Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

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MICHAEL JACKSON BAIO FATIREQUN ALEXANDER HAIG TEE YEU TAN YARI ANDROPOV JEFF DAHLQUIST of killing as vicious and brutal, and links it with a petty or “arbitrary” act, affecting no one. The next time Larry Speaks refers to the U.S. bombing of defenseless vil¬ lages, in search of Salvadorian rebels, as “accidental bombings”, maybe the American people ought to know what accidental means. Is he saying that the bombardier accidentally tripped the lever reaching for his cocktail or does “accidental” mean the bombings were unfortunate but necessary? Could it be that the wrong harbors are being mined after all? It seems that the real danger lies in the mass of distortions that the government, with the help of language, passes off as truth. In Orwell’s 1984 , the Party uses organizations, such as the Junior Anti-Sex League, The Spies, and the Youth League, to effectively sever all loyalty between members of families and their lovers. This is in order to obtain complete commitment to the Party and its dogma. Even sex be¬ tween husbands and wives is control¬ led by indoctrinating women against the pleasures of sex. Copulation is a monthly duty to the Party members and nothing more. The only breeding done in 1984 is the breeding of a complete loyalty to an idea. Similar to religion, Party opinion is expressed in absolute claims. Doubt cannot exist because it is the fruit of reflection. To keep a cor¬ ner on the truth, dissent cannot be tolerated. Religious truth, or in 1984 , political truth, is absolute and its pos¬ session makes everything else unim¬ portant. Hence, religion never preaches the duty of critical thought or of searching or investigating sup¬ posed facts. Often the opposite is taught; we experience a narrowing of our perspective. In a certain sense, stupidity becomes a necessary condi¬ tion for life and growth. The spirit of truth-seeking dies from deprivation. The will to believe contrary to demon¬ strative evidence is often lauded as a religious virtue; in the Orwellian world of 1984 this is known as Doub- RONALD REAGAN JASEM AL-AMEERI JOHN F KENNEDY JEFFREY J. RYAN DAN MOON STING 1984 Expressions 23

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CLINT EASTWOOD STEVEN MIKKELSEN Big Brother is Watching You BOY GEORGE JOHN OTOOL GEORGE SCHULTZ HISAO SHITN1ZU items in the London Times, using the official language of the state, News- peak, so that no one will ever know the party line has changed, or that the current version of historical fact is a “rectification.” The language of Newspeak is designed to prevent peo¬ ple from thinking independently by limiting the language to a few official¬ ly approved words with reduced and precise meanings. In as much as peo¬ ple think in language, the diminished vocabulary makes it virtually impossi¬ ble to think a heretical thought. Today’s distressing trend is to an expanded, fanciful language, em¬ ploying large words and dead metaphors, which prevent thought LYNDON B. JOHNSON BRIAN LITTLE PAUL NEWMAN SABARINAH SH. AHMAD. rather than promote it. This techni¬ que allows the government to morally justify unjustifiable actions. “For as any self-respecting bureaucrat knows, it is bad form indeed to use a single, simple word when six or seven obfus¬ cating ones will do.” Orwell warns that by using cloudy images, worn out euphimisms, and large words, the reality language attempts to picture becomes muddled and confused. Bill Moyer, commentator for the CBS Evening News, reported that the United States State Department had eliminated “killing” from its vocabul¬ ary. “The unlawful or arbitrary de¬ privation of life” is used, instead. Lan¬ guage of this type smothers the reality CHEVY CHASE JEFF SCHAUB 22 Expressions 1984

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Big Brother is Watching You lethink. It is the ability to hold and believe two contradictory ideas simul¬ taneously. With the end of independent thought and the corresponding evolution of truth, reality can be fabri¬ cated to any form and dimension the Party pleases. Man, with his insatiable need to be certain of his beliefs, be¬ comes, in an instant, ready to kill or be killed to uphold the version of truth he believes in. This belief, in 1984 , comes from the all powerful leader, Big Brother. Considering the fact that the persecution of heretics fills pages upon pages of our history books, this tendency to violently defend accus¬ tomed beliefs is not overly fantastical on Orwell’s part. Men are willing to burn others and to be burned them¬ selves over the question of whether they should cross themselves with one finger or two, or whether God is one person of various aspects, or three persons of one substance. The absolute character of religious claims, like the political claims of 1984 , emphasizes sanctions of fear — the terrifying consequences of disbe¬ lief. An eternal lot of fire and brim¬ stone awaits the non-believer after death while on earth, dissidents die as martyrs for their refusal to follow con¬ ventional lines of thought. As history shows, martyrs that die for their cause demonstrate to those left behind that the belief or refusal to believe is worth dying for. Often, this strengthens the power of persuasion. The rulers of 1984 knew that to sus¬ tain their version of the truth, and thus continue their rule, no one could kkkkkkk die a martyr. Political subversives died for their heresy, or so the Party made it seem. In reality, they died through the use of torture and brainwashing. Worse than that, they died loving Big Brother and the Party. In Oceania, one of the three world superstates, Big Brother is synony¬ mous with God. Every success, every achievement, every victory, every sci¬ entific discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness and all virtue are believed to come directly from his leadership and inspiration. He is the focal point for all affection and devo¬ tion. The principles of Ingsoc, War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength, are slogans of loyalty, as far as Party congregants are concerned. This loyalty depends upon the system of thought known as Doublethink. In 1984, Doublethink training is indispensable. In an effort to join a non-existent subversive organization committed to the defeat of the Party, Winston Smith obtains from an Inner Party Member, a copy of Goldstein ' s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism , which details the theology of the Prin¬ ciples of Ingsoc. Orwell incorporates two lengthy Goldstein extracts into 1984 in an effort to warn what he thought was incipient totalitarianism in present day English Socialism. These extracts are considered some of Orwell’s best writing and are very readable, separate from the rest of the novel. In the first extract from Goldstein’s book, Orwell outlines the modern tragedy of the industrialized world. Man’s dream, since the beginning of kkkkkkkk kkkkkkk civilization, has been to have a society where all share a common lot with plenty to eat, shelter, and functional clothing for all types of outings. The society of perfect equality was simply a technical impossibility until the development of the steam engine during the 18th Century. It was then perceived by men, such as Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, that with the aid of automation and power-driven machinery, man could eliminate dirt, illiteracy, and human drudgery with¬ in a couple of generations if the machinery was used to that end. But man’s dream of an “earthly paradise had been discredited at exactly the moment it became realizable.” Orwell perceived that the essential structure of society throughout the ages has never failed to reassert itself, even after seemingly irrevocable changes. A high, middle, and low class has always existed and the ambitions of the three continue to remain the same. The high class simply wishes to perpetuate its social station as long as possible, while the middle and the low classes strive to replace the high class. The middle class will often enlist the low class in a concerted effort to estab¬ lish justice and equality by overthrow¬ ing the high class through revolution. Then as soon as the new high class feels confident in its position, it will re-establish a new low class, but with more determination than its prede- ssessor did. Orwell notes that this “cyclical movement of history was now intelligible, or appeared to be so; and if it was intelligible then it was alter¬ able.” Thus with human equality now kkkkkkk 24 Expressions 1984