Orwell’s Big Brother: Merely Fiction?
by Murray N. Rothbard
on July 4, 2013
[Rothbards
review of George Orwells
Nineteen Eight-Four (Harcourt, 1949) appeared in
Analysis, September
1949, p. 4]
In recent
years, many writers have given us their vision of the coming collectivist
future. At the turn of the century, neither Edward Bellamy nor H. G. Wells
suspected that the collectivist societies of their dreams were so close at hand.
As collectivism sprouted following World War I, many keen observers felt that
there was a big difference between the idyllic Edens pictured by Bellamy and
Wells and the actual conditions of the various waves of the future.
Notable among
these revised forecasts of the world of the future were Aldous Huxleys
Brave New World and Ayn
Rands Anthem. Both
of their future worlds, evil as they were, had saving graces. Huxleys future
was spiritually dead, but at least the masses were happy; Ayn Rands dictators
were timid, stupid men who permitted a renascent individualist to escape from
the strangling collectivist world and begin life anew.
George
Orwells collectivist Utopia has plugged all the loopholes. There is no hope at
all for the individual or for humanity, and so the effect on the reader is
devastating. Orwells future is run by a Party whose job is the total exercise
of Power, and it goes about its job with diabolic efficiency and ingenuity. The
Party represents itself as the embodiment of the principles of Ingsoc, or
English Socialism. These principles turn out to be: blind, unquestioning
obedience to the Party, and equally blind hatred of any person or group the
Party proclaims as its enemy. These emotions are the only ones permitted to
anybody; all others, such as personal and family love, are systematically
stamped out.
All ideas are of course treasonable and subversivethe only persons permitted to
live are those who unthinkingly parrot the Party Line. Any man with a bent for
independent thought is subtly encouraged in his heresy by the Thought Police.
Then, when he has come to realize the nature of the regime and hates it
thoroughly, the Ministry of Love takes over and, via the most horrible forms of
torture, burns out of him any spark of human dignity. Finally, the heretic goes
to his slaughter convinced of the goodness of his persecutors. He dies loving
the Party and its mythical leader, Big Brother. Not even martyrdom is permitted
in the inferno of the future.
To accomplish
its purpose of destroying the human mind and heart, the Party uses: constant
propaganda, inducing all to love Big Brother and hate his enemies; the
destruction of truth by continually altering historical records to conform to
the ever-changing Party Line thus history is destroyed and all truth flows from
the Party; the destruction of language to make it impossible to think
independent thoughts by confusing the meaning of words and by introducing a new
gibberish-language; and the destruction of logic by a process known as
doublethink defined as the capacity to hold in ones mind two contradictory
beliefs at the same time.
One
significant method that the Party uses to remain in power is to contrive to keep
its country always at war with some other country. The other countries are also
run by similar parties, though each have different names. By the process of
doublethink every loyal Party member believes that his part will ultimately
conquer the world, yet also recognizes that all the countries tacitly engage in
a war that never becomes too hot. Thus, each Party has an excuse to starve and
terrorize its subjects in the name of military necessity, while its ruler
remains secure from any wartime disaster.
I understand
how, said Winston
Smith, the pathetic heretic of
Nineteen Eight-Four,but I dont understand
why. Why does the Party
do all this? One of its leaders explains:
The Party
seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of
others; we are interested solely in power. We are different from all the
oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others were
cowards and hypocrites. They never had the courage to recognize their motives.
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.
Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution.
The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. How does one man
assert his power over another? By making him suffer. Unless he is suffering, how
can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in
inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and
putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. In our world,
there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasementa world
of fear and treachery and torment. If you want a picture of the future, imagine
a boot stamping on a human face forever. Orwells collectivist world of the
future is doubtless a nightmarebut is it merely a dream?
Murray N.
Rothbard (19261995) was dean of the Austrian School. He was an economist,
economic historian, and libertarian political philosopher. See Murray N.
Rothbard’s
article archives.
You can subscribe
to future articles by Murray N. Rothbard via this
RSS feed.