Misinformation
I found it interesting in the first part of the book that the Party can completely rewrite all of history without anyone noticing. While they are able to strategically edit and redistribute all written texts so that it fits their narrative, they'd still have to recall all of the "incorrect" versions. After a while you'd think that it would be suspicious.
The Party consistently changes their statistics in order to falsely lead the people to believe that they are successfully helping them. They can completely edit anything that is written to eliminate anything that would stain the Party in the view of the people. Since there is no evidence to tell them otherwise, the people believe the new propaganda. I don't think it is possible to brainwash to the extent we see in 1984 where no one has any memory of the past many years and unquestioningly follows what is put out in front of them. Over the past few years we have seen how misinformation and editing information to fit a certain agenda is dangerous, however it has not been on the scale of this. I think similarities can be drawn to the propagating of conspiracy theories by certain groups. They tweak, or make up facts to fit their beliefs and further distribute it to others. Since they believe in what is being spread, they ignore anything that might prove otherwise. While this doesn't go as far as the book, in which they destroy any evidence against it, like the citizens in the book, they ignore the facts around them. It doesn't help that the citizens in 1984 cannot stand up against this information even if they noticed that it was untrue.
I remember one of the passages where they were talking about how they were editing the number of boots produced (idrr the exact numbers) in a year, and it was some astronomical figure of like 68(?) million. The narrator speculated that perhaps none were made at all, as a bunch of people were barefoot. We can see many similarities in modern-day authoritarian regimes, as countries like North Korea basically run on lies made up by their ruling elite.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most striking things to me in this book as well. And while it's taken to extremes in the book, consider that for a long time history books said that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. He totally didn't, but that's what we'd been taught. What's more, there are still Holocaust deniers today -- and election result deniers.
ReplyDeleteIt's striking how he can even make up stories completely. He's not just editing facts and figures, which is dangerous enough, but he creates the story about a nonexistent war hero. There's a part which he says something about how the war hero becomes just as real as Shakespeare and any Caesar because in that world there is no evidence to prove that the don't exist (usually the other way around). Considering the wild conspiracies that are spread when there is an abundance of proof against, it's hard to imagine what the society is like in the novel since pretty much anything goes.
DeleteI agree that there is a massive wave of misinformation spreading throughout the world. I remember reading somewhere that this active form of twisting the truth occurs today in the Philippines. The country is under the rule of Duterte, their president that has been in office since 2016. There is a large pressure on reporters in the Philippines to only promote pieces that display Duterte and the democracy in a good light, which is very similar to this novel. It is kind of scary how accurately Orwell predicted the future.
ReplyDeletePersonally, this section of the book is by far the scariest for me. I've always been intrigued at the fallibility of our own mind and perspective, and the constant altering of the truth, I think, would drive me crazy. I think Doublethink is very important to The Party specifically because it allows people to believe these lies, which in turn forces you to believe them too, because who would trust one persons account over written "fact" and the groups knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nico's comment - this editing of facts aligns closely with what we've seen in other authoritarian regimes. The one that keeps coming to mind for me is East Germany (maybe because I know the most about it), from the secret police to the rations and poor living conditions. I think the biggest difference between the brainwashing in America and the brainwashing in 1984 is the aspect of government. It can't really succeed unless the entire government is forcing it on us, which is something I don't see happening considering the divides in our current government.
ReplyDeleteFrighteningly, as Daniel mentioned in his comment, our own brains pretty much work this way. Our own biases (hind sight bias, confirmation bias, etc.) are actively working against us in this instance so that we believe the most palatable version of the truth. Every time we recall our memories, we actually slightly rewrite them, just like the government in 1984. So it really is possible for something like this to happen on a mass scale.
ReplyDeleteEven though it may not be so effective that the propaganda and rewriting history still seems off to some individuals (like our Winston), the society's ideals really are self propagating in that it makes a person feel crazy to think something other than what's being shoved down everyone's throat-- and this is something we've seen in BNW as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very frightening concept. I think that this is one of the ways the government discourages people from rebelling. For example, Winston basically erases Comrade Withers, a rebel, from the records. Thus, the people have no knowledge of anyone ever rebelling against the government, which makes it that much harder for them to oppose the government.
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