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| “ | War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength |
„ |
| ~ One of INGSOC's mottos. |
English Socialism, better known as INGSOC, are the main antagonists in George Orwell's 1949 book Nineteen Eighty-Four as well as the 1984 film adaptation of the same name. It is the sole political party of Oceania, a totalitarian super-state. They seek to control and oppress the people of Oceania and enforce and support the rule of Big Brother.
History[]
Foundation[]
1984's protagonist, Winston Smith, mentions not having heard the word INGSOC before the 1960s but having heard of English Socialism in the 50s. This at least lets us narrow its foundation down to sometime within the 50s. Likely, Oceania was not founded under INGSOC, as several points in the book seem to point to or directly mention a civil war in the country. No details are given and it's not even said if INGSOC was involved, but it's pretty safe to assume that this was what brought INGSOC into power.
Structure[]
Ideology[]
INGSOC, meaning English Socialism, is an ideology founded on and primarily based on the British Isles. It mirrors many other totalitarian political ideologies and on the political compass, it lies on the border between far-right extremism and far-left extremism.
Unlike many other totalitarian governments, it does not have the end goal of a perfect utopia devoid of suffering. Its goal is the increase of suffering and eventually the acquisition of absolute power to the Inner Party. In the words of Inner Party member O'Brien "we aim to create a society that does not grow less, but more merciless as it grows". As suffering increases so does the power of the Inner Party. They want to be able to micromanage each aspect of a person's life, down to what they wear or eat. How they keep people supporting them is relatively simple; they antagonize everyone else. Similar to real-life countries like North Korea they claim that their enemies are the definition of tyranny. They claim that they slaughtered thousands of innocent people and that Oceania and The Party are the only thing between the people and utter annihilation by the enemies. At the same time, it's impossible to dive into who these enemies are or piece together anything as who the enemies are fluctuates every so often. Yesterday they might have been at war with the nation of Eurasia and an alliance with the nation of Eastasia, and the next they will be at war with Eastasia and a close ally of Eurasia.
Despite their goals to bring utter power to the Inner Party, not even the Inner Party members themselves are safe from the paranoia and attacks. Three of INGSOC's supposed founding members; Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford, were imprisoned by the Thought Police and treated like anyone else in the rigorous torture routines. In the end, they suffer the same death as anyone else imprisoned by the Thought Police, a bullet to the back of the head.
Ministries[]
Oceania keeps control of its citizens via the three main ministries; The Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Love, the Ministry of Plenty, and the Ministry of Peace.
- Ministry of Truth: The Ministry that the protagonist Winston Smith is employed in. Their goal is the rewriting of history and the wiping of "unpersons" from any records. For example, take Winston himself. When Winston was arrested by the Thought Police he was taken to prison and shortly after a team of workers wiped every record of his existence off the face of the planet. If a news article mentioned him, it was burned and edited so any archives claimed it was somebody else who was mentioned. All his belongings were most likely destroyed and his job would have been quickly replaced by someone else. Winston was especially unlucky, as the only two people who he really knew were Julia and Mr Parsons (although he was barely a friend in the first place) both of whom were in prison with him. Anyone who did know him would be convinced that he simply never existed and that they were going mad. Another example of what the Ministry of Truth does is with the fluctuating enemies in war. If a newspaper from last week claimed that a Eurasian rocket bomb struck London, all copies would be burned and it would be reissued claiming that it was an Eastasian rocket bomb that struck instead. Its grip on media and thought as a whole is so tight that any changes made, however obvious and ridiculous, are considered true by most. By the end of the book, they claim that two plus two makes five and it is blindly accepted.
- Ministry of Love: The Ministry of Love is most likely not widely known amongst the public as people finding out about it would most likely not be good for the party. Their primary goal is to torture and murder anyone opposed to the party, even if that opposition only exists within their head (a practice known as thoughtcrime in the Newspeak language). They are the base of operations for the Thought Police and it is there that the telescreens are watched and investigations on citizens are carried out. When somebody is captured and taken to the Ministry of Love, they are tortured until they beg for death. They will ask simple questions like "What country is Oceania at war with?" and claiming that Oceania was at one point at war with the nation they were currently allied with would result in high voltage electric shocks being delivered to the person. Lying does not work as they are too smart, they will torture you until the thought of being at war with Eurasia no longer exists and you genuinely believe Oceania was always at war with Eastasia. Towards the end of your stay, you will receive good treatment as you begin to become more "orthodox", but if you slip up you will be taken to the worst place in the world; Room 101. When Winston accidentally muttered the name of his lover, Julia, he was taken here. It varies from person to person of course, but what is in Room 101 is the worst thing you can imagine. In Winston's case, it's rats, so he ends up getting a cage of them strapped to his face. This will go on indefinitely until you give up and beg for it to be done to someone else. If you do this, they have won and you have lost your last shred of humanity. When you are fully stripped of your dignity you will be forced to make a public confession of all of your "crimes" (all of which are simply made up) which gets broadcasted on Telescreens all across Oceania. Once you are finally released, you will no longer be truly human. You no longer feel love or true happiness and every day you hope that you will soon be dead. One day it will come and you will be shot and the war against yourself is won.
- Ministry of Plenty: The Ministry of Plenty's goal is a lot less violent than the others, but it is still overall a bad institution. Their primary goal is to build optimism among the people of Oceania by severely overstating how well the country is doing production-wise. They will claim that year's estimations for the output of shoelaces were overfilled by 98% and that the economy is booming. In reality, they may have been no different or even less than the year before, but since nobody has a way of proving this it's not worth fighting. Another smaller thing they do is the Proletariat lottery which gives out relatively small prizes but is amped up all year to build excitement. These two things they do are not that vicious or horrific, but this next part is. To build a sense of "wartime comradery" they will randomly withdraw certain things from production. These things can range from small things like razorblades (as is the item in shortage at the start of the book) to vital items like bread or other important things needed to live.
