NylonStrung t1_it8j5k9 wrote on October 21, 2022 at 6:33 PM

Reply to comment by MotionTwelveBeeSix in Does 1984 ever dive into how the Party took control over Oceania? [no direct spoilers please] by INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

That's an interesting way to put it, since it's often referred to as a "political novel". And it is, in some sense, but maybe its core theme is "anti-political". I don't want to directly quote from the text (no spoilers), but one character essentially says just that: the party believes in nothing but the pursuit of power. There's no ideals, no vision, nothing that makes for a political project. Just control.

MotionTwelveBeeSix t1_it8jywr wrote on October 21, 2022 at 6:38 PM

Exactly, which if anything makes it even more poignant. Depoliticization of the population is a driving strength of the worlds most powerful authoritarian regimes. While I’m sure they’d love to have everyone take their party line, it’s enough to sow doubt that anything whatsoever is actually true. Depoliticized people will still pay taxes and they’re a lot less likely to get funny idealistic ideas about revolution than patriots.

NylonStrung t1_it9f6s6 wrote on October 21, 2022 at 10:14 PM

I'd suggest that depolitisisation of the population is a phenomenon in most modern states, even outside of the obviously authoritarian ones. Whether as an actual strategy (e.g. pioneer of information warfare, Post-Soviet Russia, where nothing at all is really "real"), or simply as a by-product of the modern capitalist system, which cleverly creates atomised individuals who necessarily find thinking politically to be difficult (almost every state, and they're only slightly less propagandistic).

Right, looks like I'm reading 1984 again. You've inspired me. :P