1984: Orwell's Dystopian World and the Mechanisms of Totalitarianism

[00:00:00]in the 1940s George Orwell published a novel that Illustrated a dystopian future well future at the time in the year 1984 the world has taken an unrecognizable shape all remnants of what used to be now destroyed as the 20th century took a horrendous turn or well imagined a world where totalitarianism reigned individualism was dead in reality and history was simply a matter of opinion of course this never happened as it was just fiction but the novel 1984 has resurged in popular culture because many have made connections between this dark society and our own or we'll never saw the rise of the internet or the policies of the 21st century but his novel has been treated by some as almost a foreshadowing constant surveillance of every citizen by inac constant surveillance by every government against its own citizens those sort of connections and this has only gotten more popular as more compared this dystopian society and our own this video isn't meant to compare our society and Orwells this video is simply a summary of the politics history and world in the scenario Orwell crafted unsurprisingly this is going to have some spoilers as this video fully flushes out the world and Society of 1984 let's start off with some history how does the world become this in Orwell's novel the 20th century is one long tragedy the potential of humanity and this great path of civiliz ation is entirely squandered in just a few decades since the novel was published in 1949 it's not surprising this is where the future begins to go downhill it all started after World War II and the dawn of the Cold War the precursor division of the world already has begun to be seen for us in the 21st century We Know How It Ends Soviet Union Falls nuclear war never happens etc etc but in Orwell's timeline there is no decades long tension of the Cold War between America and Russia instead sometime in the early 1950s World War III breaks out nuclear bombs were used on major cities around the world including ker but not London all we know is Britain was nuked multiple times this was probably around 1954 during the bombings the Soviet Union invaded all of Mainland Europe as its Army swept even into the Iberian Peninsula the British Isles became the last Bastion on the continent in the aftermath of the War the West unified as the United States and the British Commonwealth united into a single country the United States Canada South Africa Australia New Zealand and Britain formed to create Oceana Oceana then went on to Annex Latin America after this history gets a little bit fuzzy what we do know is that because of the traumatic events of the war unrest occurred in oceanana and the Soviet Union sometime after 1954 Oceana fell into a civil war between capitalism and a new homegrown ideology this war by 1984 is referred to as the revolution this new ideology won and under this Victory formed itself into a single party inak we'll talk about this in a sec but first let's discuss the rest of the world sometime in the 1950s and 60s simultaneous revolutions occurred in the USSR and China Neo bolshevism United Europe and Russia into UR Asia while China after fighting amongst itself for a decade finally formed into East Asia under the nicely named ideology called obliteration of the self this history that you just learned is something that no citizen in oceanana would know about which is a good way to introduce you to this dystopian World by 1984 the world is divided between these three nations oceanana Eurasia and East Asia all in a state of Perpetual War over an area called the equatorial front North Africa through the Middle East India and Southeast Asia is constantly fought and interchange between the three superpowers we'll get back to that later even though the history of the early 20th century by 1984 would only be decades ago they might as well have been thousands the Nations history people before inso are simply myths and what exists is a society that is totalitarianism to its EX stream first welcome to Britain except if you're a citizen you've never known it as Britain you know it as airstrip one for many Britain is a distant memory the party's grip on the mind is so powerful what once was an unquestionable fact like a name is similar to a faint dream you question if it even happened if it was ever real at all then you forget about it this is the most prominent attribute of Oceana the control of information to such an extent that facts are not reality and reality can be changed simply on the whim of big brother and the party inak inak controls all inak sees all to say it change society is an understatement inso destroyed society and remade it into something where only it can Thrive Western Civilization is basically dead now is only a civilization that exists purely for the party to rule without question how exactly it did this we don't know now when I say party inso isn't a party like the Democrats Republicans or even Nazis it's more like a society within a society it has its own separate culture and rules from the majority of the population oceanana is split between three main classes the inner party basically the secretive heads of the state is only 2% of the population followed by The aru Party The bureaucratic but still devoted educated people which which is 13% and then everyone else the PRS the uneducated easy to manipulate simpletons who live in poverty never knowing any better think of it like the ruling classes of Westeros they have their own issues and culture while the masses are simply the mundane peasants nobody really cares about the inner and outer party is divided between four main sections the ministry of Peace who wages war against Eurasia or East Asia depending on who it is at the time the ministry of Love which shuts down opposition and quell's descent the ministry of Truth the propaganda arm of the party propaganda is to put it lightly this purpose of the party is to rewrite invent or destroy any conflicting bit of news and history that goes against the party news stories tell of war heroes who in actuality don't exist that sort of thing the ministry of Plenty deals with economics and rations it decides who gets what and what resources must be cut back every Ministry is housed in pyramids that Tower over the London Skyline 300 M in the air or roughly 1,000 ft tall in Oceana the only one thing that matters is inac since the PRS are too uneducated to matter and are easy to manipulate by either nationalistic pandering or to create a fake crisis the party only really has to worry about its own stability to survive so it doesn't really monitor or care about the majority of the population the party only has to worry about its own stability to to survive like a human body it remains healthy by purging out the harmful educated element and those not entirely loyal to the ideology