Doublethink Europe. Rereading J. Orwell
George Orwell's dystopia “Animal Farm” and “1984” appeared a few decades ago, but their fantastic images are superimposed on today's day, conveying the long-predicted decline of Europe. In the "Animal Farm" starving animals on an alcoholic Jones' farm raise a rebellion and chase the owner to the sound of the song "Animals of England". As a result of this bestial "color revolution", a group of pigs headed by boar Napoleon, who declares the seven commandments of freedom and equality, seizes power. Pigs move to Jones' house, put on his clothes, drink his wine, play cards with people - neighbors from other farms. Gradually, the memory of the revolution is erased, and Napoleon the boar cancels six of the seven commandments, leaving only one: "In the barnyard, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." Step by step, he gets rid of his former comrades-in-arms and cracks down with the help of the chained dogs fostered by him with dissenters and dissenters. And the boar Squeal with brainless sheep every day convinces animals that life on the farm is getting better and better.
In the dystopian "1984" (the book was published in 1949 year), this topic is being developed. The image of the "Animal Farm" is complemented by the superpower Oceania, which emerged as a result of the merger of America and Britain. Oceania is fighting for the possession of other parts of the world. This war is fraudulent, since it must last forever, without victory. Its main goal is to preserve the existing system, destroying not only human lives, but also the fruits of human labor, since the general increase in welfare threatens a hierarchical society with death. If an enormous mass of people become literate, learn to think independently, they will get rid of the privileged minority as superfluous. War and hunger help to keep people who have become stupefied with poverty in a world of illusions.
In Oceania, all power is concentrated in the hands of the Angsots (English Socialism) Party, which is divided into the Outer Party (extras) and the Inner Party (elected). In the hands of the Inner Party all power and all wealth are concentrated. Members of the Inner Party receive a high salary and have access to such rare products as tea, white bread, milk, real coffee, wine and fruit. Members of the Outer Party live in poverty and are constantly monitored by the Police of Thought.
The lowest caste is the non-partisan proletariat (the breasts). Prols are left to their own devices, crime and speculation are spreading among them. Below the prols are workers from the conquered territories. In addition, in the novel there are hints of the existence of castes, which are even higher than the Inner Party.
The party is personified by the omnipresent Big Brother, his portraits can always be seen everywhere. Angsots requires the complete subordination of the people - mental, moral and physical.
The main means of communication in Oceania is newspeak, which is formed according to the principle “it is impossible to do (and even think) what cannot be expressed in words.” With each new edition of the Newspeak dictionary, words and concepts alien to the dominant ideology were thrown out of it.
The main way of thinking of the citizens of Oceania "1984" - doublethink. This is the ability to hold simultaneously two opposing views and, on a signal, change one's opinion to the opposite.
On the pediment of the building in which the hero of the novel works, slogans hang:
Peace is war
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is power
The key word of the newspeak is “white black”. It combines two mutually exclusive concepts and implies "the habit of blatantly, contrary to the facts, to insist that black is white."
The work of the state is provided by four ministries. 1. The Ministry of Peace (Minimir) is responsible for conducting military actions and information about the events of the ongoing war between Oceania and other world powers. 2. The Ministry of Love (Minilub) is engaged in recognizing and re-educating thought criminals who are physically and morally broken and then sent to the “101 room” to experience “the worst thing in the world” until their love for Big Brother replaces their remnants of independent thinking and human feelings 3. Ministry of Truth (Ministries) is engaged in falsification stories, the dissemination of misinformation and the publication of primitive literature for prols. 4. The Ministry of Abundance (Minizo) distributes scarce resources remaining after meeting military needs.
In Orwell’s dystopias, economics exists only through war and for war. The basic idea is that, without war, sooner or later, there will be an overproduction of goods, ideological disorder, discontent and, in the end, a revolution. Therefore, in order to preserve the personal power of the rulers, there is an endless war, the main purpose of which is the regular destruction of resources and linking the population exclusively to survival concerns. Victories in such a war can not be, small successes (depicted as decisive victories) are replaced by minor defeats and so on without end.
