Three Governments, One Terror
By: Madison Bechtol
As England entered its post-World War II reconstruction, people began to imagine what their rebuilt country would become after the devastating war. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a nightmarish vision of England’s new government after the reconstruction period. Fearing the worst, Orwell imagined an English government that turned into a totalitarian regime of terror that the world would not soon forget. Orwell’s fictitious nation of Oceania suggests that Nazism, Stalinism, and McCarthyism are all one in the same by drawing parallels to practices used by all three types of governments.
During World War II, a new dictator came to power in Germany. Adolf Hitler was the infamous leader of the Nazi Party and the man who savagely oppressed millions, while instilling fear in even more. The Nazi Party’s ideology included “elements of ‘every kind of political theory, from the most reactionary monarchism to pure anarchy, from unrestricted individualism to the most impersonal and rigid socialism’” (Heiden in Kurlander 531). The Nazi regime was a totalitarian government that sought to enforce adhesion and coherence. The Nazi party wanted a unified community; this meant that they needed to eliminate the cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds of their people. In essence, their people would lose all of their individual selves, and then have to mold themselves to the ideals of the Nazi party instead, or be severely punished – even killed. In Orwell’s Oceania, the citizens have no individual self. They are not even allowed to think for themselves. Every member of the country “had to live – did live, from the habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in the darkness, every moment scrutinized” (Orwell 3). There is no room for individuality. Every member of society is expected to live the same life with the same morals and rules. Anyone who dares to even think of going against these rules is inclined to be punished by the severity of death.
However, Oceania’s favor of Nazi ideals does not end there. Another major goal of the Nazi party was to strengthen the rural sector and limit social expansion within big cities. In other words, they strove to fulfill the communist ideal of having a strong rural sector in which everyone works, but where no one is more than a nameless cog in the machine. However, they never achieved this because the war caused a mass rural exodus, crushing their plans. (Rousso and Golsan 143). A similar situation arises in Oceania when the middle class is to put to work for the Party, and the people lose themselves in the process. A scene in chapter one of Nineteen Eighty-Four discusses how the workers at the Ministry of Truth must remove their chairs from their cubicles in order to participate in a government event. (Orwell 9). The workers being forced to work in confined cubicles suggests that the only concern of the ministry is the work being done and not the identities of the people who are performing the work. The Nazi Party and the Inner Party of Oceania share the idea of creating a unified nation where no individual stands out from the rest.
The government leaders of the Inner Party and Hitler also shared a common enemy. Hitler strongly believed that the world was depending on Germany to win what he believed to be the final apocalyptic battle. (Vondung 93). In Hitler’s famous, Mein Kampf, he developed a sense of light and darkness that described the relationship between the Jews and the rest of the world. Hitler believed people of Jewish heritage to be the embodiment the darkness, and that the only way to save this apocalyptic world was to rid the lands of the evil, tyrant Jews. (Vondung 92). Hitler’s hate for the Jewish population parallels Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in that Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, is in fact a Jewish man. (Orwell 11). Although the actions taken against Goldstein are not to the same caliber as the Holocaust that Hitler enacted, the government of Oceania still makes sure to remind the people every day of the hate that needs to be felt toward their Jewish perpetrator, Goldstein. Every day the citizens must participate in an activity called the Two Minutes Hate. During the Two Minutes Hate, the citizens are forced to watch Goldstein speak on a Telescreen. The people become very violent and begin to throw various objects at the screen. Screaming, violence, and vulgarity erupt from the people over a man that they have no rational reason to hate other than it being the word of Big Brother. The most horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate is not that one is obliged to take part, but that it is impossible to avoid joining in. (Orwell 14). The same situation can be seen in Nazi Germany; the people felt obligated to participate in the hate toward the Jews because they did not want to be punished for going against their leader. German citizens gave away the location of Jews in hiding to keep from being punished by the Nazi Party for the punishable act of withholding knowledge. The Germans felt obligated to help their feared leader, Hitler, in his quest to rid the country of Jews in the same way that the citizens of Oceania feel the need to participate in the hatred toward Goldstein because he is the enemy of their leader.
