Totalitarianism In George Orwell's 1984

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past,” (Orwell) is a significant slogan in George Orwell’s book 1984 that tells us how the party controls its citizen. George Orwell’s sinister visions tell us about an extreme totalitarian government that is ruled by Big Brother. According to Merriam Webster, “totalitarianism is the centralized control by an autocratic authority involving the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority”(Webster). The characteristics of a totalitarian government include being “ruled by a single party, in control of military, communication, the economy, the media, and police control with the use of terror” (Study) There are a quite a few totalitarian governments in the world today, most of which are communist countries, that relate to the government of Oceania in the book 1984 by George Orwell. Arguably the best government to compare with Orwell’s book is that of Communist North Korea. As most people are aware, North Korea’s government is run by a harsh communist party. Of Korea’s 24.9 million people, between 150 thousand and 200 thousand people are in prison camps surrounded by electrified fencing. As many as 40 percent of camp prisoners end up …show more content…
The year 1984 may have passed, but we still need to be cautious of Orwell’s predictions. It is possible that this novel could inspire North Korea to adopt the Party methods. Freedom in totalitarian governments are nonexistent considering your everyday life is controlled by the government. Fear is a tactic that totalitarian governments use in order to control their people. Kim Jong Un is a young leader who isn’t very experienced on how to govern his people. He identifies himself as the “supreme leader” because he thinks that he is invincible when in fact he has a lot of learning to