The Role Of War In George Orwell's '1984'

War is the distraction, control is the goal.
In George Orwell’s 1984, The Party uses conflict as a tool to distract the people of Oceania from the misery of their own lives, and in doing so, they maintain control over the public. By using the by-products of conflict, like propaganda, ignorance, and fear, the party has come up with an undeniably brilliant plan for population control that could last for a long, long time.
Say what you want about fear, but it’s almost always a sure-fire way to control people. And war is a great way to make people afraid. Fear blurs out everything but the absolutely necessary, so misery is not as prevalent as it would be in a time of peace. It also drives people to look for a leader to make their decisions for them, someone who seems to know better. “The consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing over of all power to a small cast seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.” (1984, Orwell, page 200)The people are so distracted by the war and how afraid they are it makes it easy for the party to remain in control.

Conflict also makes it easier to split intelligence and wealth.

“A hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance” (198). And to have poverty and ignorance, you need a shortage of the necessary supplies. “Goods must be produced, but they must not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare.”(198) If the entire population somehow became wealthy and intelligent while the war still raged, they would 1: realize the war only serves to make them miserable and 2: realize the party is making the war, and therefore is, by proxy, making them miserable in yet another way. But since the war eats up all of the products of the people’s labour, that won’t ever happen. War distracts the people from forming anti-party ideas, and leaves The Party to continue to wage

war.
Propaganda is always there, making sure that the misery of the people’s lives is dwarfed by the war. Their situation is always being compared to the situation at the war front. During the physical jerks, for example, they are reminded to be grateful for their safety and comfort; “Remember our boys on the Malabar front! And the sailors on the floating fortresses! Just think of what they have to put up with!”(39) They are given two minutes every day to let their frustration out on Eurasian or Eastasian soldiers and Goldstein in the two-minutes-hate, and a whole hate week later on. By having government-sanctioned times for letting frustration out on the war, their enemies and thought criminals, by telling the people they are lucky not to be fighting in the war, they create a population of people so scared and guilt-ridden The Party seems fair and safe and gracious. Once again, all roads lead to The Party.
As the party proves, Chaos is the ultimate tool of control. It gives the people a tangible enemy, an attainable common goal. War does not only consume excess goods, it consumes the senses. The people are half-blind to their world’s fading state, skipping into The Party’s oblivion with one sentence still tumbling past their lips: ‘I am fortunate.’ The party will always remain in control, even after death. Misery is nothing compared to The Party; misery only lasts a lifetime.
The party is the shackles, the war is the view, and the misery is the ball and chain. Your thoughts, if wrong, are the hands that throw you into the ocean. Good luck.