Another powerful dictator during World War II was Joseph Stalin of Soviet Russia. Stalin was seen as a parent, teacher, and friend even though he deprived his citizens of all their rights. He desired to create a society that embodied his ideals. His oppression of the citizens of Russia relates to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four because the citizens of Oceania admire their political leader, Big Bother, even though he has stripped them of their freedom by not allowing them to think, speak, or act freely. Like Stalin, Big Brother is thought of as a role model for the people of his nation. Citizens of Russia and Oceania must conform to the ways of their leaders or face a penalty as great as death. In Soviet Russia, the “Stalinist leaders heavily depended on a highly developed party structure which allowed them to control and penetrate all economic and social affairs” (Goldman 758). The seemingly flawless society of Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four puts Stalin’s party structure to shame. The Party that exists in Oceania is a highly developed and well-planned structure because every aspect of their society is controlled from four main buildings called ministries. There is the Ministry of Truth, which has control over all news and entertainment, the Ministry of Peace that controls the country’s constant war, the Ministry of Love, which is responsible for the practice of law and order, and the Ministry of Plenty that controls all the economic and social affairs of the nation. (Orwell 4). These four places of government allow complete control over every aspect of society and life. There is never a single breath that goes unseen in Oceania, removing every aspect of privacy from the citizens trapped within this nation.
The way the populace was treated by Hitler, Stalin, and the leaders of the Inner Party contributed to their identity loss. These three systems wanted its people to forget their cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds and conform to the ideals of the new leaders. If they did not oblige, they were severely punished or even put to death. Hitler and Stalin monitored the behavior of their citizens by using a secret police. The secret police was responsible for reporting all activity that was deemed to be rebellious against the government. A similar group is formed in the society of Oceania. All of the population’s actions and outward emotions are monitored by the Thought Police via Telescreens to ensure that they do not start thinking of revolting against Big Brother or in other words, commit the crime of “Doublethink”. Doublethink simply means “the power of holding two contratictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them” (Orwell 214). All three of these powerful leaders feared that the citizens of their nations would still develop thoughts of rebellion despite their strict enforcement of the nation’s laws.
Another ideology that Oceania has in common with the two infamous regimes is the desire to control the history associated with their nations. Hitler and Stalin both were responsible for book burnings, which meant that books that did not correlate with their ideals were eliminated from society. Hitler demanded all books be burned that did not correlate with the Nazi Party’s ideals, and Stalin wanted all books undermining communist forms of government to be removed from existence. The Ministry of Truth in Oceania takes part in a similar activity by altering historical records that do not comply with the current war in which they are engaged. Workers at this ministry are required to put documents that do not comply with the word of Big Brother into a hole in the wall of their cubicle that lead to a furnace deep inside the building. (Orwell 38). These undeniable parallels made between these two infamous regimes and Nineteen Eighty-Four instilled a fear of totalitarianism in individuals around the globe.
This fear resurfaced in the 1950s when McCarthyism brought terror to the minds of the individuals of the United States. McCarthyism was the practice of accusations of disloyalty and treason against individuals without requiring the proper evidence. It was viewed it as “a threat to U.S. democracy that undermined the American pretension to lead the “free” world” (Goodman 62). The United States was in the middle of the Cold War, and the fear of becoming a communist nation was creating paranoia throughout the land. A man named Joseph McCarthy was responsible for the creation of the madness known as McCarthyism. Many aspects of McCarthyism such as smear campaigns, informers, and book burnings hold resemblance to totalitarianism. (Goodman 62). Practices such as these were used by Hitler, Stalin, and the Party leaders of Oceania. Aspects of McCarthyism prove to be very similar to the ideologies held by these leaders.