- Ministry of Peace: Not much is said about the Ministry of Peace, but it can be gathered that their goal is managing the war effort and declaring a victory whenever they feel morale is low. Since Oceania is so big it does not need to fight for land, the Ministry of Peace can simply declare they've won the greatest victory in human history to boost morale. Not even a major loss would impact all of Oceania due to its sheer size[1] so there's no need to report any losses. Each battle report usually brings news of an enormous enemy army marching toward outnumbered Oceanian troops, then those troops fighting back and winning the greatest victory ever seen that will "bring the war within measurable distance of its end" when in reality the end is nowhere nearer than before nor is it intended to be over.
Newspeak[]
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and is one of the main goals of INGSOC and its completion would mean absolute power would be in the party's hands. It was established shortly after INGSOC came to power and since then it has gone on to have over ten editions released. Each release aims to eliminate more and more words from the dictionary. First of all, it would have been words like "Democracy" or "Constitutionalism" that got wiped out, and then it grew to encompass more words. It then progressed to simplifying terms; for example, the words good, better, and best were altered. While good stayed the same, good would become plusgood, and best would become doubleplusgood. Another important thing it did was redefine words that were considered too anti-party but were also essential in everyday speech like the word "free". It stayed in existence but it could no longer mean free in a political or intellectual sense, instead, it could only be used to say things like "the house is free from mold".
The Newspeak language was used in front-page news articles and many publications by 1984, but not even Inner Party members used it as their primary means of communication. Everyone still spoke in Oldspeak[2] at the time with occasional words of Newspeak sprinkled in. The final goal of the language (which was meant to be completed by 2050) was to eliminate almost every word and leave the entire country with only one or two words. This would mean the total elimination of all free speech in Oceania as with no words to use to describe oppression, opposition simply cannot exist.
Government[]
INGSOC has ruled the nation of Oceania for an untold amount of years (possibly since its establishment) and has full authority over the government and military. Oceania is a totalitarian state as the Party monitors and controls all aspects of life and has suppressed/killed those who dare speak out against them. Big Brother is the country's de facto leader although his actual title is never revealed. Inner Party members such as O'Brien have access to secrets other lower party members don't know about and use to their advantage.
Slogans[]
War is Peace[]
The slogan war is peace refers to how the war with Eurasia/Eastasia is never meant to end. Since Oceania's founding, they have always been at war with one power or another. As is said in Goldstein's book[3], the goal of the war is to use up as many resources as possible to ensure the standard of living never increases. If an invention comes along that could improve the living conditions in Oceania tenfold, it would be repurposed and sent to the frontlines to be made use of there. At the same time, the war is not fought like other wars where swarms of men charge at enemy lines. Instead, it involves small groups of highly trained soldiers that launch attacks on certain occasions. Most of the effects of the war are felt by civilians during rocket bomb attacks by the enemies. In the book it is mentioned that there was "The Battle of Airstrip One" which inevitably resulted in an Oceanian victory but did extreme damage to the island.
Freedom is Slavery[]
The slogan freedom is slavery hints at INGSOC's main goals. O'Brien explains it as also being a reversible statement; claiming that a free human is alone, and a human who is alone is defeated. He says that inner freedom can only be achieved by unwavering devotion to The Party, as without INGSOC the world would be crushed by their enemies. A man controlled by another has no cares or worries as he is not the one who has to solve them and that is what the party considers to be "freedom".
Ignorance is Strength[]
Ignorance is strength is probably the most important slogan of them all, as it is what the party focuses on most. Via utter ignorance of the true world, INGSOC prospers. What is expected of the citizens of Oceania is utter ignorance of anything that may go against The Party, however logical and blatantly obvious those ideas may seem to any person. When Oceania suddenly switches enemies from one country to another, it's expected that people will blindly follow their lies. Anyone who does question the lies, even if it's only a passing thought in their head that's never expressed out loud, is guilty of thoughtcrime and is an enemy of the state. Most important to the party is the ignorance of the lowest class of Oceanian citizens, the Proles. The proles are the only people in Oceania who don't face constant monitoring, but if they were to become aware of the horrific treatment of many others there is a large chance they'd rebel against The Party. The Party's job is to keep the Proles feeling happy for enough time until they can eventually strike at them too, as the only hope of overthrowing the government lies in the Proles.
Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past[]
This is most likely a slogan of the Ministry of Truth and it is a declaration of the party's goal, to eliminate the past.
Audio Samples[]
Oceania, 'Tis for Thee (INGSOC's national anthem)[]
Trivia[]
- INGSOC was inspired by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as both were authoritarian states that controlled everything that their citizens did in their everyday lives and indoctrinated them to submit to the State and its rule.
- In recent years, to the government of North Korea has been compared INGSOC with the rigid totalitarian rule it enforces.
- The INGSOC flag has been adopted as the official flag of Oceania, further emphasizing the absolute power the party holds within its borders.
- The Newspeak Index at the end of the novel is written in the past tense and in normal English (or Oldspeak as INGSOC referred to it), implying that the Party was overthrown and the Index is a piece of historical reference material.
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 Villains
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Animal Farm Nineteen Eighty-Four | ||
References[]
- ↑ It is said that Oceania encompasses the British Isles, the Americas, Southern Africa, Australasia and at times large portions of Central Africa and India.
- ↑ Oldspeak is defined as every language other than Newspeak. For example; Spanish, English and French are all Oldspeak.
- ↑ Emmanuel Goldstein is the name of a potentially fictional enemy of INGSOC who wrote "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" which is an anti-party book that is the main text followed by The Brotherhood, the main opposition to INGSOC.