Consumerism and Governance

Discuss about the Critical Analysis of 1984 and Consumerism.

George was a socialist who fought for the Republicans in the Spanish war. In the process, he was wounded by a sniper bullet to the throat thus becoming disillusioned. He wrote 1984, as a form of futuristic-cautionary  defined by mind control, anxiety, hatred, and cruelty. The Novel satirizes and warns us on the dangers of a totalitarian state. It depicts a society that has gone astray. Citizens are oppressed by the government through being denied freedom to choose and express themselves. Similarly, governments use lies and manipulation to control and stay in power. These factors constitute elements of consumerism. Consumerism plays a critical role in governance. Although it seems to make citizens happier, it makes them easier to control. Citizens are conditioned to like new things as propagated by people in authority. Similarly, they are encouraged to discard old ways of thinking. This is seen in how the society values new items even today.Therefore, this paper provides a critical analysis of how the novel 1984 represent consumerism and how W.B Yeates and Mark Slouka  would criticize this form of consumerism.

Oceania was the superstate where Winston Smith stayed.The ruling party subscribed to Ingsoc. This is a Newspeak neologism for English socialism. The citizens believed that the Big Brother, nominal leader, created a revolution by being a focal point in love, reverence, and fear. Similarly, the citizens used Newspeak (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949). The structure of this language eliminated unorthodox social and political thoughts by withdrawing words used in their expression.

One of the ways in which consumerism is presented by Orwell the endless war on a global scale. There is strong enemy between world powers.There are three nations; Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia.  They all have an equal share of control on global resources (Flink, 2013). Orwell notes that the countries were fighting a warfare of limited aims through combatants who were not able to outdo each other. Further, they lacked a genuine reason for fighting each other. For example, Oceania was at war with Eurasia. The  Oceania Party encouraged this using misleading slogans like ‘War is Peace’ to make the citizens of Oceania believe that it was okay to be at war with other states. The perpetual warfare in the novel shows compromise for both individual and collective freedom.

The Big Brother considered ignorance as strength. Therefore, any transgression against the party was seen and treated as a capital crime. As a result, what existed in Oceania is invisible ignorance where orthodoxy exists without people necessarily knowing that it does exist. Further, the Big Brother’s worldview was upheld by people who have not been empowered to understand .  The Society of Oceania was divided into three main  categories; Inner Party, Outer Party, and Proles. The Inner Party was made up of a small group of people. On the other hand, the Outer Party had numerous and indoctrinated people. The Proles were kept from political control  through being engaged in sports and entertainment. Those who seemed aware of any political problems were controlled using by the Police (Nourbakhsh, 2015).This  ensured that the Ocean citizens continue to remain under the control and manipulation of governments that do not want them to prosper beyond control.

The Society of Oceania

Also, the Outer Party members were used to encourage ignorance among citizens. For example,  Winston Smith worked in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949). Here, his role was to revise historical records to be in alignment with the ever-changing stand of the Inner Party members. Also, he was charged with deleting references to ‘unpersons’-people who were killed by the state.

Every aspect of Orwell’s fictional world was monitored by “telescreens”. These instruments also broadcast propaganda, announcements, and news. They kept a 24-hour surveillance (Inwood, 2013). Therefore, every move, word, facial expression and involuntary reaction is detected and investigated by the Big Brother.Orwell notes that everywhere Winston went, the party watched him using telescreens.He saw the face of the Party’s omniscient leader referred as the Big Brother (Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1968). Further, Orwell writes that the Party controls everything in Oceania. In fact, it was in the process of inventing the ‘Newspeak’ language that would prevent rebellion through omission of worlds related to that field.

The language of ‘newspeak’ in 1984 presented impotent distortion of the English language. Orwell showed that there was  a strong connection between the success of tyrannical government and the deterioration of English as a language. 1984 shows how Modern English, especially written, has become worse due to imitation which can be avoided when people commit time, will and energy to do so (Allan, 2012). He states that the decline of the English language has been caused by political and economic factors. Further, he states that the language, especially written, has been made ugly by factors like lack of precision, worn-out metaphors, inappropriate verbs, pretentious diction, meaningless words, vague phrases and staleness of imagery and bringing (Inwood, 2013). To bring the change he recommends the application of holistic approaches; not only professional writers (Susan, 2016). Moreover, he assures the audience that if everyone takes responsibility for correcting the Modern English language, then it will lead to political regeneration where language is unpretentious and unfashionable.

