Brave New World vs. 1984
... the population under its thumb. With slogans such as “Freedom is slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength” , the dwellers of Air Strip One are convinced that their leader Big Brother is the one true savior. Every minute of their lives, the people are bombarded by useless information from the never sleeping telescreen. Every day they are told things like, “we have won the battle for production! Returns now completed of the output of all classes of consumption goods show the standard of living has risen by no less than 20 percent over the last year.” Of course all the facts produced are unverifiable and almost certainly completely false. Furthermore, just as in Brave New World, freedom of expression is non-existent. No books are published that are not somehow related to the successes of Big Brother and The Party. In the Ministry of Truth, facts are modified daily to suit the needs of the party. Once this is done, the populace is asked to perform what is known as ‘doublethink’ and forget what they once thought to be true and accept what is now presented to them. With the aforementioned mechanisms, The Party has rendered the population not only powerless to act, but also to think. Totalitarian governments deprive their citizens of essential freedoms and rights but they also provide a sense of security. In the case of Brave New World, the population doesn’t need to think for themselves, leaving the important decisions to the leaders of the world. Bred from birth, the Gammas, Deltas and even the lowly Epsilons are meant to feel that their menial tasks are essential to the global cause. They feel secure in the fact that they are contributing in a small way, but that anything vital will be passed on to someone of greater intelligence than themselves. After all, “everyone works for everyone else. We couldn’t do without anyone. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons.” In addition to this, everyone is doing the same things. Apart from the obvious physical differences, everyone is doing the same thing. After work, everyone goes to play Obstacle or Electro Magnetic Golf. In fact when Morgana inquires to Bernard, “what were you playing this afternoon?.... Obstacle, or Electro-magnetic,” she is shocked to find out that he was doing neither. Morgana, the typical orthodox, is secure in her identity, Bernard, however, is not. In sum, the populace is made to feel secure in knowing that they are part of a greater whole. In likeness to Brave New World, the people of 1984 feel secure in the knowledge that they are part of a greater whole. Everybody contributes in some way to the survival of the party, and the more attentive you are to your duties the less likely you are to receive a visit from the dreaded Thought Police, “... The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered.” People are comforted by the belief that all the bad ones will be found and promptly brought to justice by the almost omnipotent forces of justice. The difference between 1984 and Brave New World is that, in the former, the sense of security. Unlike the peaceful citizens of Brave New World, the residents of 1984 live in a war torn land. Amidst this, they enjoy a sense of security in thinking that their living conditions are the best they could possibly hope for. Before the great civil war, the capitalists in their big top hats hoarded the world’s riches and resources while the rest suffered. Even if this were true, which it is not, things couldn’t be much worse. As Winston wonders about his neighborhood, “were there always these vistas of rotting nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with bulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls sagging in all directions?” It is possible to conclude then, beyond a doubt, that the sense of security provided by this totalitarian rule is a false one. Finally, while totalitarian governments take away civil rights and freedoms and provide a sense of security...