1984 – 2016

Many of the novels that have been written in previous years have become a mirror
of current realities. With the happening of time, we have observed that many of the
fictional accounts of past years are part of our daily lives. In this sense, we can talk about
stories of epidemic diseases, climate change, technological advances, space travel and
dystopian novels, fictions written unlikely to happen. Now, in what capitalist societies
called "modern times", we can draw a timeline, look back and establish a parallel between
what is called fictional novels and current reality. In this way we can throw up a question,
the reality surpasses fiction?

To illustrate the above, we take as a guide one of the most influential fictional
dystopian novels of the twentieth century, we speak of "1984" and from a parallel among
current society, current political system and the novel itself, will only be a question, is the
society of 2016 the well-known Orwellian society from 1984? Around this, they have
established numerous sociological, psychological, political and cultural research, through
which many analysts suggest that we are living in a society where information is
manipulated and mass surveillance and political and social repression are being practiced.
Moreover, the term "Orwellian" has become synonymous of the companies or
organizations that reproduce totalitarian and repressive attitudes as depicted in the novel,
(Van Helsing, 1998)

The novel “1984” is a political dystopian fiction novel, written by George Orwell
between 1947 and 1948 and published on June 8, 1949. The novel introduced the concepts
of omnipresent and Big Brother, the notorious room 101 of the ubiquitous police thought
and Newspeak, adaptation of English in which the lexicon is reduced and becomes law
enforcement purposes, based on the principle that what is not part of the language, cannot
be thought. This fictional novel aimed to show and to illustrate how life would be if a
country like England were under the pressure of a totalitarian government according to the
war situation that took place in this period with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany who
were exerting their power over the vulnerable masses and minorities.

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 To continue with, to begin setting the axes and edges from where we will erect the
comparisons as we mention previously, it is important to remember that totalitarianism is
defined as a political system in which the state has an unlimited authority ad strives to
regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible, (Conquest, 1999). In few
words, a totalitarian government controls what you are allowed to think, to believe and
even what you are allowed to say, it means language itself.

In this sense, when talking about control and language in 1984 book, the aspect that
we are going to focus on is “Newspeak”, also known as English Socialism (Ingsoc), which
was the official language of Oceania. In this way, what the government wanted to do by
implementing the Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world
view but to make all others modes of thought impossible, in few, to eliminate undesirable
words that could remind unorthodox meanings. Then, the government wanted to diminish
the range of words in order to diminish the range of thoughts.

By taking a deeper look at this, we may observe that it is all about drawing the
boundaries of meaning, to separate what can be said and what cannot be said, in short, the
limits on the expression of thoughts are plotted. According to Wittgestein, (1921), it is
possible to delimit the limits of the world if the language is limited, however, the author has
not argued here that thoughts themselves devoid of meaning, but rather that not all thoughts
are expressible. Then, in order to give real importance to what may be unspeakable, it is
imperative to understand as such and try to communicate through language in a meaningful
way.

Another of the axes that we will focus on for the purpose of this writing is anti-
intellectualism and its relation with 1984 and the current society. For this mission, it is
crucial to mention that when talking about anti-intellectualism here, we refer not only to the
attitude that minimizes the value of intelligence, knowledge and curiosity but also to the
acceptance and glorification of ignorance. Moreover, we are referring in this sense, not only
to anti-intellectualism as the hostility towards and mistrust of intellectual pursuits in society
but also in the political system. Then, given the approach of the concepts of totalitarianism,
newspeak and anti-intellectualism, we observe that the parameters given in the novel and
the futuristic visions proposed by Orwell after half a century have become reality.

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 To illustrate what we have mentioned above, we can appreciate that Oceania society
accepted without hesitation the Big Brother rules because this society was an anti-
intellectual mass, unable to think thanks to the repressive measures implemented by the
government. Moreover, in Oceania there was no place for creativity, happiness or advanced
thoughts, much less place for pleasure, because pleasure was against to what was socially
established and accepted, and as in current societies, in Oceania there was no
accommodation to be different, this civilization was merely a homogeneous mass.

In this country nobody was politically of intellectually free because freedom no

longer existed even as a concept, therefore it was nameless. The government used
newspeak because if you do not have much to say, you do not have much to think, it means,
those people could talk without involving the higher brain centre at all. In this
understanding, we may clarify that the relation between brain and language is highly close
since to produce language, it is mandatory that several areas from the brain work, but for
those areas to work, it is necessary to exert language, Donoso (1998).

Nevertheless, did those things provoked by newspeak only happen half a century
ago? Or by the contrary, is newspeak a weapon used to control current societies? According
to Chomsky, (2002), throughout mass media and newspeak, current societies are being
programmed to obey by “playing tricks with language”. Currently linguistic phenomena
are occurring, and companies, businesses, private institutions and organizations with the
media and the sources, are using expert linguists to discover these "tricks" and use them for
mass control, using euphemisms and neologisms to disorient the perception of reality.
(Martín, 2014)

As an example of what we just mentioned, we can cite the case of the "Setting
agenda", where Shaw, creator of it, argues that what the Agenda claims is that as a
consequence of newspapers, television, the internet and other media, the public pays
attention or ignore certain information. That is, the media give a hierarchy to the news, so
the public gives importance to what is important according to the information given by the
media (Vásques, 2013). In few words, Setting Agenda makes visible or invisible the
information, publishing what appeals to the audience according to its characteristics.