During the McCarthyism era, no one was safe. Even the actions of people of power and prominence were monitored at all times. Anyone who was thought to be taking place in communist activities was put on trial despite inconclusive evidence. Practices similar to these took place in Nazi Germany, Stalin Russia, and Big Brother’s Oceania. In Germany, any individual accused of withholding information about the location of Jews was killed without question, and in Russia, citizens that were believed to be involved in groups that were against the communist party were murdered. The citizens of Oceania are also punished for any behavior or action that implies a thought of rebellion. If suspicion arises of any crime against the Inner Party, the individual is taken to the Ministry of Love to receive their punishment with no questions asked. Book burnings also took place during McCarthyism just like those described in Oceania, Nazi Germany, and Stalin Russia. McCarthy demanded that all books pertaining to the communist beliefs to be immediately destroyed. The idea of smear campaigns was common among Hitler, Stalin, Oceania, and McCarthyism. Hitler used propaganda and speeches to make his followers believe that the Jews were the mortal enemy, and Stalin enacted a campaign against a powerful leader to ruin his name so Stalin would be the only possible leader of Russia. Oceania enacts the Two Minutes Hate to remind the citizens that Goldstein is the only real enemy of the nation, while McCarthy used his speeches and the fellowship of powerful political figures to destroy the reputation of communism throughout the United States.
George Orwell drew on ideologies from two infamous leaders, Hitler and Stalin, to create his vision of a totalitarian government for England. The type of government created in Nineteen Eighty-Four suggests to readers that the governmental tactics used by totalitarianism, communism, and McCarthyism prove to be very similar. The nation of Oceania was used by Orwell to show individuals around the globe that totalitarianism can evolve from any type of government.
References:
Goldman, Wendy. "Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism And Nazism Compared." American Historical Review 116.3 (2011): 758. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 2 May 2014.
Goodman, Giora. "The British Government and the Challenge of McCarthyism in the Early Cold War." Journal of Cold War Studies 12.1 (2010): 62-97. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.
Kurlander, Eric. "Hitler’s Monsters: The Occult Roots of Nazism and the Emergence of the Nazi ‘Supernatural Imaginary’*." German History 30.4 (2012): 528-549. World History Collection. Web. 2 May 2014.
Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print.
Rousso, Henry, and Richard Joseph Golsan. Stalinism and Nazism: History and Memory Compared. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 2 May 2014.
Vondung, Klaus. "National Socialism as a Political Religion: Potentials and Limits of an Analytical Concept." Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions 6.1 (2005): 87-95. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.
As England entered its post-World War II reconstruction, people began to imagine what their rebuilt country would become after the devastating war. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a nightmarish vision of England’s new government after the reconstruction period. Fearing the worst, Orwell imagined an English government that turned into a totalitarian regime of terror that the world would not soon forget. Orwell’s fictitious nation of Oceania suggests that Nazism, Stalinism, and McCarthyism are all one in the same by drawing parallels to practices used by all three types of governments.
During World War II, a new dictator came to power in Germany. Adolf Hitler was the infamous leader of the Nazi Party and the man who savagely oppressed millions, while instilling fear in even more. The Nazi Party’s ideology included “elements of ‘every kind of political theory, from the most reactionary monarchism to pure anarchy, from unrestricted individualism to the most impersonal and rigid socialism’” (Heiden in Kurlander 531). The Nazi regime was a totalitarian government that sought to enforce adhesion and coherence. The Nazi party wanted a unified community; this meant that they needed to eliminate the cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds of their people. In essence, their people would lose all of their individual selves, and then have to mold themselves to the ideals of the Nazi party instead, or be severely punished – even killed. In Orwell’s Oceania, the citizens have no individual self. They are not even allowed to think for themselves. Every member of the country “had to live – did live, from the habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in the darkness, every moment scrutinized” (Orwell 3). There is no room for individuality. Every member of society is expected to live the same life with the same morals and rules. Anyone who dares to even think of going against these rules is inclined to be punished by the severity of death.
However, Oceania’s favor of Nazi ideals does not end there. Another major goal of the Nazi party was to strengthen the rural sector and limit social expansion within big cities. In other words, they strove to fulfill the communist ideal of having a strong rural sector in which everyone works, but where no one is more than a nameless cog in the machine. However, they never achieved this because the war caused a mass rural exodus, crushing their plans. (Rousso and Golsan 143). A similar situation arises in Oceania when the middle class is to put to work for the Party, and the people lose themselves in the process. A scene in chapter one of Nineteen Eighty-Four discusses how the workers at the Ministry of Truth must remove their chairs from their cubicles in order to participate in a government event. (Orwell 9). The workers being forced to work in confined cubicles suggests that the only concern of the ministry is the work being done and not the identities of the people who are performing the work. The Nazi Party and the Inner Party of Oceania share the idea of creating a unified nation where no individual stands out from the rest.
