Indoctrination Of Youth In 1984

The social science fiction 1984, by George Orwell displays the horrors of a dystopian community controlled by a totalitarian government known as Big Brother. The book shows that the indoctrination of youth can alter generations of adults into believing lies and beliefs of the Party. In modern society, youth indoctrination is seen in many forms of government around the world. Children are told to act or think certain way at a young age, causing then to become the person that the government desires, just as in 1984.

The totalitarian society Orwell created in 1984 greatly displays the dangers of indoctrinating the youth and hypnotizing them. He demonstrates that if a government trains people when they’re young they will become zombie-like adults.

In book one of 1984, Orwell writes, “Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party.” (Orwell 21). The children in the book were trained to believe in the Party’s beliefs reveal those that go against the Party. Throughout book two, Winston’s female partner Julia, talked about her childhood claiming that, “I’ve been at school too, dear. Sex talks once a month for the over-sixteens. And in the Youth Movement. They rub it into you for years. I dare say it works in a lot of cases. But of course you can never tell; people are such hypocrites.” (Orwell 110). She is describing how when she was young, children were being taught that sex was wrong and they shouldn’t do it. These lessons developed into the belief that sex for enjoyment is against the laws of the Party. To get their citizens to believe it was wrong, they had to teach them this at a young age, while they are most susceptible to these kind of things. Also in book three, Orwell writes, “As the door opened, the wave of air that is created brought in a powerful smell of cold sweat. Parsons walked into the cell…’What are you in for?’ said Winston. ‘Thoughtcrime’ said Parsons.” (Orwell 192). Parsons is the father of the devious kids Winston met in book one. Now Parsons is jailed because his kids turned him in to the thought police after overhearing him sleep talk against the party. This gives a view of how the Party had the kids in the palms of their hands and trained them well enough to be willing to turn in their own parents, capitalizing on how this dystopian society indoctrinated the youth.
Orwell was very concerned about this issue due to World War II taking place during the 30’s and 40’s which was around the time the 1984 was written.

In WWII Hitler and the Nazi party deceived the youth into believing the Nazi beliefs, they became known as the “Hitler Youth” (Indoctrinating Youth). They were trained to love and obey Hitler’s laws and to see Hitler as if he was a God. In the classroom of the Hitler Youth, teachers seek to produce race-conscious, obedient, self-sacrificing Germans who would be willing to die for Germany, devotion to Adolf Hitler was the main fundamental of Hitler Youth training (Indoctrinating Youth). The relevance to this event and the events in 1984 is the fact that both societies had oppressive governments who tried to control its young citizens. Just like the Party in 1984, Hitler fooled the youth into believing outrageous things about him and they believed it and saw him as their savior, stuck by his side, and followed his laws no matter how disgraceful they may have been. The Hitler Youth is almost identical to the youth indoctrination in 1984 and shows the motivation of Orwell to show this concern in

1984.
In modern society, indoctrinating the youth is being used today in many American schools.

In schools all across the country, students are taught to believe certain things or act certain ways. In American schools, America is teaching each student the new “Common Core Standards” in which teachers provide “A consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.” (Early Education). While this program still promotes writing, reading, and arithmetic; it exposes the world of social justice, abortion rights, population control, environmentalism, and gay marriage in a way that children may not be ready for it (Early Education). Also in American schools, the religion Islam is often taught to children. They are taught a broader understanding of Islam that will make it easier to rationalize acts of mass murder, such as 9/11. But the more likely goal is to make all religions morally equivalent, so that no specific religion is considered superior to any other (Islamic Indoctrination). The word "Islam" means "submission". All Mohammedans are commended to wage war against the those who don’t believe in Islam until they submit to Islam and the entire world is Islamic. The U.S. is at war with Islamic terrorists who are willing to fight to the death to destroy the American way of life (Islamic Indoctrination). The indoctrination in American schools and in 1984 are very similar in the way that they both try

to make young children of their society believe in the beliefs their country believes in.
In 1984, Orwell made very accurate predictions regarding the indoctrination of youth in the future. The way the youth were deceived in 1984 is similar to historic events and various practices in American schools in today’s society. While his predictions were on target, not everything in the nook is the same as in modern society. In today’s world, children aren’t taught to not trust their parents and go as far as to turn their backs on them and turn them in to authorities. Overall, Orwell released a book that introduced issues that he felt will take off and becoming problematic in the future. And while it may not look exactly like the way it does in 1984, issues such as indoctrination exist today in many different ways.