Religion of the Party in 1984

[Astarte]

'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?'

Winston was struck, as he had been struck before, by the tiredness of O'Brien's face. It was strong and fleshy and brutal, it was full of intelligence and a sort of controlled passion before which he felt himself helpless; but it was tired. There were pouches under the eyes, the skin sagged from the cheekbones. O'Brien leaned over him, deliberately bringing the worn face nearer.

'You are thinking,' he said, 'that my face is old and tired. You are thinking that I talk of power, and yet I am not even able to prevent the decay of my own body. Can you not understand, Winston, that the individual is only a cell? The weariness of the cell is the vigour of the organism. Do you die when you cut your fingernails?'

He turned away from the bed and began strolling up and down again, one hand in his pocket.

'We are the priests of power,' he said. 'God is power. But at present power is only a word so far as you are concerned. It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means. The first thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. You know the Party slogan: "Freedom is Slavery". Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone -- free -- the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is doomed to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal. The second thing for you to realize is that power is power over human beings. Over the body but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter -- external reality, as you would call it -- is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.'

For a moment Winston ignored the dial. He made a violent effort to raise himself into a sitting position, and merely succeeded in wrenching his body painfully.

'But how can you control matter?' he burst out. 'You don't even control the climate or the law of gravity. And there are disease, pain, death --'

O'Brien silenced him by a movement of his hand. 'We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation -- anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.' http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/19.html

The above is an exchange between Winston and O'Brien, after Winston is caught. I always wondered, until I re-read this, why it was that the political ideology of Eastasia was "Death Worship" also known as "Obliteration of the Self" - it seemed a far different concept than what Ingsoc and Neobolshevism put forward.

Its because in 1984 Party members cleave unto the Party and the society the Party creates - they commit ego death, and realize their "true selves" via this religio-function of the Party apparatus.

Collective-solipsism also plays a major role - "The Party could blot out the stars if it wished to".

I also find it fascinating that in the last 40 pages of the book Winston repeatedly asks when he will be shot, and looks forwards to it. O'Brien tells him it might be years until he is shot, but in the end, he tells Winston with almost comforting certainty that he will be shot.

The deciding factor which determines when Winston will be shot is when he is fully "rehabilitated" - that is - when he comes to genuinely have love and affection for the Party and Big Brother. He repeatedly tells himself that he can feign love for the State apparatus until a split second before they shoot him at whence point he planned to "release the hate" he had stored up inside himself.

In the end he is shot, and there is nothing but love for the Party and BB left in Winston.

What I find most disturbing about the book is that the Party actually seems to succeed in bringing Winston a degree of ego-death and self-realization he could not achieve on his own; and thereby the mechanisms of the Party actually perhaps succeeded in "elevating" his consciousness to a level of serenity - "freedom in slavery" - aspired to by many other spiritual disciplines.

[Zostrianos]

That reminds me of stuff I've read on the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia. People were forced to attend classes where they'd be brainwashed with propaganda, which included convincing them that their only reason to live was the Party, that they should no longer love their relatives because the only family they had was the Party.
And they used lots of kids to do their dirty work as well, seeing as they're easier to manipulate.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

In the end he is shot, and there is nothing but love for the Party and BB left in Winston.


Winston is not shot, not literally.

This seems to be a rather common misconception. In the very end, Winston imagines himself walking down the corridor as he sits in the café, but the shooting takes place in his imagination. It is a metaphor, perhaps we can say, for his victory over himself, that is to say the final embrace of Big Brother and the obliteration of his self and his doubts and the final embrace of everything he had tried to reject.


‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘how soon will they shoot me?’
‘It might be a long time,’ said O’Brien. ‘You are a difficult case. But don’t give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you.’

This segment, I think further reinforces that the shooting is not necessarily literal, but metaphorical for the final destruction of Winston's self.


The waiters were turning back to their work. One of them approached with the gin bottle. Winston, sitting in a blissful dream, paid no attention as his glass was filled up. He was not running or cheering any longer. He was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long hoped-for bullet was entering his brain.

The bullet that enters his brain is not a literal one, but that of an euphoric epiphany.