The government leaders of the Inner Party and Hitler also shared a common enemy. Hitler strongly believed that the world was depending on Germany to win what he believed to be the final apocalyptic battle. (Vondung 93). In Hitler’s famous, Mein Kampf, he developed a sense of light and darkness that described the relationship between the Jews and the rest of the world. Hitler believed people of Jewish heritage to be the embodiment the darkness, and that the only way to save this apocalyptic world was to rid the lands of the evil, tyrant Jews. (Vondung 92). Hitler’s hate for the Jewish population parallels Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in that Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, is in fact a Jewish man. (Orwell 11). Although the actions taken against Goldstein are not to the same caliber as the Holocaust that Hitler enacted, the government of Oceania still makes sure to remind the people every day of the hate that needs to be felt toward their Jewish perpetrator, Goldstein. Every day the citizens must participate in an activity called the Two Minutes Hate. During the Two Minutes Hate, the citizens are forced to watch Goldstein speak on a Telescreen. The people become very violent and begin to throw various objects at the screen. Screaming, violence, and vulgarity erupt from the people over a man that they have no rational reason to hate other than it being the word of Big Brother. The most horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate is not that one is obliged to take part, but that it is impossible to avoid joining in. (Orwell 14). The same situation can be seen in Nazi Germany; the people felt obligated to participate in the hate toward the Jews because they did not want to be punished for going against their leader. German citizens gave away the location of Jews in hiding to keep from being punished by the Nazi Party for the punishable act of withholding knowledge. The Germans felt obligated to help their feared leader, Hitler, in his quest to rid the country of Jews in the same way that the citizens of Oceania feel the need to participate in the hatred toward Goldstein because he is the enemy of their leader.
Another powerful dictator during World War II was Joseph Stalin of Soviet Russia. Stalin was seen as a parent, teacher, and friend even though he deprived his citizens of all their rights. He desired to create a society that embodied his ideals. His oppression of the citizens of Russia relates to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four because the citizens of Oceania admire their political leader, Big Bother, even though he has stripped them of their freedom by not allowing them to think, speak, or act freely. Like Stalin, Big Brother is thought of as a role model for the people of his nation. Citizens of Russia and Oceania must conform to the ways of their leaders or face a penalty as great as death. In Soviet Russia, the “Stalinist leaders heavily depended on a highly developed party structure which allowed them to control and penetrate all economic and social affairs” (Goldman 758). The seemingly flawless society of Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four puts Stalin’s party structure to shame. The Party that exists in Oceania is a highly developed and well-planned structure because every aspect of their society is controlled from four main buildings called ministries. There is the Ministry of Truth, which has control over all news and entertainment, the Ministry of Peace that controls the country’s constant war, the Ministry of Love, which is responsible for the practice of law and order, and the Ministry of Plenty that controls all the economic and social affairs of the nation. (Orwell 4). These four places of government allow complete control over every aspect of society and life. There is never a single breath that goes unseen in Oceania, removing every aspect of privacy from the citizens trapped within this nation.
The way the populace was treated by Hitler, Stalin, and the leaders of the Inner Party contributed to their identity loss. These three systems wanted its people to forget their cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds and conform to the ideals of the new leaders. If they did not oblige, they were severely punished or even put to death. Hitler and Stalin monitored the behavior of their citizens by using a secret police. The secret police was responsible for reporting all activity that was deemed to be rebellious against the government. A similar group is formed in the society of Oceania. All of the population’s actions and outward emotions are monitored by the Thought Police via Telescreens to ensure that they do not start thinking of revolting against Big Brother or in other words, commit the crime of “Doublethink”. Doublethink simply means “the power of holding two contratictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them” (Orwell 214). All three of these powerful leaders feared that the citizens of their nations would still develop thoughts of rebellion despite their strict enforcement of the nation’s laws.
