"Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.”

That’s how O’Brien explains the ideology of the Party to Winston Smith, in between the rounds of torture, in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by George Orwell in 1949.

As the title suggests it takes place in 1984, in a hypothetical totalitarian future.

The Earth has been split in three parts: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Between the three there is an ever shifting state of war and alliance. Sometimes Oceania is at war with Eurasia, with Eastasia as an ally. Sometimes it’s the other way around: Eurasia the friend, Eastasia the enemy.

It doesn’t really matter.

Because the aim of the war is just to keep the current social order in place.

The ruling Party controls the public with an iron grip. And it’s not enough that people obey in deed. They must also obey in thought. For this purpose, they Party has established the Thought Police, and in every home a so called telescreen has been installed. In the ever-watching eye of this telescreen, people live under constant surveillance, awash in a constant stream of Party propaganda.

“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

That’s the slogan of the Party. And Winston Smith plays his part.

In the Ministry of Truth, his work is to rewrite history, so that it corresponds to the current truth. A truth that’s in constant flux — one day the weekly ration of chocolate is 30 grams, the next day it’s always been 20 grams; one day Oceania and Eurasia have always been enemies, the next day they’ve always been friends.

Winston remembers how it was like before the Party got into power, and he longs for that time. He feels disgusted about how the truth is spun, and deep within him an instinct of rebellion grows.

A core theme of 1984 is how language can be used to control people.

The Party is developing a new language that they call newspeak. This new language is deliberately designed to make it impossible to even express anything that goes against the Party line — if newspeak is the only language you know, it will be impossible for you to even think heretical thoughts.

“Newspeak” is one of many words and concepts that Orwell coins to explain the ideology and method of the Party. Another is doublethink, which is heavily indoctrinated into the population. Doublethink means a total ability to let go of all critical thinking. To think two mutually opposing thoughts at the same time, and still hold them both as true: History is set in stone and the source of total truth, but tomorrow it can be completely different. You have a free will, but only if you love the Party.

This was my second time reading 1984.

To be honest, I resisted reading it again, because I remembered it as being extremely depressing. Which it still is. But this time the sense I’m left with after reading it is different.

I understand now that it has to be pitch black. The story is a warning about how current tendencies in society could develop into a nightmare, if we don’t actively stand up and choose a different path. For the book to work as such there can be no hope, that would defeat the purpose. The darkness has to be total.

So don’t read 1984 as an attempt by Orwell to predict the future.

Because it’s not.

Read it instead as what it is.

A warning.