utopian paradise. Wendy Lee in her article Political correctness identifies it as requirement of equal public respect for all ethnic groups, genders, lifestyles, sexual orientations and so on. In practice, it is a demanding requirement that calls for purification of language, symbols, and images and ultimately of thoughts feelings and social institutions. Basically we deal with situation when certain words are forbidden to use when it comes to describing the reality. This doesnt eliminate the unwanted ideas, it only banns topic, which is not much shorter of Orwell's concept of thought crime.
In 1984 Orwell suggested that an ultimate totalitarian society would also have to introduce a some kind of artificial language to its people. The name of the language was Newspeak and its main feature was that it was very much deprived of emotional terms. Politically correct watchdogs of nowadays also suggest that society reconsider the usage of certain words that might have too much negative / positive emotionalism attached. Orwell describes the purpose of Newspeak as: not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. (Orwell, p. 67). The same situation appears to be when were told that there are certain things that were not suppose to say out loud. This is the first step to telling us that there also things that we arent allowed to think about.
Wendy Lee rightly notices that political correctness: forgets the truth and denies society thoughts because as Orwell noted, when politics gets involved language is the first victim. Yet, in my opinion the political correctness onslaught on the freedom of speech is only one of many symptoms that tells us that something is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark. Just as it is a threat to Oceania having people with prominent personal features of character, is it also a threat to modern democratic societies, which make one think about them as another form of dictatorship dictatorship of alienated forms. Dmitri Korchinski in his political statement says: Domination of the alienated forms determines nowadays.
Forms, which not necessarily need understanding, and alone thing, you have to know, is orientation yourself by them. Lawyer - miserable creature, priest of the emptiness, person, who is oriented, is superior to princes and leaders and judges overflow of the life. There are many purely abstract categories, yet theyre the ones that determine very practical aspects of our lives. For example, we now more and more use credit cards, where information about our financial situation is saved as combination of ones and zeroes. If we think about it, itll appear that politics of nowadays are motivated by nothing else but operations with nothingness, because this is a real nature of digital information.
We witness the social burocratic machine beginning to dominate peoples real lives and what is really threatening about this is the fact that this machine is very much self efficient and time might come when people will be considered as just a secondary element of society. The real strength of this abstract social machine is that it is well balanced. Thats why prominent features of ones character are not tolerated anymore. We all like watching movies where lonely hero prevails in the end while facing impossible odds. The real reason for the Hollywood blockbusters popularity is that we subconsciously strive not to be like everyone else, yet we also know that this might cause us having problems with the law if we practice it in real life. Movies are nothing but sublimation of our desires the greatest ethical issue that modern Western society faces nowadays, is incompatibility between personal inner drives and social rules of conduct.
No matter, what is talked about thermonuclear synthesis. Only three things are the symbol of epoch - computer, credit card and penal code. With them forms of alienation alienate the person. The human being is presented in the system as the quantitative factor. Community is needless.
The presence of the outstanding features is dangerous says Korchinski. This seems to be the main problem that our society faces nowadays, political correctness real purpose to make it impossible for people to question surrounding reality. Orwell's anti-utopian society does not tolerate sex not only because it would divert people from their primary duties, sex is natural human impulse and person simply cant have it if he is to exist under unnatural circumstances. The same beginning to happen nowadays as famous saying goes: The main Satan's goal is to make people do not believe that he really exists. We live in time when a new dictatorship of alienated forms begging to take over and it strives to disguise itself as just better more tolerant form of democracy. For us, as citizens of this country, is crucial to be able to distinguish between causes and consequences.
We need to understand that historical process has a spiral form, although were told that modern history is nothing but continuous progress. Democracy is now being turned into some kind of fetish, where real meaning of this term is no longer necessary to understand, in order to live democratically. We associate dictatorship with ruthless fuehrer, with single militant party that doesnt allow any discussion within society. But what if ultimate dictator appears to be a well-mannered woman of 40, who has kids and loving husband and whos being a judge by day? She can easily decide to sentence person to 10 - 20 years in jail and after that shell stop by school to pick up her children on her way home The concept of evil has been altered to a large degree lately. It is no more a villain with a bloody knife in his hand that represents the ultimate menace to us, but a faceless burocrat with a pen and suitcase, which has an immense power over peoples lives.
In democratic societies there is a danger of governments being alienated from those who had elected them, over an increased anonymity of how decisions are made that affect people. In a way, we talk of a social machine that we associate with ultimate evil in modern times. If even twenty years ago, the heroic character would inevitably prevail against the odds in the end, nowadays we see him to most likely end up in jail, although public sympathies would still be with him. We take money from rich people with our guns rich people take houses from poor with their pens said Clyde to Bonnie once The totalitarian is still alive although it tries to appear something different from what it really is. But once we see that concept of uniformity is being promoted, which denies peoples natural instincts, we should know that we deal with totalitarian and there is nothing good can ever come as a result out of it. George Orwell's Anti-Sex League exists now under disguise of various politically correct groups that promote sexual uniformity and banning of sexual words.
Tomorrow they will dictate us how to behave in forceful manner, by making changes to criminal code The best way to resist this trend is to take a firm social stance against other people telling us what to do. Otherwise, itll be only the matter of time before we find ourselves behind the barbed wire, being charged with a thought crime. Bibliography: George, Matt Just Say No to Anti-Sex September 2, 2003. October 31, 2004 web Goodman, David Orwell's 1984: The Future Is Here.
Special Report. December 7, 2001. November 1, 2004. web Korchinski, Dmitri Revolution from Couture. July 13, 2001.
November 1, 2004 web Lee, Wendy Political Correctness." Planet Papers. 31 October, 2004. October 31 2004. web Orwell, George 1984. Afterword by Erich Fromm. New York: Signet, 1992.
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