Journal 7: Moooooore Nineteen Eighty-Foooooooour

Everybody knows 1984 is pretty politically oriented, but like I said in my last post about it, not all of it has to be analyzed with that in mind. Particularly interesting was the last third of the book, when poor Winston was tortured by O'Brien to the point of accepting Big Brother. Not a very happy ending, but then again, Orwell wasn't really about making you feel good, he was about making you think - and what better way to make you think than throwing an assortment of highly psychological concepts at you one after the other?

Kind of like this (that and the other thing).

For example, lets consider that Soviet propaganda message "2 + 2 = 5" that Orwell used in different context. You look at that and say no, it's 4, and that is a FACT. You can't change that 2 + 2 = 4 because that's just how the world works, it's undeniable! Like O'Brien implies, however, if everybody in the world told you 2 + 2 was 5, then you'd be wrong - or, rather, you have no way of proving yourself right, so you're either crazy OR wrong. Winston tried to fight this - he knew the truth, and like us he clings to 'reality'. But really, what is 'reality'? Reality is only what we think it is, everything that exists exists only in the mind. The mind can only believe what it's told, and if it's told by everyone that 2 + 2 = 5, then you really have no logical choice but to accept it as fact. I mean yeah, you can try to deny it and hold onto your perception of reality, but, well... that didn't work out so well for Winston, did it?

There's a lot of examples of this concept ALL over the place, in legitimate experiments, other works of fiction, and Abbot and Costello routines.

I know it's PROBABLY not the most logical thing to take a literal approach to something like the above video, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Costello insists that 13 x 7 = 28. He proves it using blatantly wrong methods, but Abbot doesn't pick up on it. So, by the end of this video, Abbot is convinced that 13 x 7 actually does equal 28. You'll say he's just wrong, but to him he isn't, he's sure that he's right. The only difference between this and 1984 is that in Oceania, you get kidnapped and tortured if you think differently. That's right everybody - 1984 is a depressing and political version of everyone's favorite 40s/50s comedy duo.

And what about the Asch conformity experiment? You know, the one where people agreed with other people even if those other people were obviously 'wrong' because of they were the majority? Yeah man, put that in this analysis too. 1984 really is a study in conformity in many ways, so much so that it would probably make Ralph Waldo Emerson cry if he read it. That being said, if you gave him some Emerson, Lake, and Palmer to listen to, he'd probably get over it... although, on second thought, prog rock probably isn't the most accessible music genre for a transcendentalist. Maybe a CD of ambient rainforest noises? Who knows... the point is, the world of 1984 is a one of complete conformity to one idea, that idea being Big Brother. Nobody is permitted to think their own way, and even worse, if you DO try to think your own way, you're tortured until it isn't possible. The scary thing, of course, is that based on psychological experiments and just pop culture in general, the ideas presented in 1984 really don't seem that far from impossible - sure, I don't think the political situation regarding the 3 states or anything would ever actually happen, but from a strictly psychological viewpoint it all makes sense. The in-depth examination into the workings of the human mind and social behavior just help make 1984 all the more chilling.