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wingedbeastA couple weeks ago, I presented my fan-theory that 1984 can be viewed as Party Propaganda. The purpose isn't to make the reader think of the Party or Big Brother as good or worthy. The Party, in its way, doesn't want to fool you. It wants you to fool yourself out of fear of the Party. No, what it wants is to be viewed as impossibly large and all rebellion to be viewed as impossibly small.
Winston Smith, as a character, is well built for that purpose. Winston Smith is the High School burnout, the one who has lost all sense of ambition for popularity and just wants to get on without being hastled. He's the one who doesn't have much of a social place in the world and makes up for it, in his own head, by being smarter than all those people who buy into all the bullshit.
I'm not saying that he's necessarily wrong that it's all bullshit, but he doesn't do anything with that recognition.
In Winston's immaturity, throughout the book we've never seen him doubt his own assumptions. He moves swiftly from a state of mind that is absolutely certain of being right about something to having been wrong but being absolutely certain that he is right, this time. At no time does he take the revelation that he is so very wrong about something as an indication that he is, about anything else, fallible.
And, Winston's rebellion is kept deliberately small. Maintaining his own mind, simply continuing to hate Big Brother is his rebellion. Even with that in mind, the three final chapters can all be labeled "Party Wins". In one, the Party wins by being aware of Winston's final rebellion. In the next, the Party wins by subjecting Winston to his worst fear. In the final, Winston finally defeats himself in the name of the Party, seemingly while routinely watching a telescreen, and gets shot for his trouble.
Party Wins, Party Wins, Party Wins.
And, I really don't buy it. Okay, I buy that the Party can compel Winston to act the part. But, I still don't buy that the Party has the capacity to understand Winston's internal thoughts so clearly, even with Winston being pretty much the training-video version of a subject.
So, I want to close off this deconstruction not by repeating text (though, you are invited to quote as you like in the comments), but by repeating two important thoughts I've had throughout this text.
The first is that these are the sins of all organizations. Be they nations, businesses, schools, churches, subcultures built around the shared appreciation of rare vintage hot-dogs, what have you. The easiest way for an organization to fail to avoid the sins of power-seeking and power-for-its-own-sake are to imagine that it hasn't already failed.
This means that the challenge of 1984 is not merely to reject the thinking of The Party or merely to reject the selfishness of Winston Smith. It's to acknowledge the worst parts about them and still see ourselves in them.
It may be impossible to create any organization without the wrongs of The Party or to create an individual without any of the unstated selfishness and egotism of Winston Smith. But, it is only through careful awareness that we can limit the power of these wrongs and manage them.
The second thought is a repeat of last week's point. The Party will not survive for long. Either success or failure will destroy it. The reason why we must go through all the effort that is entailed in the first thought is that this way will destroy us, anyway.
Here's hoping we can take the message.
Next week, we start on Brave New World. I have a hard copy
Winston Smith, as a character, is well built for that purpose. Winston Smith is the High School burnout, the one who has lost all sense of ambition for popularity and just wants to get on without being hastled. He's the one who doesn't have much of a social place in the world and makes up for it, in his own head, by being smarter than all those people who buy into all the bullshit.
I'm not saying that he's necessarily wrong that it's all bullshit, but he doesn't do anything with that recognition.
In Winston's immaturity, throughout the book we've never seen him doubt his own assumptions. He moves swiftly from a state of mind that is absolutely certain of being right about something to having been wrong but being absolutely certain that he is right, this time. At no time does he take the revelation that he is so very wrong about something as an indication that he is, about anything else, fallible.
And, Winston's rebellion is kept deliberately small. Maintaining his own mind, simply continuing to hate Big Brother is his rebellion. Even with that in mind, the three final chapters can all be labeled "Party Wins". In one, the Party wins by being aware of Winston's final rebellion. In the next, the Party wins by subjecting Winston to his worst fear. In the final, Winston finally defeats himself in the name of the Party, seemingly while routinely watching a telescreen, and gets shot for his trouble.
Party Wins, Party Wins, Party Wins.
And, I really don't buy it. Okay, I buy that the Party can compel Winston to act the part. But, I still don't buy that the Party has the capacity to understand Winston's internal thoughts so clearly, even with Winston being pretty much the training-video version of a subject.
So, I want to close off this deconstruction not by repeating text (though, you are invited to quote as you like in the comments), but by repeating two important thoughts I've had throughout this text.
The first is that these are the sins of all organizations. Be they nations, businesses, schools, churches, subcultures built around the shared appreciation of rare vintage hot-dogs, what have you. The easiest way for an organization to fail to avoid the sins of power-seeking and power-for-its-own-sake are to imagine that it hasn't already failed.
This means that the challenge of 1984 is not merely to reject the thinking of The Party or merely to reject the selfishness of Winston Smith. It's to acknowledge the worst parts about them and still see ourselves in them.
It may be impossible to create any organization without the wrongs of The Party or to create an individual without any of the unstated selfishness and egotism of Winston Smith. But, it is only through careful awareness that we can limit the power of these wrongs and manage them.
The second thought is a repeat of last week's point. The Party will not survive for long. Either success or failure will destroy it. The reason why we must go through all the effort that is entailed in the first thought is that this way will destroy us, anyway.
Here's hoping we can take the message.
Next week, we start on Brave New World. I have a hard copy
