Abuse Of Power In 1984 By George Orwell

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, there are many powerful compelling themes such as the idea of having vast amounts of power, similar to an oligarchy, the concept of mind control, and finally the theory of War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. These three topics are all genuinely relevant to the Mongolian empire, and how Genghis Khan became one of the most influential and robust leaders of all time with similar actions of the party in the novel of 1984, but their power would be less prevailing if they did not have the support from a band of illiterate people.

The idea of an Oligarchy is very prevalent in the novel 1984 with the theory of a small group of people running the territory of Oceania. This small group is known

as the party, the party has complete and total control over the people of Oceania, the people have little to no say because if they disagree or think otherwise of the party’s views they will be executed or imprisoned. Orwell states in Goldstein’s book that most regimes fail because they seek power but not absolute power and with absolute power you cannot fail. The party does a good job controlling power and they have no competition or chance of losing power because of the lack of education in the proles.

The party is quite comparable to the Mongolian Empire and Genghis Khan because in 1209 Khan had launched a major initiative to gain land to help acquire more power. Khan had many followers known as Khan’s childhood which is similar to the proles in 1984. The proles blindly followed the actions of the party which is what the childhood did in the early 1200’s, Khan’s war tactics were extremely savage and barbaric and the childhood continued to praise his actions because they felt secure with their lack of education.

Another significant approach is the use of mind control in the novel of 1984, the party used the concept of doublethink. When the party used doublethink which is accepting contrary opinions and beliefs at the same time, they had a goal which was to manipulate the minds of the less intelligent. This became very successful in their society and helped them gain power because what they did was always “right” in the minds of the proles. Also when an unordinary prole was to act abnormal and go against the party they would be captured by the thought police for thought crimes and face crimes they would be captured and before the party would execute them or imprison them they would go out of their way to brainwash their mind to believe in the party’s ways and one example is when Winston is captured and O’Brien teaches him that 2+2=5 when clearly it equals 4. As time progressed and the torture became more baneful it would change the views of the imaginative and wise people.

During the Mongolian take over in the west Khan did not have many followers in the early stages of his domination.

He would promise people better lives and that they would be more prosperous if they would consider his ways. Many joined because of the constant war of the surrounding nations and needed the hope of prosperity. As time progressed and the Mongolian Empire became more successful and powerful with many followers including: Christians, Muslims and Buddhist. The mind control in Khan’s regime was a little more subtle, he started by gaining his followers and promising them success but this was only possible by influencing his people to destroy everything and the only way to be completely victorious is to annihilate everything within other villages and countries. At first people were fleeing the acts of war but when the joined Khan the slowly became apart of dominant empire and eventually overlooked all other countries of the west. Khan later became known as Chinggis Khan or Universal ruler after vanquishing all rivals of the

west.

The three important paradoxes of 1984 are War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is Strength.

Oceania is constantly at war with other two super states, but the proles are aware of the war but also act like there is constant peace as well due to what the party brainwashes them with. Freedom is slavery is supposed to discourage people from seeking individual freedom because even in democratic governments when people have the mindset they are free they actually known as currency slaves which means they have to work to survive but still can have the things they own taken away if they do not pay taxes to the government. Last but not least ignorance is strength, this shows the importance of the proles. Oceania is 80% proles and they help lead the revolution because they are blind followers. These three paradoxes are all examples of doublethink which were created by the government, the lack of education in the society is what makes the party so fortunate. The event of the hate week is to regain the support of the proles to increase the hatred of the current enemy of the party which is always

changing.

The universal leader of the west, Khan, had ideas similar to 1984’s hate week. The only difference in Khan’s views and ideologies was that he hated all nations at once. He wanted to obliterate all countries to leave himself the most authoritative leader of all time. He used the idea of “War is Peace” to conquer all nations to have the most upright respect until his death in 1227, by conquering the nations of the west he was left with no competitors which left peace within his conquered land in the west (See Figure 1)

In conclusion, George Orwell’s novel 1984, has many powerful compelling themes such as the idea of having vast amounts of power, similar to an oligarchy, the concept of mind control, and finally the theory of War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. These three topics are all comparable to the Mongolian empire, and how Genghis Khan became the universal leader of the west. Khan and the party of Oceania had similar concepts to gain and maintain power, the blind followers for both factions most definitely helped reach the peak of the power in the Mongolian empire and in Oceania.