Another ideology that Oceania has in common with the two infamous regimes is the desire to control the history associated with their nations. Hitler and Stalin both were responsible for book burnings, which meant that books that did not correlate with their ideals were eliminated from society. Hitler demanded all books be burned that did not correlate with the Nazi Party’s ideals, and Stalin wanted all books undermining communist forms of government to be removed from existence. The Ministry of Truth in Oceania takes part in a similar activity by altering historical records that do not comply with the current war in which they are engaged. Workers at this ministry are required to put documents that do not comply with the word of Big Brother into a hole in the wall of their cubicle that lead to a furnace deep inside the building. (Orwell 38). These undeniable parallels made between these two infamous regimes and Nineteen Eighty-Four instilled a fear of totalitarianism in individuals around the globe.
This fear resurfaced in the 1950s when McCarthyism brought terror to the minds of the individuals of the United States. McCarthyism was the practice of accusations of disloyalty and treason against individuals without requiring the proper evidence. It was viewed it as “a threat to U.S. democracy that undermined the American pretension to lead the “free” world” (Goodman 62). The United States was in the middle of the Cold War, and the fear of becoming a communist nation was creating paranoia throughout the land. A man named Joseph McCarthy was responsible for the creation of the madness known as McCarthyism. Many aspects of McCarthyism such as smear campaigns, informers, and book burnings hold resemblance to totalitarianism. (Goodman 62). Practices such as these were used by Hitler, Stalin, and the Party leaders of Oceania. Aspects of McCarthyism prove to be very similar to the ideologies held by these leaders.
During the McCarthyism era, no one was safe. Even the actions of people of power and prominence were monitored at all times. Anyone who was thought to be taking place in communist activities was put on trial despite inconclusive evidence. Practices similar to these took place in Nazi Germany, Stalin Russia, and Big Brother’s Oceania. In Germany, any individual accused of withholding information about the location of Jews was killed without question, and in Russia, citizens that were believed to be involved in groups that were against the communist party were murdered. The citizens of Oceania are also punished for any behavior or action that implies a thought of rebellion. If suspicion arises of any crime against the Inner Party, the individual is taken to the Ministry of Love to receive their punishment with no questions asked. Book burnings also took place during McCarthyism just like those described in Oceania, Nazi Germany, and Stalin Russia. McCarthy demanded that all books pertaining to the communist beliefs to be immediately destroyed. The idea of smear campaigns was common among Hitler, Stalin, Oceania, and McCarthyism. Hitler used propaganda and speeches to make his followers believe that the Jews were the mortal enemy, and Stalin enacted a campaign against a powerful leader to ruin his name so Stalin would be the only possible leader of Russia. Oceania enacts the Two Minutes Hate to remind the citizens that Goldstein is the only real enemy of the nation, while McCarthy used his speeches and the fellowship of powerful political figures to destroy the reputation of communism throughout the United States.
George Orwell drew on ideologies from two infamous leaders, Hitler and Stalin, to create his vision of a totalitarian government for England. The type of government created in Nineteen Eighty-Four suggests to readers that the governmental tactics used by totalitarianism, communism, and McCarthyism prove to be very similar. The nation of Oceania was used by Orwell to show individuals around the globe that totalitarianism can evolve from any type of government.
References:
Goldman, Wendy. "Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism And Nazism Compared." American Historical Review 116.3 (2011): 758. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 2 May 2014.
Goodman, Giora. "The British Government and the Challenge of McCarthyism in the Early Cold War." Journal of Cold War Studies 12.1 (2010): 62-97. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.
Kurlander, Eric. "Hitler’s Monsters: The Occult Roots of Nazism and the Emergence of the Nazi ‘Supernatural Imaginary’*." German History 30.4 (2012): 528-549. World History Collection. Web. 2 May 2014.
Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print.
Rousso, Henry, and Richard Joseph Golsan. Stalinism and Nazism: History and Memory Compared. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 2 May 2014.
Vondung, Klaus. "National Socialism as a Political Religion: Potentials and Limits of an Analytical Concept." Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions 6.1 (2005): 87-95. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.