Chillingly, it appears that some governments have taken such great strides in monitoring its own people that it has far surpassed anything The Party could have dreamed of.
Ignorance Is Strength
The third and final of the Party’s contradictory slogans- ‘Ignorance Is Strength’ describes an attempt by The Party to encourage its citizens to accept what they are told and to never question their policies. Thus, by encouraging people to be satisfied with ignorance and unawareness, governments can rely on support for their actions with little opposition. The manipulation of media to broadcast a one-sided view is a technique which has been employed throughout modern history. However, technological advances such as the arrival of the internet and social media, together with 24 hour news channels have brought current affairs to the general public like never before. A notable example of this is Tony Blair’s strong working relationship with the Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch; it is thought that Blair’s landslide election victories in 1997 and 2001 can be attributed in some part to the strongly supportive stance Murdoch’s papers (in particular The Sun) broadcasted to its millions of daily readers nationwide. In essence, by presenting a narrow and biased viewpoint to the public, governments are able to use mass media outlets to encourage people to follow the status quo and to not question the information they are spoon-fed. It is now fifteen years since the millennium, and yet it seems like we are drawing nearer and nearer to Nineteen-Eighty Four . The Party’s slogans seem so contradictory and caricatured that it can be hardly believed that they are being played out in real-life. However, this type of contradiction can be subtle. ‘War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength.’ Perhaps one way to escape is to exercise the judicious use of some ‘contradiction’ of our own; by ‘ speaking against’ the spoon-fed information portrayed by the media and some of the actions of modern governments across the world. 65 years since the publication of Nineteen-Eighty Four , we must ensure that this fictitious novel does not become our reality. Conclusion
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