1984 #9

Chapter 3: War is Peace

·         War is “a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting, and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference” (186).- not fighting because of actual conflict between each other but rather just to instill the warlike emotions in their own people

·         Fighting for a square of land in the middle of the regions that none of the three super states completely controls and labor control. Land holds 1/5 of the population

·         “the world is more primitive today than it was fifty years ago…experiment and invention have largely stopped” (189).- new society does not allow progress because does not allow free thinking, which inhibits invention

·         One reason for keeping society so underprivileged is that when everyone is equal, it is hard to keep power in the hands of the few

·         “War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent” (191). – whole point is to not let the masses believe that everyone is equal; masses must see the need for the hierarchy

·         War makes putting power in the hands of the few a necessity

·         “in all the useful arts the world is either standing still or going backwards” (193)

·         “A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war” (199)- since war is continuous, the war-like atmosphere is equivalent to basically being at peace

Chapter 1: Ignorance is Strength

·         There are three kinds of people:

o   “The aim of the High is to remain where they are” (201).

o   “The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High” (201).

o   “The aim of the Low…is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal” (201).

·         Middle groups would fight in the name of equality only to be tyrannical when got power

·         Ingsoc shadowed by totalitarianism

·         “in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance” (205). So in the past, more conscious of what they were doing

·         The new High group (the current one) “realized that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly” (206).

·         4 Ways a ruling group can fall from power:

o   “Either it is conquered from without, or it governs so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, or it allows a strong and discontented Middle Group to come into being, or it loses its own self-confidence and willingness to govern” (207).

o   The only one of these that is actually a threat to Oceania is the splitting off of a new group, “and the growth of liberalism and skepticism in their own ranks” (207).

·         “Big Brother is the guise in which the party chooses to exhibit itself to the world” (208).

·         Inner Party is 2%, then Outer Party, and Proles are 85%

·         “Its rulers are not held together by blood ties but by adherence to a common doctrine” (209).

o   Therefore, appeared to some socialists to not be permanent

·         The proles “without the power of grasping that the world could be other than it is”; “They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect” (210).

·         A Part Member “any eccentricity, however small, any change of habits, any nervous mannerism that could possibly be the symptom of an inner struggle, is certain to be detected” (211).

o   Technically, there are no laws

o   “expected to have no private emotions and no respites from enthusiasm” (211).

·         “Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought” (212).

·         Blackwhite:

o   “applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts” (212).

o   “applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this” (212).

·         “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them” (214).

o   “Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink” (214).

·         “those who have the best knowledge of what is happening are also those who are furthest from seeing the world as it is” (215).