The Necessity of Knowledge and Truth Many view democratic values and freedoms as necessary for society, but as shown in 1984, they can be easily lost. Democracy is defined as the power being in the hands of the people. In contrast, the novel takes place in Oceania, a totalitarian community where the citizens are closely monitored and have almost no rights. In his novel, 1984, Orwell uses this totalitarian dystopia to prove protecting knowledge is necessary for democracy and freedom.
First, Orwell argues knowledge is important for democracy because it allows individuality. Throughout the novel, Winston and the other citizens are closely watched through telescreens and are constantly engulfed in propaganda from the Party. In this world where …show more content…
In other words, all people really had for themselves were there minds as the government took full control over all tangible aspects of their lives. Orwell points out this part of a person that can never truly be taken away is crucial to individuality. However the citizens are influenced by the government to the point where their minds become useless. The brain-dead state in the Oceania community can be seen in the proles. The proles consist of clueless, mindless, lower-class members of society, who are not monitored by telescreens because the Party knows they will not do anything on their own. While writing in his diary Winston contemplates the overthrow of the Party. He states that “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated… if only they could somehow become conscious of their own …show more content…
One day Winston ponders the past and the Party’s alteration of it. He recalls “the Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated” (34). Winston knows that the Party has told a lie about the war. However, he does not believe his own mind just as much as he does not believe the Party, which results in the truth disappearing. This can be dangerous to democracy because once people lose sight of the truth they will keep believing more and more lies. This accumulation of lies is exactly what happens-the people of Oceania begin to believe more and more of the Party's lies about the past. The process of a lie becoming the truth in Oceania is described as: “if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory.” (34-35). Winston
First, Orwell argues knowledge is important for democracy because it allows individuality. Throughout the novel, Winston and the other citizens are closely watched through telescreens and are constantly engulfed in propaganda from the Party. In this world where …show more content…
In other words, all people really had for themselves were there minds as the government took full control over all tangible aspects of their lives. Orwell points out this part of a person that can never truly be taken away is crucial to individuality. However the citizens are influenced by the government to the point where their minds become useless. The brain-dead state in the Oceania community can be seen in the proles. The proles consist of clueless, mindless, lower-class members of society, who are not monitored by telescreens because the Party knows they will not do anything on their own. While writing in his diary Winston contemplates the overthrow of the Party. He states that “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated… if only they could somehow become conscious of their own …show more content…
One day Winston ponders the past and the Party’s alteration of it. He recalls “the Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated” (34). Winston knows that the Party has told a lie about the war. However, he does not believe his own mind just as much as he does not believe the Party, which results in the truth disappearing. This can be dangerous to democracy because once people lose sight of the truth they will keep believing more and more lies. This accumulation of lies is exactly what happens-the people of Oceania begin to believe more and more of the Party's lies about the past. The process of a lie becoming the truth in Oceania is described as: “if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory.” (34-35). Winston