Propaganda Currently, propaganda is being projected to Americans all across the United States every time they turn on a radio, television or look at a billboard. Nearly every politician is using these promotional opportunities to influence the minds’ of citizens before the upcoming election. Whether they are aware of it or not, these Americans are being subjected to propaganda. Propaganda is a method of communication that is used to sway the attitude of a population by only presenting one side of an argument.
Much like our government today uses propaganda to persuade Americans’ opinions before an election, the government in George Orwell’s 1984 used propaganda to control the minds of the people of Oceania. Within the first two pages of the novel, the reader is introduced to more than one form of propaganda and this is only the beginning of what the people of Oceania ultimately experience. Throughout the entirety of the novel, telescreens play a key role in distributing propaganda to the homes of the citizens.
While administering the government’s message to the people, the telescreen worked double in ensuring that the people of Oceania were receiving the messages, and enthusiastically at that. The telescreens could not be completely turned off, only dimmed; guaranteeing everyone received the message the government wanted them to acquire (Orwell 2). Although telescreens do not exist nowadays, they are extremely similar to the propaganda placed on a billboard, in a commercial or perhaps a sign in someone’s yard.
It is impossible to change the message being portrayed from a billboard and it would be difficult to change the channel in time when a commercial full of brainwashing jargon comes on while watching your favorite television show. Sure, one can escape these things by not leaving their home and not turning on a television or radio, but those would all be fairly uncommon in today’s society. Another form of propaganda used popularly in today’s society, also still referring to politics, occurs during political rallies. Before an election, members of each political party hold rallies to encourage citizens to vote in their favor.
At these rallies, the politician often slanders the member they are running against, fabricating their format and practically defining propaganda. During these rallies, there are frequently people that are already supportive of the politician that do not need swayed. These people are often “rallying” behind the politician, joining in with the slandering of the opposing party and cheering for their self-acclaimed coalition. This hardly differs from the Two Minutes Hate in 1984 except that the people of Oceania do not have a choice of who to rally behind.
Daily, they must gather in front of a telescreen, watch the propaganda presented to them and then rally behind their totalitarian government. While they are rallying behind their government they are also expressing their hatred for their ultimate enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein. It is almost hard to believe how similar this concept of brainwashing is to today’s usage of political rallies. Possibly the greatest form of propaganda used in 1984 is the party slogans. The party slogans are voiced to the people of Oceania repeatedly until they believe that they are true, although the phrases are apparent opposites, or paradoxes.
The slogans are “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength. ” Of the three, “War is Peace” pertains the most to the propaganda used in today’s society (Orwell 4). In the novel, the three nations (Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia) are in a never ending war, of which, no one nation or two nations combined can ever win. At the start of the novel, Oceania’s alliance is with Eastasia as they are both at war with Eurasia. However, eventually this alliance alters and Oceania is suddenly in the midst of war with Eurasia.
This is exceptionally similar to the changing of alliances between the United States, China, and Russia. Another form of propaganda associated with war used within in the novel is the concept of doublethink. Doublethink is the ability for someone to hold two opposing thoughts in their mind at one time. In 1984, during Hate Week, the Party Speaker suddenly changes the nation he is referring to as their ally, to their enemy and vice versa. The crowd immediately accepts his words as if it had never been any other way. In today’s society we use a concept more commonly known as doublespeak.
Doublespeak is extremely similar to doublethink; however, people today are not as ignorant to what is going on, the events are just being fabricated by the government. For example, a newscast may call an invasion into a foreign country a “landing” or planning for an aggressive war tactic is known as “defense strategy. ” These are ways that the government can brainwash the population into believing that we are the only country to confide in (Bennett). The book Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, edited by Harry Elmer Barnes, defines the permanent war conomy of the United States, much alike the one necessary in 1984. It tells of the fraudulence used by the United States government in order to enter World War I and World War II. Ultimately, it covers the censorship by the government of the media, libraries, the education department and many other important means of documentation. The Dynamics of War and Revolution, written by Lawrence Dennis, discusses the necessity for perpetual wars to overcome unemployment, increase profits, and use up excess wealth. It finally explains that foreign markets are secured through war and foreign aid (Bennett).
These books are examples of how the slogan “War is Peace” is truly used in our society. When George Orwell wrote 1984 he did it as a sort of warning to the people of that time of what could happen if they gave in to the overwhelming control of a totalitarian government. From the time he wrote this powerful novel (1949), to today, the warnings have continued to hold true without wavering. From the forcefully obvious propaganda in the novel, to the close comparisons that can still be made to today’s society; Orwell could not have written a more convincing, imaginarily accurate novel.
