Comparing Muammar Gaddafi's Regime And 1984

Parallels Between Muammar Gaddafi’s Regime and 1984 George Orwell, author of the modern classic 1984, wrote about the politics of his own era and prophesized a dystopian future in his novels. Some of his predications have proved to be terrifyingly accurate in describing some of the world’s nations after the year 1949. The North African country of Libya, for example, has recently been freed from the long, totalitarian rule of Muammar Gaddafi. Libya is now recovering from Gaddafi’s policies that kept the country isolated from most of the world and hurt its diplomatic relations, particularly with the West, almost beyond repair. From foreign policy to political theory, Orwell’s negative utopian vision and Muammar Gaddafi’s regime share many striking similarities. Born in 1942, near Surt in the desert region of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi was the last child and only son of his family who were modest Bedouin people of the animal-herding Qadhdhafa tribe. (“Muammar Al-Gaddafi” 164). Inspired
by Egyptian revolutionary and president Gamal Abdel Nasser, he organized many student demonstrations in his youth. To better be able to fulfill his political plans, he enrolled the Military Academy of Bengasi, the University of Bengasi, and the Beaconsfield Military Academy in Great Britain to receive combat training. He used his promotion to lieutenant in the army’s Signal Corps to broaden the base of his movement, known at the time as the Free Unionist Officers. (“Muammar Al-Gaddafi” 165). Like 1984’s Emmanuel Goldstein, Gaddafi was the forefront of the Revolution in his country. In September 1969, Gaddafi led his young officers to seize power quite easily from King Idris, who left Libya for health reasons. (“Muammar Al-Gaddafi” 165). Muammar Gaddafi, who considered himself a leading political philosopher, created the third universal theory, which can be found in his famous Green Book. (Asser). “The theory claims to solve the contradictions inherent in capitalism and communism (the first and second theories), in order to put the world on a path of political, economic, and social revolution and set oppressed peoples free everywhere,” according to Asser in the article “The Muammar Gaddafi Story.” The revolutionary-turned-traitor Emmanuel Goldstein also had a political manifesto called “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism,” in which his theories were outlined. (Orwell 184). Both manifestos ended up being tools used detect and destroy alternative thinkers so the ruling parties could gain total domination over the population. The methods that Muammar Gaddafi used to govern Libya looked almost as if he purposely meant to emulate an Orwellian dystopia.
In Oceania, citizens were vaporized, or killed and had all record of them existing erased, if they thought thoughts or participated in activities that went against the party’s doctrine. (Orwell 3). In Gaddafi’s Jamahiriyya, which ironically translates to “rule by the masses,” people were also killed for speaking out against the government or spreading unflattering information about Libya. Like the party of Oceania, Gaddafi also used torture tactics to scare the population into submission. (Asser). Even though he undoubtedly ruled with an iron fist, he separated his government into committees and made civilians attend popular congresses (although they had no real power) to feign the appearance of a democratic government. The members of the Inner and Outer parties of Oceania also attended patriotic events to boost their sense of pride and trust in the
government. Muammar Gaddafi, like the leaders of Oceania, also had a horrendous foreign policy. He went through several different of periods of ideologies including his pan-Arab period, his Islamist period, and his pan-African period, which is comparable to the party of Oceania randomly changing its war status with Eurasia and Eastasia. Both governments also cut diplomatic ties by bombing other countries. Gaddafi would support militant groups and resistance movements in other countries to further his own anti-imperialist agenda. (Asser). When his involvement in terrorist attacks on American and European soil became known, the West became furious and used airstrikes and sanctions against Libya. The party of Oceania would steal resources and human labor in unclaimed territories from Eurasia and Eastasia, which kept them all in a perpetual war. These politically isolated countries’ refusal to have contact with other foreign powers allowed them to keep their citizens ignorant and in line. There are many shocking parallels between George Orwell’s dystopian nightmare 1984 and the four decade-long, totalitarian regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan insurgent, who later became one of the most infamous dictators of the time, shared many of the same characteristics as 1984’s Emmanuel Goldstein, the treacherous father of the Revolution. The citizens Gaddafi-era Libya and Oceania post World War II are both trapped by cruel, unforgiving governments with little chance of hope. 1984 appalled the democratic Western world for decades after its release with its dark prophecy of the near future. For countries like Libya, 1984 is terrifyingly close to being reality.