[ckaihatsu]

Yes, everything presented to the reader in the book is 'real' within the framework of the fictional narrative -- I think any possible difference of interpretation, as over "Winston, sitting in a blissful dream..." is only because the term 'dream' can refer to both a *wakeful daydream* as well as its more common meaning as a nighttime dream while one is unconscious.

_1984_ is an excellent work or "case study" for reflecting on themes of society and politics since all of the elements within are stark black-and-white contrasts, and are immediately easy to understand, unlike the (arguably more-gray-area) complexities of actual life in the real world.

We can see two kinds of dialectical paired dynamics going on -- [1] the individual's relationship to self, and [2] the individual's relationship to the societal power structure -- 'Big Brother' / the (totalitarian) state, etc.

In _1984_ there *is no* need for the self, and this is clearly seen in the downward trajectory of Winston's own individuality, to the ending where the only option left to him for asserting his 'self'-ness is to renounce it completely, in favor of merging his 'self' with the state, completely. The reward for doing so is the oblivion of death where he won't have to deal with such powerlessness and internal contradictory thinking anymore.

This reminds us, the reader, of our *own* powerlessness in the real, class-divided world, where one's 'self' or individuality is *not* encouraged or nurtured by existing authorities within the power structure. Moreover, one's effect *within* the power structure as it is is *not* helped by one's development of one's individuality or 'self' -- this is why revolution is needed, or else countless future generations of people will continue to be molded to 'fit into' the ongoing social machinery of political power positioning and functioning. (This seems counterintuitive and unnatural to the young, unworldly, and naive since one's self-preservation instinct is to be as *self-enabling* and -functioning as possible -- in reality there's tension between this ideal of the 'self' and that of the world as a whole.)





[Winston] was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long hoped-for bullet was entering his brain.


Here Winston's *utmost* concern comes to be his relationship to the state, and nothing else. In place of *any* kind of concern with his 'self' Winston has instead only concern for his *political* self, in terms of correct conduct by the standards of the state. He no longer exhibits the *least* bit of individuality or critical thinking *about* his political role, but instead is now content and relieved to allow his political self to fully conform to the political behavior that is *expected* of him, and everyone, according to the state, in an entirely top-down, authoritarian way.

By "confessing everything" and "implicating everybody" Winston is fully participating in the collective denial of his own self, and that of everyone else's, respectively. Again, his reward is the full release from any and all future concerns with his 'self'. In fully handing his individuality over to the state, the state reciprocates in kind by lending *its* ability to Winston -- it uses its power to relieve him of all individual *social* responsibility, *and* of his own individual mortality, through execution.

[Astarte]

Winston is not shot, not literally.

This seems to be a rather common misconception. In the very end, Winston imagines himself walking down the corridor as he sits in the café, but the shooting takes place in his imagination. It is a metaphor, perhaps we can say, for his victory over himself, that is to say the final embrace of Big Brother and the obliteration of his self and his doubts and the final embrace of everything he had tried to reject.



This segment, I think further reinforces that the shooting is not necessarily literal, but metaphorical for the final destruction of Winston's self.



The bullet that enters his brain is not a literal one, but that of an euphoric epiphany.

Yeah, I was of two minds, actually, as to whether or not it was metaphoric or they actually did shoot him... I think it might be interpreted either way as Winston does go through actual torture, mentally and physically inside the Ministry of Love, and O'Brein does promise repeatedly that Winston, in the end, will be shot.

But... then, like you said, the book makes it all seem completely metaphoric at the actual instant when he is "shot". I think it may have been made vague like this purposely.

[Solzhenitsyn]

I always suspected that Ingsoc, Neobolshevism and Death Worship are all exactly the same ideology just couched in different terminology.

[Caj]

I always suspected that Ingsoc, Neobolshevism and Death Worship are all exactly the same ideology just couched in different terminology.

Doesn't Goldstein specifically say that in the text?

[Lenina Rosenweg]

The OP is fascinating-Ingsoc as a yogic discipline. I always assumed the "Death Worship" philosophy of Eastasia was Orwell's Orientalist spoof on Buddhism but as Astarte suggests it fits in with Ingsoc and Neo-Bolshevism.

