How the Power of words act as mind control

The narrative seeks to present the results of a corrupt dictatorship in a government that practices totalitarian methods. The nation feeds the citizens with false information in order to remove liberalization of minds, which is War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength in Big brother’s Party (Howe and Orwell 200). This thesis will implore on the power of contradictory words in relation to politics and psychology. Furthermore, the notion of deconstructing one self and compliance through linguistic methods such as doublethink will be implored The big brother character in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four is a symbol of a leader in Oceania, a fictional dictatorship government which attacks and manipulates citizen’s privacy for example police state tapped to listen to peoples calls and conversations in order to filter out disgruntlement towards the government.

Due to proliferation of technology and increased interconnectivity between people through smart devices, huge amounts of data are created leaving traces of data from search queries (Orwell 35). In order to achieve social control thought police operated False Flag a resistance movement to attract ideologically disloyal people to the Party to turn themselves in for arrest. One of the inner party agent called O’Brien and agent provocateur identifies themselves to Winston Smith as members of the Brotherhood a fake opposition to Party’s regime (Tyner 135). O’Brien offered Smith the forbidden book. Every party member owns two-way telescreen through which the thought police audibly and visually police the people’s behaviour. They are keen to notice unorthodox opinions and also through spying to find out signs of stress in people such as speaking while asleep.

We can infer that it did not take much to turn one in but even superficial claims would suffice to incriminate somebody.  Police made patrols in the street to make sure everyone maintained order and obeyed state’s dictation. Anyone who was found doing extraordinary activities including using a different route while going home could be asked to identify themselves and if they had communicated their change of plan. Police patrols were also conducted at railway stations and Party members would be cross examined for identification. War is peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is strength is the main slogan in the book 1984 which unfolds into mind programs that the government used against the people through double-thinking which meant simultaneously agreeing that two contradictory beliefs were correct in distinctive social context.

This means that all people from all over the world must work for survival. They are called currency slaves. In contrary most people think that they have freedom. They cannot consider themselves free while paying taxes even for already acquired possessions like land, car and house taxes. Strength acquired from ignorance is much encouraged in the society. The Telescreen, Big brother, deceptive war and thought police are all found in modern world. Telescreens and big brother are all emphasized through the increasing surveillance. Thought crime is allied to people who pose threat to states and are punished for crimes that they commit. The Orwellian brace on East Asia and Eurasia is characterized by the modern war on Iraq which was instigated on false premises, a replica of war that Oceania engaged in.

Orwell’s dystopian vision is close. Orwell wrote the book as a protest and warning of the trends that troubled his mind. A dystopia that does not try to predict the future but it warns about dangers of the world Orwell shows us. The dystopian characteristics of totalitarianism impact on the society. Totalitarianism and power are the over arcs of the dystopia. In his text, Pastoral Power, Michel Foucault suggests that theory is used to evaluate and disclose the power of the Party. All these ministries are intertwined to sustain political power. Regulation of conduct is an element of Party politics. The government handles the people of Oceania at micro and macro levels. Foucault puts across intimate relation between personal conduct and principles of political action (Orwell 434).

The government creates a reality where people could only concede to absolutism of the party and if that is not the case, thought crime is committed. When there is a gap between one's real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics. ” All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should expect to find – this is a guess which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify – that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years as result of dictatorship.

It was expected that Newspeak will replace old speak by the year 2050. Newspeak comprises abbreviations that constituted the political language. Totalitarian authorities and organizations embraced the language. The following is a quote from George Orwell to illustrate. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power(Orwell 1984, 227). The role of Newspeak to create a medium for Ingsoc ideas and worldview. It also meant to make other thought processes impossible and hence removal of heretical views (Howe and Orwell 165). The intention of altering minds of public through changes perfectly illustrates Newspeak. There exists resemblance between Newspeak and political correctness that some people would feel that they differ intentionally.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four Newspeak was instituted to magnify authority over individuals. Political correct language is said by supporters to free people from stereotypes conceptualized through prejudice and the attempt to change thought processes earns political correctness and acceptance to Newspeak. Use of abbreviations was another element of newspeak language which was accepted that abbreviating a name, one changed its meaning by removing associations that would use it. Double think is allows the regime to know each party’s true goals without recoiling away from them.  In paradox, Winston contemplates to use doublethink as ultimate recourse in his rebellion making himself a member of the Party consciously while allowing hatred to remain an unconscious presence in the deep of his mind and later resurface at the moment of execution so that, “the bullet would enter a free mind.