1984 Writing Assignment: Mind over Matter

In George Orwell’s 1984, the doctrine O’Brien proclaims to Winston plays a big role in maintaining the system of oligarchical collectivism upon which INGSOC is based. It also plays a big role in Winston’s ultimate fate at the close of the novel. 

            In the book, Oligarchical collectivism is basically a group of people ruling through mind control. In the doctrine, O’Brien proclaims “Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.” Under this control people are convinced, not through physical evidence what is truth, but through the mind of The Party what is truth. As long as you think only through the mind of The Party, you know the truth. If The Party believes two plus two equals five, than that’s what it is true. When you look up at the sky and say “its blue” you’re not saying it because that is what it is, you’re saying it because that’s what you were taught to believe. This is what Oligarchical Collectivism is based off of, and what the doctrine focuses its point on. People will believe what they are raised to believe and people like Winston who stray from what is “true” are seen as a “lunatic” and need to be fixed.

            In order to make one “relearn” what is true as it says in this doctrine, pain is used as the main tool. To make Winston fall to the Party and their truth, they inflicted pain on him until he hurt so much that he wished it onto Julia, and at that moment is when you are fixed. On a page 240 Julia says “And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.” In a very ironic way, the Party uses pain to make a person want it to stop so bad, you become an individualist, someone who would inflict pain on others just to save themselves and right at that moment that you become an individualist, that’s when you become a part of the Party, the Party based off of anti-individualism, Oligarchical Collectivism as the doctrine points out.

            In the book, Winston is pointed out as the rebel who never stuck to what the Party said was the truth. He always knew everything that was said was a lie. But in the end, the doctrine O’Brien proclaims is what leads Winston to his ultimate fate of joining the party in the closing of the book. Throughout the whole book, Winston knew that everything the Party said was an utter and total lie. He knew that two plus two didn’t equal five. On page 69 he says “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. He was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists; its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the Earth's center.” He solemnly believed this as the truth until O’Brien proclaims the doctrine to him. Winston then starts to believe what O’Brien says, not necessarily because it made sense to him, but because when he believed O’Brien he didn’t have to endure the pain anymore. O’Brien told him “you must humble yourself before you can become sane.” If the pain didn’t stop Winston would go insane, so that’s what he did. He put himself before morals, before love, and this led to his ultimate fate: mind control of the Party. O’Brien’s words made him believe that it stopped the pain, and the pain basically drove him to insanity, ironically making him what the party called “sane”.

            In conclusion, the doctrine that O’Brien proclaims to Winston plays a big role in maintaining Oligarchical Collectivism. What he says is how they take over everyone’s minds that were still what they called “lunatics.” The doctrine also leads to Winston’s fate in that it convinces him to love O’Brien making Winston think that he makes the pain that O’Brien is actually causing, to stop. I guess when you think about it, this book proves that it really is mind over matter.

Your mind is Power

Okay, before I read this book I didn’t realize how well we have it. I never realized how things like love, freedom of speech, or even the ability to think at all were things that are in some places considered a gift or a privilege to have. I just assumed that these were the kind of things that everyone could have and no one could take away. I was wrong. After reading this book, I realized that, with just enough power and fear in the wrong hands, all of these privileges could be taken away.

You would think that being stripped of all your abilities that make you an individual would make you want to fight back, but this book proved the total opposite. By taking away every quality that didn’t have a set structure and made people have there own identity; “big brother” was able to control everyone. This made me want to put myself into the position of the people who were being controlled in this book because as I read about everything they had to live by such as: having set exercises to do everyday, or constantly being watch, or having “two minutes hate”, it made me think “why wouldn’t they just fight back?” But when you actually think about it, how could you fight back? Your stripped of you personality and thought to the point where you don’t even know who you are. Anything that made you think like an individual wasn’t real anymore. I think this is why things like this do happen all over the world. All it takes is one person to be able to get into someone’s head, to get one follower and then it becomes the domino effect: everyone will start to follow.

I guess that’s why everyone says “be a leader not a follower”. If there’s one thing I take with me from this book it will be that. As long as we’re all leaders, all people will stay equal in mind (the strongest part of our being), but once you become a follower of someone else, you’re then giving them that gain of power, of mind… and that’s all it takes.