The question could be posed, if Ingsoc could be seen as a "dharmic" pathway to liberation (I don't mean to put words into the OP's mouth) is this good or bad? Does Winston's "ego death" have to be replaced by an absolute identity with the state and ruling ideology or could it have opened the way for something else?

There are parallels between spiritual disciplines and extreme ideologies.

[ckaihatsu]

The parallels *are* interesting but *nothing's* to say that 'ego death' should be considered to be a desirable thing.

At most it may be a helpful change in one's frame of reference if one happens to be overly self-centered, but beyond a limited treatment as a regimen of "head-shrinking" there's nothing to recommend the *religiosity* of it.

While Eastern religion is monistic instead of the Western *dualistic* mode, it *is* still non-material and encourages passivity, as with the Eastern 'ego death'. For this reason it's especially problematic from a social and revolutionary political perspective.

[Solzhenitsyn]

Doesn't Goldstein specifically say that in the text?

Can't remember it's been 10 years since I read it.

[ckaihatsu]

One more thing here, since themes abound in this work....








The Ministry of Truth -- Minitrue, in Newspeak -- was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html


One common pitfall in the realm of politics is that people often don't take cognizance of matters of *scale* in their treatment of whatever topic. Yes, politics may be micro (inter-personal) and macro (worldwide economic practices and policy), and everything in-between, but failure to take note of *what scale(s)* are being discussed is only a liability -- confusion, intentionally intended or not -- will abound from sloppiness in attention to this dimension of politics.

The three Orwellian slogans above have incredible dramatic impact because they're pairings of diametrically opposite meanings, and so they invite a creative interpretation / rationalization from the reader.

If we interpret these slogans while keeping the dimension of *scale of magnitude* in mind, we might validly re-phrase the slogans this way:

- FREEDOM [for the individual] [REQUIRES] SLAVERY [(submission)] [from *all* individuals]








The first thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. You know the Party slogan: "Freedom is Slavery". Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone -- free -- the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is doomed to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal.


(Of course I don't agree at all with the *content* here -- this is just an exercise, using a fictitious construct.)








Chapter III

War is Peace




The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. Ever since the end of the nineteenth century, the problem of what to do with the surplus of consumption goods has been latent in industrial society.




None of the three super-states ever attempts any manoeuvre which involves the risk of serious defeat. When any large operation is undertaken, it is usually a surprise attack against an ally. The strategy that all three powers are following, or pretend to themselves that they are following, is the same. The plan is, by a combination of fighting, bargaining, and well-timed strokes of treachery, to acquire a ring of bases completely encircling one or other of the rival states, and then to sign a pact of friendship with that rival and remain on peaceful terms for so many years as to lull suspicion to sleep.




The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that it exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three super-states, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed for ever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This -- although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense -- is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: War is Peace.

http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/16.html


So for this one, taking the dimension of scale into account, we could say:

- WAR [among the super-states] IS PEACE [for the entire world]








From the point of view of our present rulers, therefore, the only genuine dangers are the splitting-off of a new group of able, under-employed, power-hungry people, and the growth of liberalism and scepticism in their own ranks. The problem, that is to say, is educational. It is a problem of continuously moulding the consciousness both of the directing group and of the larger executive group that lies immediately below it. The consciousness of the masses needs only to be influenced in a negative way.

Given this background, one could infer, if one did not know it already, the general structure of Oceanic society. At the apex of the pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful. Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration. Nobody has ever seen Big Brother.

http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/16.html


And, finally:

- [The] IGNORANCE [of the masses] IS STRENGTH [for the rulers]

[ckaihatsu]

Speaking of super-states....


Walled World infographic

http://www.omni.to/upload/infografiken/walled_world.jpg

[ckaihatsu]

Speaking of super-states....








But the EAW is the centrepiece of a raft of legislation enacted under the so-called “war on terror” aimed at overturning civil liberties. Passed into law in 2003, it enables people within any of the European Union’s 27-member states to be extradited to another, without any regard for the veracity of the allegations against them and regardless of whether the charge cited is an indictable offence in the host country.

More than 14,000 people are now subject to EAW’s each year, often on the flimsiest of charges. The UK extradites three people a day on EAW’s. In addition, the UK extended the powers available under the EAW to apply to extradition to the US, Australia and Canada.

http://wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wiki-f02.shtml