The most serious of the possible crimes in Oceania is thought crime, punishable by death. Any careless thought of a member of Angsots, any careless gesture or a word can become a crime of thought. The facial expression, which is incorrect from the point of view of the ideology of the ruling party, is also a form of thought crime — face crime. The police of thoughts are engaged in the fight against thought criminals in Oceania, the interrogations of the accused are held in the Ministry of Love. In order to identify suspects, the surveillance agents of thought and volunteers, including the closest relatives of thought criminals, lead the citizens.
Reading a book written more than 65 years ago, one cannot help wondering at the prophetic genius of George Orwell. In those days, when Europe came to its senses from the war, began to build a new and, it seemed, a society free from Nazism, the English writer saw what was going on. The enthusiasm for cooperation with the West, which arose in Russia after the collapse of the USSR, did not allow for some time to discern that the political scene of Europe was seized by boars and screamers, who adapted themselves to use such organizations as the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights discretion and solely in the interests of the “barnyard”. All these institutions in time began to resemble the Orwellian ministries of truth, love, peace, and abundance. And it became finally clear that they serve the main idea of the “barnyard” - the idea of the ongoing war of modern “Oceania” with the whole world around. Now Ukraine is in the focus of their attention.
And they, Europeans, as predicted by D.Oruell, will always be in their own eyes those who, under the conditions of the declared equality, are “more equal” than others.
It seems that Russian diplomacy is only now beginning to recover from the stress that has caused her organic double-thinking of Western “partners”, all the while trying to push Russia into the “101 room”. Now we have to pay for a quarter of a century of illusions of equal cooperation with the Euro-Atlantic “stockyard”. If it were not for these illusions, no one would be surprised today, why, on the basis of the principle of double-mindedness, Russia is being made responsible for non-compliance with the Minsk agreements and they are preparing new sanctions against it by the time Kiev finally breaks these agreements. Why, stubbornly asserting that white is black, the West accuses Moscow of immanent aggression. Or why the Ministry of Peace surrounds Russia with new military bases and antimissiles. Similarly, the reproduction of US secret prisons throughout the world should not come as a surprise, because it is a direct result of the Ministry of Love, which, after the very strange terrorist act 9 / 11, turned into a superministry. And there are absolutely no questions about the state of minds of the European public, which are daily washed from the TV screens of the Ministry of Truth. Add to this that today Big Brother entered every European and American home through computer networks. To survive, the regime of boars and screamers must keep everyone under control. That which is not a developed part of the “barnyard” is obviously antagonistic to this regime.
European leaders will not come to Moscow on Victory Day 9 of May, not only because in their mind, stricken by doublethink, Russia attacked Ukraine. They will not come yet because they are afraid to commit a crime of thought to Big Brother from overseas. Almost compassion causes Angela Merkel, who discovered that from all sides lined up listening devices Big Brother, who turned the German intelligence into his watchdog. She has in agony to get rid of the illusions that the sovereignty of Germany belongs to the people of Germany.
It is impossible not to regret and Francois Hollande, trapped in a mousetrap with his "Mistral". The poor French president is torn between the need to take away bread from his own shipbuilders, knowing that France will not forgive him or his party, and the fear of being sent to the “101 room”.
Polish politicians deserve special sympathy. It is as if they do not know that the transatlantic boar Napoleon will never raise them to the position of “more equal” and their fate is to be content with leftovers from the master's table. But they cannot but realize that the ban on the passage of Russian bikers through Poland in honor of the Great Victory Day is a spit on the graves of not only Soviet soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Poland, but also those of their compatriots who were slaughtered by Ukrainian Nazis in Volyn.
And all this is very sad, because the activity of the “cattle yard” revolves around one thing - to make the war for the survival of “Oceania” a permanent war.
George Animal Orwell's "Animal Farm" ends with a scene in which quarreling people and animals are difficult to distinguish from each other. However, we, unlike the author, want to believe that the differences will remain. In Europe, in addition to the power of boars and screamers, as well as sheep schooled by propaganda, there are people of sober reason and goodwill who refuse to put on the Ministry of Truth cap. Sooner or later they will abolish the orders of the “barnyard” as unnatural and offensive to the descendants of a great European civilization in the past.
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