I need help with th party motto from George Orwell's 1984 ?

Question

In George Orwell's 1984 the party motto is:

War is Peace

Freedom Is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

I'm just finding this hard to understand because the extract from "the book" was rather complicated when it explained these concepts. So i was wondering if anyone could attempt to explain them more simply? Thanks :) x

Answer 1

disclaimer (as it were): none of these beliefs are mine, beacause i am not just a statistic. And we thankfully live in a world that allows us to have our wars, our share of slavery and our choice not be ignorant.

George Orwell's 1984, is a shock tactic at bringing to the fore, the futility of life that can be, if we do not use our collective intellegence as an evolved race.

Governments will always use double think as a weapon to stay in power.

Just how powerful do us, the poeple, need to be, to carry on the code of progress we have been educated to propagate?

All happennings in the book are essentially a mental state, expressed in terms of a satirical tangibility (and the other way round) that can be empathised with.

Here is an attempt at explaining these concepts in a simple way.

1. war is peace:

when at war, impositions on life and living make choices narrow. you either expose yourself and  face the consequences, or you comply with authority, however absolute - and war time brings in absolute authority. precise, all-reaching and containing.

you have no choices. your life ceases to exist. you merely follow orders.

life is simple.

there are no personal conflicts to tarry with. no dreams to pursue. no ambition. no rights. no privileges.

You are a robot that will do the bidding.

no conflict, is peace.

War is, therefore, peace.

1984 is such a scene. Existentialist. Robotic. Where everything is a duty to Big Brother. And every such duty is clearly chalked out and dispensed.  

2. Freedom is slavery:

When you are free to be, to think, to act, and every one in your community shares this freewill, there are bound to be expectations, responsibilities, successes and failures.

You are therefore also bound in that sense. Bound to those responsibilities that are due to those who depend on you. You are bound to expectations that these very people will impose on you.

You are a slave to  desires of success and a slave to fear of failure. and the repercussions thereof.

Life is a steady path of bondage and slavery.

Freedom is, therefore, slavery.

slavery to life and its many facets.

Hence Big brother solves your problem. He reduces you to a number. Where you simply exist, without thought.

In a brain-dead existence, you are free of the bindings of freedom. you are free of any personal responsibilities, emotions and desires.

3. Ignorance is strength:

problems arise when you know right from wrong, or believe one way or the other. Dealing with these problems are taxing. Ideals and ideology, knowlege and learning, progress and fulfilment, come with a whole lot of issues spoken of in motto 1 and 2.

when you don't know, and simply follow directive, there is only one way to go. all your senses are channelised towards only one goal. and the goal is always the same- please Big Brother. there are no credits to be taken. No gratidute to be given.

This makes you strong, as no energy is expended on any distractions.

Think about this: you are learning to drive in a foreign country. the rules are very clear and exacting.

which will be easier? learning to drive from scratch, or first unlearning all your old driving habits and then learning the requirements as per your new track? And if you do manage to learn the new way of driving, how sure are you that your old habits will not visit every now and again?

ignorance is therefore strength.

when you have nothing to compare to, no two ways to chose from, just one track to follow - that is you are ignorant to any thing else- you are strong.

The idea of the book, as i see it, is to express the exasperation at what our lives have become. and a frantic atempt at putting the world right, before it is too late. 1984 was written when 1984 was in the future. the fear of what is to come can make the worst among us change our ways. and if you can actually see yourself in that horrid future, can you even imagine what the fear will be like?

Answer 2

the most important ideology from 1984 is "double think". That is extremely hard to explain, it basically meant that there can be two explanations from the same word or meaning. the motto is what the people are made to believe, not the proles (the poor under class people).  

War is peace because there is no surplus of goods which lead to happier and advancement in people. the constant war kept people afraid and dependent (sounds like today almost). with constant war, there is no advance in culture or intelligence, which would lead to a revolution.

freedom is slavery because only the slaves are the ones who just "live". it might make one of the party members think, to be without big brother, to be without protection, without INGSOC, that meant to be free. then freedom is the worst. to be a slave of the party is to be free.

Ignorance is strength, because ignorance is bliss. what you dont know wont hurt you. if the Party and the proles knew that Oceania was put into fake wars as a tool of domination and mind control, if they knew that Big Brother didnt exist, if they knew that they were slaves, they might revolt. but its no use. the proles are kept dumb and the party kept undercontrol by fear.

Hope this helped. sorry for the grammer.  i just read 1984 again this summer. Great book.  

Answer 3

Basically the government will tell you what they want you to believe, what will keep you from rebelling.

Answer 4

They're examples of doublethink.  My understanding of doublethink is that it was used to justify what the government was doing.  In other words, by going to war they were actually achieving peace so it was a good thing.

Freedom is a bad thing because you're really becoming enslaved by those who give freedom.

Ignorance is good and gives you strength because you don't have to worry about the truth.

I could be off but the basic idea of doublethink is that what you believe to be true is false and vice versa.

Answer 5

They're examples of doublethink

Answer 6

That's the point- it doesn't make sense.

It's called "double-speak", or "newspeak".

You control language because that's the way you control thought.

You aren't being controlled, therefore, it makes no sense.

"Power don't come from a badge or a gun. Power comes from lying. Lying big, and gettin' the whole d**n world to play along with you. Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you've got 'em by the balls"

Answer 7

This motto is meant to brainwash people into compliance and keep them from questioning big brother. They are saying that WAR is the only way to maintain PEACE and homogeny. The part about FREEDOM being SLAVERY is  sort of circular logic meant to keep an oppressed people down by convincing them that freedom is too hard and make you work too hard and you are actually a slave because you constantly have to worry about survival so why not let us take care of everything for you? And finally, have you ever heard that old addage, Ignorance is bliss, its sort of the same concept, what you don't know won't hurt you so as a people we are better off with ignorant citizens. It makes things run smoother as a whole.