Patriotism In 1984
The internet twists up the truth of a story to the point that it is hard to know what to believe and what not to believe. Newspeak is done by the government to make their country seem better than it actually is. While, Winston is an employee at the Ministry of Truth, in the book 1984, his job is to change the news articles to favor their government and basically brainwash their people. Winston’s government wanted to be in control of the information that was getting released to their people to help control the thoughts that the citizens were having. Winston states, “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the
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Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’” (Orwell)
Winston believes that even though a person’s memory knows the truth, it can still be changed from a lie to becoming the truth.
In 1984 the government used newspapers and posters to patronize their citizens through a selective presentation of facts. Patriotism can be defined as an unconstitutional support of one thing versus another. Otherwise, the government wants support so they try to get their people to be on their side of a certain situation. Winston’s government sometimes changed an actual definition of a word to suit the purpose they are going for. Orwell describes in his book, 1984, that there have been some cases where the government provided a whole different way of speaking and defining a word, also known as …show more content…
Newspeak.
According to Eric Kozlowski, the author of “The Use of the Media as an Influence on Patriotism,” in the appendix of 1984 it states that, “A person growing up with Newspeak as his sole language would no more know that equal had once had the secondary meaning of ‘politically equal’, or that free had once meant ‘intellectually free’, than for instance, a person who had never heard of chess would be aware of the secondary meanings attaching to queen and rook.
There would be many crimes and errors which it would be beyond his power to commit, simply because they were nameless and therefore unimaginable. And it was to be foreseen that with the passage of time the distinguishing characteristics of Newspeak would become more and more pronounced — its words growing fewer and fewer, their meanings more and more rigid, and the chance of putting them to improper uses always diminishing.” (Orwell 311) When the meaning of words have been completely changed, citizens are then not able to pick out the truth of a
story.
When there is a government actor who doesn’t like something that they have seen and changes the wording or withholds the facts to mislead the citizens, then there is essentially have problems. This action was done to the citizens in the book 1984 who slowly figured out what was going on. The media started getting in between the government and its citizens by the vague language that did not make much sense. Kozlowski state, “If the citizens are confused about what is actually happening they will be inclined to support it because of their inherent desire to feel like they are a citizen of a good country. An omission of facts is something that the government is able to do since they control the information that reaches the public.” (Kozlowski 5) With this being done, the citizens tend to not question the media that the government provides them.
Citizens are presented with information that the government wants its citizens to receive. Akpan suggests to “bring back human gatekeepers to tailor trending news and to prevent fake stories from running amok.” This could easily create Newspeak and the government could then choose what to release to the public. These government workers could easily switch words around for the public to believe things in a certain way, just like what Winston did for a job.
Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’” (Orwell)
Winston believes that even though a person’s memory knows the truth, it can still be changed from a lie to becoming the truth.
In 1984 the government used newspapers and posters to patronize their citizens through a selective presentation of facts. Patriotism can be defined as an unconstitutional support of one thing versus another. Otherwise, the government wants support so they try to get their people to be on their side of a certain situation. Winston’s government sometimes changed an actual definition of a word to suit the purpose they are going for. Orwell describes in his book, 1984, that there have been some cases where the government provided a whole different way of speaking and defining a word, also known as …show more content…
Newspeak.
According to Eric Kozlowski, the author of “The Use of the Media as an Influence on Patriotism,” in the appendix of 1984 it states that, “A person growing up with Newspeak as his sole language would no more know that equal had once had the secondary meaning of ‘politically equal’, or that free had once meant ‘intellectually free’, than for instance, a person who had never heard of chess would be aware of the secondary meanings attaching to queen and rook.
There would be many crimes and errors which it would be beyond his power to commit, simply because they were nameless and therefore unimaginable. And it was to be foreseen that with the passage of time the distinguishing characteristics of Newspeak would become more and more pronounced — its words growing fewer and fewer, their meanings more and more rigid, and the chance of putting them to improper uses always diminishing.” (Orwell 311) When the meaning of words have been completely changed, citizens are then not able to pick out the truth of a
story.
When there is a government actor who doesn’t like something that they have seen and changes the wording or withholds the facts to mislead the citizens, then there is essentially have problems. This action was done to the citizens in the book 1984 who slowly figured out what was going on. The media started getting in between the government and its citizens by the vague language that did not make much sense. Kozlowski state, “If the citizens are confused about what is actually happening they will be inclined to support it because of their inherent desire to feel like they are a citizen of a good country. An omission of facts is something that the government is able to do since they control the information that reaches the public.” (Kozlowski 5) With this being done, the citizens tend to not question the media that the government provides them.
Citizens are presented with information that the government wants its citizens to receive. Akpan suggests to “bring back human gatekeepers to tailor trending news and to prevent fake stories from running amok.” This could easily create Newspeak and the government could then choose what to release to the public. These government workers could easily switch words around for the public to believe things in a certain way, just like what Winston did for a job.