Before writing this post, I was a little unclear of what totalitarian meant so I looked it up and two definitions came up as a result. The first definition is " of or relating to a centered government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises doctored control over many aspects of life." The second is, " exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of other." In my opinion, Oceania is precisely a totalitarian government. This " Big Brother" idea is just a tactic to scare the people into having the same opinions. I guess that can seem ideal if you want a society where everyone agrees on everything and no one fights against the rules. Which is the only upside ( if there even is an upside) to a totalitarian government. On page 268, in the midst of Winston being tortured, O'Brien explains what kind of government "the Party" is running. O'Brien says, " That is the world we are preparing, Winston. A world of victory, triumph after triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, pressing,pressing upon the nerve of power. You are beginning, I can see, to realize what that world would be like, But in the end you will dos more then understand it. You will accept it, welcome it, become a part of it. O'Brien, in this quote, is basically explaining what there government is and why it functions the way it does. " Triumph, after triumph, after triumph.." I really like this quote that I pulled off of page 268. I just can't comprehend why you'd want triumph after triumph. In my opinion you can 't feel triumph if you don't feel failure first. With only triumph, in our country, there would be no Declaration of Independence because Britain would just automatically agree to what we want them to agree. If our past was altered to triumph after triumph we would have no past to learn from. It was just be depressing day after depressing day just always "winning" but on the inside you are empty. I just can not comprehend putting human beings under such strict rules just because you( the government) don't want to deal with disagreements and just want to "win". That isn't even living to me. That's just existing for no reason. I understand that it can be hard to please a whole country however, this "life" these robots are living was never a solution. Do you guys agree with me that having your freedom is more important than safety?
Everyday, our perception of news around the world is altered. Well known news stations like Fox and CNN need to get high viewer ratings to make money. And to get more views, you need to stretch the truth a little bit more to become intriguing. It is a little more extreme in 1984 because they are purposely brainwashing the people of Oceania to believe certain things to keep them under "Big Brother" rules. Which in my opinion is very similar to our society today. Maybe just nit as evident because we have laws granting our freedom to things like freedom that the government in 1984 is brainwashing to get rid of. However, if you believe that our media does not stretch the truth to change our perception you are wrong. It could be something as simple as changing the word "killed" to "massacred". Say that a news station titles an article "Black man massacred innocent students" Doesn't adding massacred and innocent give a negative make you perceive that man in a more negative way? It isn't as in your face as the government in 1984 but it happens everyday in subtle ways you may not even notice. This is very similar to how the government portrayed Goldstein. In class, we talked about how he probably isn't even real and if he is real, he isn't this horrible outcast that he is portrayed to be. Goldstein basically was a face to represent this character you should never be like because he was a rebel and the government made him "disappear" Do you guys think we have a symbol for an outlaw similar to Goldstein? Or do you agree that the news station alter the truth to make you perceive things to their liking? My personal experience with medias influence over me is Twitter because it always shows negatives about Donald Trump. Even if Donald Trump did something good, it is unlikely I would hear about as quickly as I hear about his racist and sexist remarks. Now, I ultimately think he is horrible person because that's what the media presents in order to catch our attention. Let me know if you have ever been affected by anything with a lot of influence over you has changed your perception of something!
