Oligarchical Collectivism

Politics and the English Language and The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Goldstein follows Orwell’s rules to explain the political motives behind the Party’s slogans. For instance, Goldstein describes how the Party maintains its power and tight control on the people through a hierarchical society that “was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance” (Orwell, 190). The absence of poverty leads to people’s consciousness and realization of their inequality because they are no longer “stupefied by poverty.” They begin to seek education and knowledge, which shapes individual thought, a political power that can topple the Party’s dominance. Therefore, the party’s goal is to ensure that individual thought does not prevail

People oblivious to their unjust treatment, fuel the hierarchical society that empowers the Party, thus further emphasizing the slogan, “Ignorance is Strength.” Goldstein clearly follows Orwell’s rule in Politics and the English Language, “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.” Goldstein clearly keeps his idea short and simple in the sentence quoted from page 190. He gets to the point and conveys his message about the importance of poverty for the Party. Goldstein uses Orwell’s rules as a tool to clarify his intentions. He does not try to impose certain words that do not belong or try to lengthen his statement. By doing so, he supports Orwell’s’ idea that clear writing signifies coherent meanings and meanings that still hold value. Therefore, Goldstein uses a concise and effective explanation in order to

In The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, Goldstein writes, “The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor” (Orwell, 191). This illustrates why the superstates still participate in a war even though it has resulted in a deadlock. As Goldstein previously mentioned, poverty allows the Party to remain in power, hence the only way to establish poverty is through war. They only reinforce the idea of war to emit a false sense of productivity among the people. Instead of working for personal gain to allow the lower class to escape poverty, all their attention and money is drained from war efforts. The true motives of the superstates are not to overtake one another, but to promote a sense of threat to keep their people orderly; creating external threats ensures internal peace, thus “War is Peace.” Meanwhile, the higher class focuses on maintaining the validity and the threat of war. For instance, Goldstein explains, “…it is necessary that [a party member] should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war” (Orwell, 192). Both the upper and lower class sustain the status of war because the lower class economically supports the war while the Inner Party meets the emotional requirements. This illustrates how the hierarchical society creates an appropriate distribution of power that favors the Party and