I heard something on the news the other day that immediately made me think of George Orwell, the author of 1984, and Animal Farm etc. I can’t remember the full context of the item, I think it was about our army (or the American army) reviewing current interviewing techniques. They mentioned “enhanced interrogation techniques”. I asked the Old Boy, “What’s that?” He said, “Torture”. Sure enough, we were then shown footage of someone being “water-boarded”. (You know, if anyone other than a soldier was doing that to a person, it would be called attempted drowning.) I am appalled that our (and their) armed forces are still employing “techniques” used in the Middle Ages. Everyone knows you can’t trust anything a person says under torture. They’d tell you black was white and a dog could play the flute, just to stop the pain. These are fellow human beings that are being treated in this way. They might be fighting for another country; they might have different ideologies, or religion, or whatever but nevertheless they are the same species as us, living on the same little blue planet. (Oh yes, I know I’m naive blah blah blah.)
It got me thinking about Mr Orwell, his novel 1984 and his invention of “newspeak”. When I read it years ago, I thought it was prophetic of places like the then Soviet Union or North Korea. I never thought it would be applicable in a democracy like ours (or the USA). For those who haven’t read the book, here are some examples of newspeak:-
The Ministry of Love = the secret police, interrogation and torture.
The Ministry of Peace = the Defence Department; the Ministry of War.
The Ministry of Plenty = the bureau that kept the population in a state of constant economic hardship.
The Ministry of Records = the department that “rectified” the past; ie, they rewrote history to align with the ruling power, “Big Brother”.
I heard the army chap talk about “enhanced interrogation” and I wondered what George Orwell would have thought. Would he be delighted with his prophetic ability or would he be shattered that his satirical novel was coming true?
There are other examples of newspeak in our culture. For me, the obvious one is “Protection of our sovereign borders”; the practice of turning back the boats of asylum seekers. As well, asylum seekers/refugees are now called “illegal immigrants”. According to our government, Australian borders must be defended from these hordes of people trying to come to live in our country. How dare they attack us with their rickety, over-crowded fishing boats! Why, if we didn’t send out the navy to repel them, we could be overrun by people desperate to become Australian citizens. Perish the thought.
And this makes me think of Orwell’s Animal Farm, in which he gave us the slogan, “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” Why, George, you really were a prophet. How scary is that?
Sadly, quite true, Wendy. I actually think Orwell would be shattered, not pleased. The world he described was one he could foresee if things did not improve. Sorry, George, they didn’t.
Cheers, Michael. I don’t think we’ve yet reached the grey, dull, miserable existence portrayed in 1984 (unless you live in Nth Korea) but the political twisting of words to reprogram our thinking is certainly operating well. We all need to think and not take things at face value.
Most of us read Orwell as a dire warning. However, I believe there are some who read it as a handbook for retaining power. But they have got smarter than Orwell. He came out of the austerity of post war Britain and thought that people would be oppressed with deprivation. He didn’t realise that it is possible to oppress people with abundance. We have our own new ministries. They are the Ministry of Bread and the Ministry of Circuses. Orwell’s phrase was “imagine a book stamping on a human face forever”. Today it would be more realistic to say, “imagine a [insert sneaker brand name here] stamping on a human face forever.
“Possible to oppress people with abundance”: what a profound thing to say.
You can oppress people with abundance or with deprivation. The important thing is to occupy their mind and activities. That’s one thing the rulers of the modern world do very well. Think of the distraction involved in collecting and redeeming points for various purchasing schemes. Most of modern life is a game, which we all play only because we have solved all the major problems of humanity throughout history. Food, shelter, medicine. The ancients (and even some modern commentators) thought that when we got beyond these needs we would consider more about the meaning of life. It is the ancient distinction between the Servile Arts and the Liberal Arts. Today the Servile Arts have won.