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Journalism of Courage
India-born British author George Orwell’s seminal novel ‘1984’ was published on June 8, 1949, and it is difficult to overstate the impact that it has had on culture since – from the list of unique terms that it gave to the world, to its warnings against letting totalitarian authorities take control.
Set in the year 1989, which is imagined as a time when all-seeing governments have taken hold, the novel follows one man as he feels more and more suffocated within the society that he lives in. One of the most well-known lines from the novel reads, ‘War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength’. It appears at the beginning of the novel, introducing the reader to the kind of confusing, contradiction-filled instructions and propaganda that the government in this world subjects its people to.
We explain its context and the purpose it serves.
What is the full quote?
The quote appears after we are introduced to the protagonist Winston, an everyday man who works for the government and seems to be going through at least some kind of discomfort while observing the world around him. Here, he looks at his place of work, the Ministry of Truth.
“The Ministry of Truth… was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
Just a few lines later, the book describes other offices: “The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.”
The ministries, despite their names, are involved in only maintaining the appearance of ideas like truth, love and abundance, while actually doing what is needed to keep questioning people at bay. For instance, when it is revealed that the number of chocolate rations that would be available to citizens was lower than earlier, Winston’s ministry lies and says it was actually an achievement and an increase in quantity as compared to before. Winston also, at times, changed information reported in newspapers retroactively, if it reflected badly on the Party.
What is the meaning of this quote?
The Party here refers to the only, supreme authority in which lies all power. It is meant to reference Communist parties, as in the case of the erstwhile Soviet Union or the Nazi party, officially called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party in Germany. Orwell’s novel was published in 1949, when Nazism had just been defeated. It was also the beginning of the USSR-US Cold War, where the US represented a liberal, capitalistic system and the USSR one of government ownership and communism.
Orwell said he had used Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship as a model for the personality cult of the all-seeing Big Brother, the leader of the Party.
Through Winston’s character, the reader understands that he lives in a severely restricted society, which tells its people to not aspire to ideals for their betterment.
The propaganda of banners, posters and constant TV messages, as well as a police force (called Thoughtpolice) that seems omnipresent, helps repress any signs of rebellion. More than strict police action being the deterrent, the idea here is for citizens to become convinced that a state of war is beneficial for them, and in fact necessary, to maintain peace. They are told that being free or hoping to gain knowledge only weakens a country, and so it is important to put their faith in the actions of their supreme leader.
Syme, another character in the book, is charged with replacing dictionaries with the new words coined by the Party. He explains how the power of words is such that only their erasure can help to erasure ideas from forming among the people. “How could you have a slogan like ‘freedom is slavery’ when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now,” he says.
Why is this line invoked today?
Through ‘1984’ and his other novel ‘Animal Farm’, Orwell illustrates that power can corrupt people absolutely. Even if a just cause is presented initially, such as fighting a war against an immoral enemy or protecting a nation, it does not take long for vested interests to assume ownership of such causes. And with their power, it is hardly likely that they would think of common welfare, instead, they tend to enrich themselves.
Indeed, in ‘1984’ too, when Winston tries pursuing a secret relationship with a woman named Julia, he slowly realises that he is being lied to by the Party in terms of the history of his country and its economic progress. It is through the companionship of a like-minded person that he begins to see through some of the propaganda directed at people like him.
However, right before he is caught for the forbidden affair, he is made to visit a senior colleague named O’Brien. While large parts of their city live in squalor, with no means to ask for a better life, he notices that O’Brien lives in luxury by virtue of his position in the party. This is meant to criticise the hypocrisy of those in power, as they profess lofty ideals of equality.
Ultimately, ‘1984’ tells readers to beware of the signs of fascism – the assuming of power by crushing all criticism, and rallying people behind causes such as nationalism. Orwell lays out the tactics of such systems – aversion to criticism, the tendency to control all aspects of people’s lives, and confusing messages being issued – to warn people against creeping authoritarianism.
