Obedience In George Orwell's 1984

Across history, human beings have a tendency to obey orders, which ten becomes a norm. The Milgram study of obedience reveals the extent to which people will go in obeying orders and how this is so ingrained in people, that they dare not challenge abuse of power. The Milgram sentiments about obedience are replicated in the Gorge Orwell dystopian novel, 1984, where people show great willingness to obey those in positions of power even when it goes against their ethical and moral convictions, and challenged by Erich Fromm, arguing that such obedience inhibits the growth and development of a society, ultimately leading to its demise. 1984 is a novel that tells of a dystopia, Airstrip one that is a province of Oceania. The political regime in Oceania is such that independent thought and disobedience to the authority is highly restricted. The people are manipulated to believe that what the government says is true even though deep inside they know it is not. One of the ways in which the government inhibits free thoughts and opinion in Oceania is through taking control of what the people read including books and news articles. The government further has installed surveillance in every home to monitor the activities of the people especially those that do not conform to obedience. Individualism and independent thinking …show more content…
This is not disobedience in the negative way as people know, but it is disobedience to those that abuse power and those that try to drown the voices of those with new agendas and ideas. Innovations and discoveries in science, philosophy and every other field were as a result of disobedience to those who insisted on pre-existing knowledge. If people had not been courageous to disobey, then society would be devoid of progress. Fromm says that just as disobedience marked the start of human history, obedience might as well mark the end of this history