In his book Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell portrays a bleak world in which "the party" holds complete and utter control. To assure their ability of maintaining power, this ruling elite has developed methods to eliminate dissent and impose complete uniformity of opinion upon its people. It was Stephen King who said, "The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window". Applied to Nineteen Eighty-Four, worship of the godlike figure King speaks of could be symbolized by the party's corporeal representation of itself, known as Big Brother. The act of tossing logic out the window could be likened to Doublethink, a mental technique that is taught to all members of Oceanic society. This technique is such that its followers can consciously control their memories and their unconscious thoughts, thus effectively controlling their past as well as their present reality.
English: Grave of Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell...
Orwell's former home at 77 Parliament Hill, Hampst...
English: George Orwell in Hampstead On the corner ...Congruent to the process of Doublethink, the party has created three slogans, which are central to their political ideology. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. It is this final slogan that represents the party's philosophy that individual intelligence is not only unnecessary; it is a danger to their (the party's) continued existence. Thus intelligence itself must be limited if not destroyed entirely. It is also this final slogan that will be explored here in more detail.
Through the entirety of history there has always been three groups of people in any given society, the high, the middle, and the low. They have been divided and named in many different ways but the overall structure and relation between the three groups, regardless of...