Collective Oligarchy in 1984 Essay

Clues of Collective Oligarchy

Do you spy collective oligarchy? A collective oligarchy is where a single political person or class attempts to police every small and large aspect of the public and personal life as much as possible. George Orwells novels 1984 depicts the Party to have total control of the people in Oceania. The Party controls the personal and political aspects of the people of Oceania through psychological and personal manipulation.

The people of Oceania are psychologically controlled by the Party because the Party is trying to engulfs one mind into believing BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU (2). The people of Oceania have the constant state of reminder that BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING [THEM], because the Party has taken control of placing a telescreen in every room of citizens home. There is also telescreens out in public continually tuning into what people are saying. The telescreen continually watches the peoples behavior as well as notifying the citizens with propaganda that bruised [their] ears with statistics proving that the people, were better off than they had been in the past (74). The Party diluted the psychological structure of the people through monitoring their behaviors by brainwashing children and adults into believing certain things were right and wrong Children are persuaded to watch their parents and must report any fickle acts to the Party. The Party was trying to kill the sex act, by organizing the Junior Anti-Sex League (66). The Party believed that sex was only for people who were married and the only reason to have sex was to make children. Sex was a slightly disgusting minor operation (65). Another way the Party influences the people of Oceania to believe that they are constantly being monitored is by surrounding the cities with posters and signs that portrayed BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, and the single word INGSOC (2). Citizens also have the Partys slogans War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength, jogged into their memories. These posters and signs remind the people of Oceania that their country belongs to the Party and that they must comply with all the Partys regulations or they will be punished by the Thought Police. Through changing how people think and act helps the Party stay in control of the citizens in Oceania.

Not only by psychological persuasion does the Party manipulate the people of Oceania but they also control their personal lives. Controlling their personal lives affects the psychological aspect too. The Partys slogan Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past, ensures that whoever was in control of the past has control of the future, because the past justifies the future(76). The past not only changed , but changed continuously(79). The Partys slogan shows the control over the peoples personal lives that the Party held. The slogan portrays the idea that the people have no record or memory of the past. The people of Oceania have no memory of their past because when the memory failed and written records were falsified, the Party had control of how the people think and their memory(80). To further the explanation of how the Party had control of the present, future, and past is showed through why history books were changed to replicate the Partys created past time period that was a time of depression and slavery(72). The Party also forbid the people from keeping memories of their own pasts, making it impossible to posses any documents, journals, or photographs. The Party had so much control of the people; that the people of Oceania could not even own notebooks or journals to record memory. As Orwell states in his novel, Winston Churchill barely remembers purchasing the notebook he finds and writes in revealing how brainwashed the people are into believing that what the Party has depicted of the past is now the truth(6). The people of Oceania were stripped of the old ways, and because the past could not be remembered, the language even changed. The new language of Oceania was Newspeak. Newspeak stripped any idea or remembrance of anything from the people because soon words that they used to use were no longer words or had no meaning. Newspeak consisted of words that had nothing to do with rebellious or disobedient, unlawful words. Words like illegal didnt even exist because there were no longer laws, in Oceania(6). Newspeak brought about the idea of doublethink. The people of Oceania were being expressed to words of happiness and love, when really the underlying meanings of the words were opposite. The idea of doublethink existed in the four ministries the Party had control over. As Orwell states, the Ministry of Peace concerned itself with war, the Ministry of Truth concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts, the Ministry of Love maintained law and order, and the Ministry of Plenty was responsible for economic affairs(5). The personal manipulation played a key role in the way the people thought, affecting their psychological manner. They were manipulated so bad that whatever the Party said was true, the people believed, which caused destruction in their psychological and personal lives.

George Orwells novel 1984, portrays a clear understanding of a collective oligarchy political system. Through the Partys objective devices such as the telescreens and propaganda helped the people be manipulated into having the Party control the peoples lives. Also through the Partys major slogans and four ministries helped a lot in surrounding the people with a government that gained complete control.