Fictional abuse of power by the government

In his book, George Orwell describes how governments behave in order to keep their positions of power, and one of the topics he addresses is fictional government abuse of power.

Governments allegedly employ a number of strategies to make sure they always control what the state must do and when. The Nazi regime in Germany and the former Soviet Union are two examples of administrations that have been compared to Orwell’s theories on governance. The majority of people adhere to the belief that the inhabitants of the United States cannot be governed by authoritative forms of government. However, the powers of the current state president make people think that they are actually adopting the dictatorship forms of governments.

Distortion of language

There are elements of distortion of language in the novel. The writer understood the fact that language plays a key role to the thoughts of people. Language is responsible for structuring and limiting the ideas which individuals have the ability of expressing and forming. The picture of a distorted government is painted by the description of the Orwellian language which is also referred as “Newspeak” to the people of Ocenia (Orwell 1-2). There existed different ministries within the government. There was the ministry of plenty which concerned itself with the economic affairs of the people. The ministry of love was responsible for law and order in the government. The ministry of truth catered for news, entertainment, education and fine arts while the ministry of peace dealt with war. It is worth noting that the names of these ministries were in contradiction to what they stood for. The party believed that by applying the concept of doublethink, they would ironically give names in conflict to what they really meant. This is due to the fact that the intention was to give a contradiction between the names of the ministry and what it actually meant (Kalpakgian 1).

Orwell also emphasizes in the novel the concept of double speak where the leaders would use their words mainly to distort instead of inform with the intention of staying in power.

The party in the novel introduced newspeak in order to replace English. Furthermore, the intention of the party was to narrow the range of words such that the cases of thought crime would be reduced. There were efforts to constantly perfect and refine newspeak with the intention that the citizens would not be able to understand anything that may prompt them to question the party’s power. In the recent political scenes, there is enough evidence that the current governments have been using the tool of language distortion to be able to misguide the public or protect themselves from some of the mistakes they have made.

There are evidences of language distortion especially in the administration of Bush.

For example, the administration deceived its way through the manipulation of language into engaging into war with Iraq. In Obama’s administration, there were incidences where he could use words to sound politically correct where he didn’t have the interest and the intention to reverse the incidences of ignorance and error regarding terrorism. Even in the current regime of Trump, there are incidences of language distortion through the speech he uses. The current president has the tendency of using manipulative language in many instances that he has managed to brainwash many Americans. Therefore, Trump administration has been very fond of hanging on to the ideas of using words just because they sound good and not because it is the truth.

Historical Revolution

The party ensured that they employed the tactic of historical revolution to be able to effectively manipulate the people. The party stated that the new world order would transform and change the old traditions. Winston, one of the characters in the novel realized that he was living in an inhuman world as he reflected on his life in the past. The world offered by Big brother along with the party was unbearable as he felt enslaved, disentangled and dehumanized. The current life he was living in the ministry of truth could not be compared to the memories he had in his childhood. This is due to the fact that the basic rights such as the right to marry and even the freedom of speech had been denied.

The historical revolution had affected three main areas.

There was the distortion of the concept of marriage by infringing this right from the people. Propaganda was also being issued everywhere by the party to ensure that the memories and experiences of the past were wiped out. Truth was also being distorted through the manipulation of the belief system that had existed in the past. As a result it is sad to note that Winston lived a very lonely life as he was deprived of family life. The Ministry of Truth was being guided by three ruling philosophies which were distorted and misguided. The slogans which read war is peace, ignorance is strength and freedom is slavery were able to destroy all records of the past and present a misguided version to the people.

There are incidences in Bush’s administration where there was historical revolution.

Initially, there was peace between the U.S and Iraq (Binion 1-2). During the administration of Bush, there were a lot of engagements between the United States and Iraq which didn’t exist before and as a result Iraq developed growing support for extremist groups which led to war. Obama’s administration actively participated in a positive historical revolution to rewrite cases of racism and inequality in the country. In the current administration being governed by Trump there have been incidences where he has attempted to try and rewrite history. In one of his tweets he claims that Jackson could have prevented the Civil war from happening which is close to impossible. Therefore his opinion on the historical event that had already occurred is an attempt to rewrite history.

Constant surveillance

The act of constant surveillance plays a major role in ensuring that the government remains in power for longer time. In the Novel, Orwell puts it as “THE BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” The police officers are meant to watch every move of the people who are within the state. The freedom of expression is curtailed especially if their opinions are in contrary to the loyalty that the government expects to get from them (Binion 1-2). The individuals live in paranoid situation because they are not confident enough because they may undergo torture. The perfect example is seen in the current world whereby anyone who tries to oppose the president is likely to be taken into the courts of law to answer questions that are related to the actions that they take.

Unending propaganda

Unending propaganda is a way used by the government to make the citizens think that the government in place is very effective. The governments use the news broadcasts to ensure that they give the citizen the good progress. Because the governments turn out to be very authoritative, they normally do not have any other place to get the occurrence of the one. They have to believe the news from one broadcast. The use of propaganda has been effective in ensuring that the citizens fully believe in the news that is given concerning the governments. The governments of the United States to ensure that the citizens turn against Iraq at some point in time had initially used the unending propaganda technique (Binion 1-2). Trump is also said to be using numerous forms of propaganda to ensure that he occupies the seat.

Fear

There are also various forms of torture to make sure that governments remain in power. It has been noted that most individuals have been told to migrate back to their countries. The foreigners are made to live in perpetual fear because they do not know what awaits them in the country as the time goes by. Most individuals find it even difficult to ensure that they put the government on toes because they fear being deported. Some individuals even try to remain calm to the extent that they do not even apply for food. The families live have the fear of having their families getting ruined because of their mistakes.

Work Cited

Binion, Karla. “Bush Lies and Manipulates Public and Congress”. Ratville times, Apr. 2003,

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Bushlies.html Accessed 26 May 2017

Kalpakgian, Mitchell. “Cultural Revolution in Orwell’s 1984 And America’s 2014” - Truth and Charity Forum. Truthandcharityforum.org. 2017,

http://truthandcharityforum.org/cultural-revolution-in-orwells-1984-and-americas-2014/ Accessed 26 May 2017.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty Four. 1st ed. London: Royal National Institute for the Blind.