The use and misuse of journalism in spreading propaganda showed some elements of consumerism. The media manipulated the people thus leading to loss of critical thinking, self-expression. This is shown when Winston Smith tries to start a journal. Orwell stated that Winston had been contemplating to start a journal for a while even though he knew it was wrong to do so (Isaac, 2015). He bought a journal, pen and some ink from some shop. It is clear that he wanted to note down something for himself or the society. Orwell notes that Winston hoped he could transfer what had been running in his head for so long. However, as soon as he began writing, he realized that he had spent so much time thinking about writing a journal without thinking about the content. This shows that he lost the power to express himself. Also, it shows lack of critical thinking (Cooper, 2014). Evidently, no one needs to write in Oceania because all the information is conveyed by telescreens (Flink, 2013). This dystopic environment was created and encouraged by Big Brother to steer hate, misinformation, and misunderstandings.

The Language of ‘Newspeak’

Further, the concept of ‘double-thinking’ created by the Party members in 1984 enabled the forceful exercise of power. It is the ability to hold two contrary opinions at the same time and believe that they are both true. Orwell portrayed it as the ability by the Big Brother to control the thoughts of Oceania citizens by making them forget things done to them. Ultimately, Oceania citizens lost the power to form independent thoughts. Throughout the novel, Orwell has provided occurrences that can be deemed doublethink.  For example, the party’s four ministries; Plenty, Love, Peace and Truth. The Ministry of Plenty was in charge of overseeing shortage of resources. The Ministry of Peace declared and conducted war (Isaac, 2015). The Ministry of love issued punishments and torture while the Ministry of Truth spread propaganda and revised historical facts.

Employees in the Ministry of Truth would falsely historical records. Then, they would believe and act according to the revised version. Similarly, when Oceania and Eurasia were at war with each other, the Party made them believe- from revisionist history- that this has always been the situation between the two of them (Allan, 2012). Doublethink can also be found in the three slogans of the Party; ‘War is Peace’, ‘Ignorance is Strength’ and ‘Freedom is Slavery’.Apart from being a total contradiction, the statements were untrue (Slouka, 2009). Sadly, the citizens of Oceania were brainwashed to the point of not recognizing the difference.

In 2009. Mark Slouka wrote an article, Dehumanized, to show the state of the American education and its effects on democracy and citizen’s freedom (Slouka, 2009). He talked about the unqualified triumph of particular ways of thinking or seeing the value (Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1968). Further, he said that as arts and humanities were becoming marginalized, citizens were being taught on what to think instead of how to formulate their own worldview (Susan, 2016). Admittedly, what is taught in schools is a measure of what is valued in our society. Meaning, if our curriculum does not encourage critical thinking and self-expression, our children grow up lacking skills in the same (Thompson, 2015). Consequently, our society will be made up of people who are willing to take anything as the gospel truth. This is what was envisioned in 1984 by George Orwell and sadly, it is has been noted by current scholars as well.

Orwell’s sentiments are similar to the lines of a poem, The Second Coming, by William Butler Yeates in 1919. The poem was first printed in The Dial in 1920. Yetaes used the Christian imagery on the second coming of Christ to enlighten people on the atmosphere of the post-war Europe where totalitarianism was prevalent (Chenoweth, 2010). Just like Orwell, Yeates used poetry to describe political turmoil  characterized by chaotic and unpleasant beliefs (Yeats, 1920). The second coming described is not of the Messiah, but humanity. Although the Scripture paints a perfect picture of the second coming of Christ, Yeates showed the worry and instability to be experienced by future generations. Orwell affirms his worries by describing what the society had become in 1984.

The Use and Misuse of Journalism

In conclusion, as much as Orwell’s novel was an exercise in futuristic imagination, it was a warning against a society and government that deny people the capacity for critical thinking, the creation of accurate information and authentic self-expression. Although what he wrote during his time seemed absurd to most people, current events in the society show no difference in the world George Orwell envisioned. He was right to show concern for the direction taken by the society since the problems are being experienced today. The contemporary society is facing a myriad of challenges among them being insecurity, civil conflicts, racism, corruption, terrorism, and neocolonialism. Further, there has been a clash between governments and citizen over the latter’s disagreement with the methods used by the state to exercise power. At the center of the conflict is the media which is being used to further exploitation and manipulation instead of bringing to light the evils done by governments. All these, are indications of the reality painted by George Orwell in 1984. Thus, there is a need to reassess the direction headed by the society and introduce a change that will bring freedom, favor critical thinking and advocate for truth.

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