decades ago there were Mass purges in the 50s and 60s inside the party inso removed every threat of the old world to solidify itself among fanatic new supporters by cutting off the population of both the party and masses from history inso is able to have a monopoly on facts for example the party says it invented the airplane this is simply fact now and everyone believes it the ministry of Truth rewrites or destroys any evidence of this not being the case those in the party who openly question this simply disappear or are sent to the ministry of love for re-education continue in Mass until for the most part it's a fact amongst the population that the party did invent the airplane this is a process how Orwell describes this is that simply through the progression of decades inso was able to normalize attributes that haven't existed in the West for centuries class divide uneducation Mass atrocities censorship these are allowed to be commonplace because anyone who didn't agree with it is either too unimportant or dead to care then solidify this base with youthful and nationalistic young adults and you've got a healthy future for your ideology inso's ideology runs so deep children are more likely to openly report their own parents for Thought crimes insock recreated culture crafted new terms to allow only it to exist a thought crime is anything that goes against the policy of the party if you commit a thought crime you can be vaporized by the thought police simply disappear and when I mean disappear I mean it is now a fact that you are never a person an unperson this isn't like kids giving Jimmy the silent treatment this is everyone simply forgetting there ever was a Jimmy and forgetting that they forgot The Mention Of Your Existence somehow by your family co-workers is now a thought crime in itself documents are changed or destroyed so that there is no evidence you ever did exist not that you did Jimmy this is how inso is able to quell dissent this term comes from the official language of the party new speak it's technically just short in English but it's entirely designed to control the use of words that may be threatening to the party simplistic terms like ducke crime think black white by limiting language to small bits it makes debate controllable or refutable inso simply has a monopoly on political discourse because it made the words up in 1984 this goes deeper than a weird language brainwashing is a cultural manifestation that goes down to the personal level reality and history itself can be changed with the bureaucratic stroke of a pen and nobody thinks that that that stroke ever happened this is double think a newp term to hold two conflicting beliefs and hold both as equal neither are canceled out both are believed this is best emulated by the ongoing war in the book The Party tells the public that oceanana has always been at war with Eurasia even if just a few years ago the enemy was East Asia East Asian bombs rained on the city but everyone believes it was Eurasia because big brother and the party said so Eurasia was always the enemy East Asia was always the Ally this can change on a whim history and information would be Rewritten by the party to reflect any new change it's not a debate to the people it was just always this way it would be like changing colors the sky is blue but the party says the sky is now red so you believe it's red not say or pretend you with all your heart know for certain that the sky has always been red never even considered the change happened this is another newp term called black white there are a lot of terms why does this happen is everyone stupid well if you go by demographics yeah it's not this simple though this world is all these people have ever known think of North Korea actually just apply all of this to North Korea Kim Jong eel must have got it inspired somehow you can say whatever you want when you raise generations to worship you so what is insock even is it fascist socialist totalitarian green party does it have specific Poli policies what's it views on states rights insock in itself is a conundrum a product of double think officially inso is socialist it teaches that the days before the Revolution were horrendous as the average citizen literally bowed to the capitalist even going so far to say capitalist could choose any woman to sleep with and nobody could do anything then ins came and forever made the world better but at the same time inso hates socialists despises socialist policies and this is openly admitted by everyone yet nobody sees anything wrong with it because that's the power of double think inso ideology if you can call it that isn't different at all than Eurasian bulvik ISM or East Asian obliteration of the self they're basically the same Society technological and social differences aren't that far apart between the three this is something that may be recognized by all of them or simply ignored we don't know the relationship that continues between all of them is Perpetual war war is what runs this world it's what allows all three nations to survive it's a distraction it can rile up the uneducated masses it's a constant overshadowing force that big brother uses inak is the protector against the Eurasian hordes or East Asian whichever what are they fighting over resources well they have all the resources they need since they control so much territory power no one can really overtake the other this is already established well then what nothing they're fighting over nothing the equatorial front and polar front as mentioned earlier was never anybody's territory it's simply a giant fighting arena where the economic waste from overloaded military buildup from all of the countries is shipped to almost like venting out steam borders constantly shift countless soldiers die from territory which nobody wants and the native people are enslaved and transferred between the three countries to work for the war machine which continues the cycle again all the nations have nukes they could easily destroy each other invade Britain or Europe start wars in Russia and China actually attacking the homelands but that disrupts everything it destroys the balance of power and these heads of state like their power so they constantly fight over the jungle and desert to keep what they have to keep nationalistic fervor up 1984 is a Twisted World whether it's realistic or not doesn't really matter the consistent theme is information is important and the control of that information is most important that's the biggest thing to take away from orell's world everything insock did was to make sure the population was loyal and too stupid to realize its manipulation going so far to make those who did manipulate believe they weren't even manipulating in the first place does This Ti to our world I'm not even touching that subject like And subscribe if you have not done so this is Cody of alternate history hub