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 To cite a case in point, allow us to remember the tragedy in the terrorist attack that
took place in the city of Paris on January 7, 2015. This event was supported by the
international press and the eyes of the world and the media had their eyes there, and
supporting sentences with hashtag "Je suis Charlie” were outlandish. However, in a similar
time line, Mathew hurricane struck Haiti, where there were more than 900 deaths, yet no
one said," I am Haiti”. Here, we may appreciate that the world’s eyes are placed where the
media wants to place them.

Another example but closer referring to the power of the media is right here in
Colombia and the quite controversial peace process where an excluding campaign took
place and the country was divided. Here is where Juan Carlos Velez, manager of the
Campaign for the "No" in the plebiscite, said that the strategy was not to explain the peace
agreements but to focus the message in the indignation of the people, misrepresenting
information, including issues of homosexuality, gay adoption and abortion that had nothing
to do with the peace agreements but that would move the fibers of a traditionalist country.
Velez said the strong arm of the campaign for the "No" were the media, where through
television, newspapers and social networks, the information that was developed was the
one that was suitable for the purposes of his campaign.

It is a touchable fact, social networks exert an unimaginable power and domination

in modern society. Through social networks, the population receives tons of information
which the largest percentage of cases is useless, where often the masses get “informed” not
because they want to but because they are using the media as a source of entertainment, a
great example of unconscious anti-intellectualism, where people only know what is
available and believe what is on the computer screen, no doubts, we are facing a generation
little driven towards exploration and legitimate knowledge.

The elites now know the true power of social networks, for this reason have created
various platforms to analyse the population through networks such as Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram and thus acquire a manipulative power. One of the latest programs is known
as "RIOT" created by the company Raytheon, a platform that gathers information such as
sexual orientation, social status, political ideology, religious condition and even the location
of the individual. Thus, the platform is able to establish a psychological profile of the user

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and predict future behaviour (Valero, 2014). Then, we can ask, what happens if this
technique is applied not only at the individual level but also at the macro level?

Through a matrix or database that contains tons of information, a psychological

profile of the society is established in order to know and prognosticate the type of reaction
of the community against certain stimuli. In this way, through the social psychology given
thanks to the matrix, the public opinion is controlled, and thanks to this strategy, the
information is polarized and a phenomenon that Noelle-Neumann (1995) calls "the spiral of
silence" happens, where the individual is able to give up his own judgment so as not to be
isolated; once again a harmful homogenisation occurs.

Another aspect of population control found in "1984" and that can be compared
with the current reality refers to the thought police. The thinkpol (In newspeak), is the
secret police of the super state, Oceania, who are charged of uncovering and punishing
"thought crime". The Thinkpol uses psychological methods and omnipresent surveillance
(e.g. telescreens) to search, find, monitor, and arrest citizens of Oceania who would
challenge the authority of the Party and of Big Brother, even if only with a thought.

In this case, we cite the situation of Edward Snowden and his struggle against
espionage system. In June 2013, Snowden made public through The Guardian and The
Washington Post newspapers, classified documents listed as top secret on various NSA
programs, including mass surveillance PRISM and xkeyscore programs. Lately, The
Washington Post reported that the reason for the leaks was to uncover the "surveillance
state" existing in the United States. (Miller, Claire Cain, 2014). Days later the company
Booz Allen Hamilton, where Snowden was working at, dismisses him for violating the
policy and code of ethics, subsequently he received death threats and he must seek political
asylum in different countries of Latin America and Europe.

This is how the big elites silent individuals who may pose danger to private
interests. Throughout history we have seen how these "dangerous" behaviours and
situations disappear. We have observed deaths, disappearances, accidents and disasters
happen without explanation, and they always sell us the image of the "public enemy" from
who the government itself "protects us." Great journalists, leaders and even humourists that

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use sarcastic humour to reveal the truth of system, such as the case of Jaime Garzón are
suddenly killed or disappeared without explanation.

Finally, we talk about the educational system that contributes to the homogeneity of
the masses in terms of critical thinking, and under the surface it appears to promote
“Programmed anti-intellectualism” (Muñoz, 2012). We started to mention that education is
measured in numbers and monetary terms by the capitalist structure that governs today. In
the current educational system the student does not want to learn, he wants to approve, it
means, education is not a priority it is a business. (Paton, 2015). According to the World
Bank, only 32% of the world's population has entered the third education level, where
fields like philosophy, economy, society and science are beginning to be studied, so the
majority of the population does not know the basics of operation system at national and
global level. But the system of hierarchy dominates, and in the top of the pyramid can only
be few, because if all students had access to higher education and approved with
satisfaction, then who will sweep the streets?

Given all these points and set the parameters and similarities of totalitarianism,
Newspeak and anti-intellectualism of the novel and today focused on the political system,
media and even education system, we can ask whether the fictional reality proposed by
Orwell in 1984 just happened in a fictional story published half a century ago? Or on the
contrary it is the latent reality of the twenty-first, century, 2016 year, and that this reality is
gaining ground, and we are merely the modern version of the inhabitants of Oceania?

The political system oppresses us, the education system shapes our thinking, the
media show the convenient version and euphemisms go hand in hand with Newspeak.
Nowadays, new expressions such as “ajuste” which means “recortar el presupuesto”,
“Daños colaterales” that means “pérdidas y muertes civiles” and “moderación salarial”
which means “Reducir el sueldo” are becoming popular. (Gonzales, 2010). As a society we
are accepting what is imposed by the system, distracting our brains by watching TV and
spending time on internet reading useless info. So, we may ask ourselves, Am I am anti-
intellectual? Am I Mr Smith before or after the torture? Are 140 characters enough to
express my idea or is my Tuit a way to banish complex thoughts, it means is Twitter kind
of newspeak? Much better not to talk about emoji!

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 BYBLIOGRAPHY

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