Thought crimes
"He who controls the past controls the future." --The Party
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth. He spends his days rewriting history for The Party. Words that were once truth are now gone and the next generation of people will never know the old ones existed. NewSpeak is the new language and it is good. Those who remember the old ways are ordered to forget. If they don't forget The Party will make them suffer. They will be persecuted, gutted, their personality destroyed and replaced with love only for The Party. Individuality is not allowed.
Personal thought is subdued, repressed then annihilated. The Party is god, the benevolent provider and destroyer of all that is. Winston lives and works for The Party. He doesn't question their existence.
The great awakening
One day, a thin almost lifeless thought interrupts Winston's daily machinations. He actually wonders if there is more to life than serving The Party. Suddenly, everything Winston has done and thought comes into question. When Julia tells Winston she loves him, Winston is thunderstruck. Another thought crime is born. Suddenly, Winston is opened up to a new world where love exists side by side with free thought. For awhile it is beautiful yet bittersweet because they know their time is limited.
The Party will discover their crime.
About the book
While Orwell's book title 1984 has come and gone the idea of a totalitarian government has never seemed more plausible. One thing I found most interesting in reading the book again is that "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake." There is no thought to good only to power and how to hold that power.
Lies become truth and truth becomes a lie. No one questions what they see and are told. They look to The Party to provide the answers and not one is ever questioned. There is no rational discussion. There is no discussion at all.
In our world, the lines have been drawn and no one seeks reconciliation. Passion, morality and truth are defined on television screens or in people's iPhones, computers and tablets.
The Party dictates what the truth is and is not. The Party decides what shall be heard and heard not. One side believes the other is evil and the same is true for the other side.
There is danger in Orwell's 1984. The suppression of ideas and thought both good and bad is abhorrent to liberty. While conservatives are chased from college campuses because liberals do not want them to speak and progressives are castigated for having soft hearts, The Party stands by and encourages the divide. Like a vulture it sits above us spewing lies to tear us apart.
Power expansion continues and both sides are one.
