The Dangers Of Totalitarianism Philosophy Essay

The Dangers Of Totalitarianism Philosophy EssayTotalitarianism Totalitarianism Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authorization exercises absolute and centralized control over entirely aspects of life, the private is subordinated to the bring up, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed (Dictionary.com). Essenti onlyy, totalism is a font of government in which the mortal or multitude in major post seek to maintain absolute control over wholly person under their authority, with virtually all importance eliminated from the concept of an individual. George Orwell witnessed firsthand the direful lengths to which totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia would go in order to sustain and augment their precedent and was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppressions he observed. provided the phenomenon of totalitarianism, though somewhat fresh in its twentieth-century uttermost, is zilch in the buff. Prominent philosophers, from the antique Plato and Aristotle to the early-modern Machiavelli and Hobbes, discussed totalitarianism as it manifested itself in its various forms, especially monarchy or, more controversially, in Platos polis. In this sense, totalitarianism and its char shapeeristics have been important concerns for writers and political philosophers throughout the ages.1984 1984 is a political novel written with the purpose of warf atomic number 18ning readers in the westward of the dangers of totalitarian government. Orwells primary goal in 1984 is to demonstrate the terrifying possibilities of a totalitarian parliamentary law, the nearly(prenominal) extreme realization imagin commensurate of a modern government with absolute motive. The title of the novel was meant to indicate to its readers in 1949 that the bosh re infixed a real possibility for the near future if totalitarianism were not opposed, some variation of the world described in the nov el could become a reality in only thirty-five years. Orwell was touch on by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments to monitor and control their citizens every aspect of human life to the extent that counterbalance having a disloyal imagination is against the law. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is the looking glass into Orwells horrifying perfective aspect communist nine, where all of Winstons castigate paranoids and fears be realities. Winstons timidly rebellious spirit sets out to challenge the limits of the ships companys force-out and attempts to gain individuality towards throughout the plot. This ohmic resistance allows the reader to understand, through Winstons eyes, the callers harsh oppression which includes Psychological usage, somatogenic tame, Control of Information and History and Language as Mind Control.Psychological Manipulation The company barrages its citizens with mental manipulation in their attempt to control the human mind and to overwhelm the minds capacity for independent thought. The political party seeks to eliminate all throughtcrime, the crime of thinking anything against the infallible Big chum. The act of thinking al to the highest degree committing a crime is, the essential crime that contained all others in itself (Orwell, 19). That challenge is considered by the Party the most horrible, for only with thought and a assured decision to take action depart any action be performed without thoughtcrime, no crime would be committed. As more(prenominal), the Party utilizes every attain satis accompanimentory method of eliminating thoughtcrime. Winston commits a thoughtcrime when he purchases a diary and in it writes, dump with Big Brother, (Orwell, 19). He then reflects on the inevitable consequences of his action Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with, make no difference, the Thought Police would get him just the same, (Orwell, 19). The Party has the power to re alize any committed thoughtcrime and to punish the criminal. Additionally, the giant telescreen in every citizens room blasts a constant stream of propaganda designed to make the failures of the Party reckon to be successes. The telescreens overly monitor behavior everywhere they go, citizens are continuously reminded, especially by direction of the ever-present signs reading sizeable BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, that the authorities are scrutinizing them. 1984 reveals that technology, which is generally perceived as working toward clean good, can also facilitate the most unhallowed evil. Furthermore, the Party weakens family social system by inducting children into Junior Spies, an organization which brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any cases of disloyalty to the Party. The Party also forces individuals to suppress their awakenual desires, treating sex as only a procreative duty to create new Party members.Realizing the importance of the human m ind, the Party not only threatens the society, only when also channels the peoples potential into actions to benefit the Party. The Party institutes the Hate uttermost for two minutes every day, a film of Emmanuel Goldestein, the pronounced oppositeness of the people, is sh bear and viewers are driven to anger. As Winston declares, The horrible thing around the Two Minutes Hate was not that wizard was obliged to act a part, but that it was im affirmable to avoid joining in, (Orwell 12). By utilizing the power of the human mind, the Part is able to further their control over their society.Physical Control In addition to manipulating their minds, the Party also controls the bodies of its citizens. The Party eternally watches for any sign of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes, even a piffling facial twitch could lead to an arrest (Orwell, Ch 6 or 7). A persons own nervous system becomes his greatest enemy. The Party forces its members to undergo potty morning ex ercises called the Physical Jerks, and then to work long, grueling days at government agencies, keeping people in a general state of exhaustion (Orwell, Ch 3). Anyone who does manage to defy the Party is punished and reeducated through dictatorial and brutal torture. When Winston is arrested, he is able to experience first-hand the punishment constructed by the Party. The Party fully intends in the importance and rightness of their actions, and OBrien, who is an important member of the Party, explains how their society is different We are not content the negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own secrete willEveryone is washed clean, (Orwell, 210). Winston must fully surrender to OBrien. It does not involvement what he says, but rather what he retrieves, for in the mind lies the crowning(prenominal) power. Describing the process enacted by the Party, OBrien says, in that location are three stages in y our reintegrationThere is learning, at that place is understanding, and there is acceptance, (Orwell, 215). In order to attain the state desired by the Party, one deemed mentally deranged must undergo all three of these stages, as Winston eventually does. However, Winston initially is unable to truly believe everything said by the Party. He is able to say that he believes, and possibly wants to believe, but doubt still remains. As the final push to belief, Winston is taken to the infamous Room 101. OBrien tells Winston, The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the worldit varies from individual to individual (Orwell, 233). The greatest possible torture is individualized, and with this torture, comes anything. After going through weeks of this intense treatment, Winston himself comes to the conclusion that nothing is more powerful than physical pain-no emotional loyalty or moral conviction can overcome it. At the end of the book Orwell writes, He had won the victory ov er himself. He loved Big Brother (Orwell, 245). By conditioning the minds of their victims with physical torture, the absolute power of the Party allows Winston to believe in everything that society does.Control of Information History The Party also has a control over all sources of information. It manages and rewrites the content of all newspapers and histories for its own ends. The Party does not allow individuals to keep physical records documenting the past which prevents people from challenging the governments motivations, actions, and authority. Citizens become perfectly willing to believe whatever the Party tells them. Winston believes having no physical records such as photographs and documents, makes ones life lose its dodging in ones memory. Winston only vaguely remembers a time before the Party came to power, and memories of his past enter his mind only in dreams, which are the most secure repositories for thoughts, feelings, and memories that must be suppressed in waki ng life. Furthermore, Winston considers Oceanias family to the other countries in the world, Eurasia and Eastasia. According to official tale, Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia, but Winston knows that the records have been changed. Winston remembers that no one had comprehend of Big Brother, the leader of the Party, before 1960, but stories about him now appear in histories going back to the 1930s. By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all of its actions in the present. (Chapter III)Language as Mind Control One of Orwells most important messages in 1984 is that language is of central importance to human thought because it structures and limits the ideas that individuals are capable of expressing. The Party has introduced Newspeak to replace English. Its purpose is to alter the structure of language to make it impossible to even conceive of disobedient or rebe llious thoughts, because there would be no words with which to think them. Syme, an ready Party member who works on a revised lexicon of Newspeak, says, Dont you see that the whole fix of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it (Orwell 46). The Party is constantly refining and perfecting Newspeak, with the crowning(prenominal) goal that no one will be capable of conceptualizing anything that expertness question the Partys absolute power.Conclusion on 1984 Intro to Philosophers The partys methods, from its implementation of mental manipulation and absolute physical control to its control of information and history and its use of language as mind control, point toward the ultimate aim of the party itself absolute, centralized control over the lives of the inhabitants of Oceania. This goal characterizes the ruling power of Oceania squarely as totalitarian. The li ne between the unavowed and public spheres, present in every single other governance, is blurred to such an extent that every action becomes inherently political. Before the twentieth century, the idea of such a regime was itself unconceivable nevertheless, the philosophers of the past such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Hobbes provide a glimpse to power similar in extent to the one Orwell chronicles in 1984.Plato Platos Republic gives this ancient perspective on the theater of powerful political orders. It is not difficult to advance the claim that the polis Plato presents in his Republic is essentially totalitarian. The guardians of the polis itself use several of the same methods as those of Oceania, and one of the aims of the polis is to create a harmonious structure, one which is often identified with an idea of unity-is similar to that of a totalitarian regime which, by destroying the difference between the public and private spheres and by bringing every action to t he political realm, strives to create a unity among the men subject to it. While two things separate the polis from the Party-popular rapture with the rulers and the lack of incentive to rule-some of the ideas present in the Republic, such as the absorption of political power and the exertion of power over fooling life, are clear even in Orwells 1984.The first major component of the totalitarian-like regime in the polis is the extent to which political power is concentrated in the guardian class of citizens. In the polis, as in other totalitarian orders, there is no alternative to the ruling party. The guardians are meant to be the only power capable of ruling, and the entire structure of the polis is founded upon the idea that they will in event be the rulers. A similar structure is found in totalitarian systems, wherein power is firmly concentrated on one bloc or person. Socrates insists that this concentration of power does not indicate anything more than a means to a good en d and that the producers will be grateful to those supra them for ruling philosophically. There is no such guarantee in a totalitarian regime, but for better or worse, whether in Platos utopian (or dystopian) society or in potential systems of the future, once power is centralized to such a great extent, there is no guarantee that the rulers will not abuse of their subjects for their own benefit, tangible or otherwise, except for their good will and magnanimity.The second major totalitarian feature of the polis is its control over the daily life of citizens, which is accomplished by means of education, itself a form of psychological manipulation. Control over popular forms of media constitutes one of the key assets of the rulers of the polis, just as it does in 1984, and poetry, music, theatre, and other such arts, a vital part of the cultivation of a city in Ancient Greek times, would be subject to the regulation and approval of the citys ruler. The introduction of the noble lie a dds to the totalitarian temper of the guardians. The noble lie, despite the good it intends to bestow upon the populace, is still a lie, and it represents a propagandistic concern with regard to how much the populace is actually able to consent to the leadership itself. In addition, education itself poses an issue in this respect. disposed(p) the extensive control over education by the guardians, the possibility of corporation deception, a feature most often associated with totalitarian regimes, becomes real. Despite Platos pressure level that these methods are to be used for good, they are in reality scarily similar to those utilized by the Party in 1984.The third likeness between the polis and a totalitarian regime is found in the flavor of collectivism. The terms by which Plato refers to the members of his society provide some insight into this unshakable collectivism. Never is any individual member of society referred to as an individual. This fact emphasizes the collecti ve sense of unity and harmony for which Platos polis strives. However, it is important to remember that one of the ultimate aims of totalitarian government is to eliminate the distinction between the individual and other members of society, creating the same sense of concord found in the Republic. yet Plato takes this collectivism one step further, instituting the sharing of wives and the mass, rather than familial, upbringing of children, much in the same way that more communistic totalitarian regimes mop up any trace of natural ties found through familial bonds in favor of those artificially created by the state.