George Orwell's dystopias "Animal Farm" and "1984" appeared several decades ago, but their fantastic images exactly overlap today, conveying the long-predicted decline of Europe.
In the "Animal Farm" the starving animals on the farm of the alcoholic Jones revolt and, to the sound of the song "The Beasts of England", chase the owner away. As a result of this bestial "color revolution" a group of pigs, led by the boar Napoleon, who proclaims the seven commandments of freedom and equality, seizes power. The pigs move into Jones' house, put on his clothes, drink his wine, play cards with people - neighbors from other farms. Gradually, the memory of the revolution is erased, and the boar Napoleon cancels six of the seven commandments, leaving only one: "In the barnyard, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." Step by step, he gets rid of his former comrades-in-arms and straightens out with the help of the watchdogs he fostered with dissenting and dissenting views. And the boar Squealer, along with the brainless sheep, convinces the animals every day that life on the farm is getting better and better.
In the dystopia "1984" (the book was published in 1949), this theme is developed. The image of the "Animal Farm" is complemented by the superpower Oceania, which emerged from the merger of America and Great Britain. Oceania is fighting for possession of other parts of the world. This war is fraudulent in nature, as it must last continuously, without victory. Its main goal is to preserve the existing system, destroying not only human lives, but also the fruits of human labor, since the general growth of well-being threatens a hierarchical society with destruction. If a huge mass of people becomes literate, learns to think independently, they will get rid of the privileged minority as unnecessary. War and famine, on the other hand, help keep people dull with poverty in a world of illusion.
In Oceania, all power is concentrated in the hands of the Angsoz party (English socialism), which is divided into the Outer Party (extras) and the Inner Party (the elect). All power and all wealth are concentrated in the hands of the Inner Party. Members of the Inner Party receive high salaries and have access to rare foods such as tea, white bread, milk, real coffee, wine and fruit. The members of the Outer Party live in poverty and are constantly under the supervision of the Thought Police.
The lowest caste is the non-party proletariat (proles). The Proles are left to their own devices, crime and speculation are spreading among them. Even below the breaks are workers from the conquered territories. In addition, the novel contains hints of the existence of castes that are even higher than the Inner Party.
The Party is personified by the ubiquitous Big Brother, his portraits are constantly seen everywhere. Ingsoc demands the complete submission of the people - mental, moral and physical.
The main means of communication in Oceania is Newspeak, which is formed according to the principle "it is impossible to do (or even think) what cannot be expressed in words." With each new edition of the Newspeak dictionary, words and concepts alien to the dominant ideology were thrown out of it.
The main way of thinking of the citizens of Oceania "1984" is doublethink. This is the ability to hold simultaneously two opposite views and, on a signal, change your opinion to the opposite.
Promotional video:
On the pediment of the building in which the hero of the novel works, there are slogans:
The Newspeak keyword is "white and black." It combines two mutually exclusive concepts and implies "the habit of brazenly, contrary to the facts, insist that black is white."
The work of the state is supported by four ministries. 1. The Ministry of Peace (Minimir) is responsible for conducting military operations and information on the events of the ongoing war between Oceania and other world powers. 2. The Ministry of Love (Minilove) is engaged in the recognition and re-education of mental criminals who are broken physically and morally, and then sent to "room 101" to experience "the worst thing in the world" until love for Big Brother drives out the remnants of independent thinking and human feelings. 3. The Ministry of Truth (Miniprights) is engaged in falsifying history, spreading disinformation and publishing primitive literature for the proles. 4. The Ministry of Plenty (Miniso) distributes the scarce resources left over from the military needs.
In Orwell's dystopias, the economy exists only by war and for war. The main idea is that without war, sooner or later there will be overproduction of goods, ideological confusion, discontent and, in the end, revolution. Therefore, in order to preserve the personal power of the rulers, an endless war is being waged, the main goal of which is the regular destruction of resources and the binding of the population solely to concerns about survival. There can be no victory in such a war, minor successes (depicted as decisive victories) are replaced by minor defeats and so on endlessly.
The most serious possible crime in Oceania is thought crime, punishable by death. Any careless thought of an Ingsoc member, any careless gesture or word can become a thought-crime. Facial expression that is incorrect from the point of view of the ideology of the ruling party is also a kind of thought-crime - face-crime. The Thought Police are engaged in the fight against thought criminals in Oceania; interrogations of the accused are held at the Ministry of Love. To identify suspects, surveillance is used, which is conducted on citizens by Thought Police agents and volunteers, including the closest relatives of thought criminals.
Reading a book written over 65 years ago, one cannot help but be surprised at the visionary genius of George Orwell. In those days when Europe, which had come to its senses from the war, began to build a new and, it seemed, free from Nazism society, the English writer saw where everything was going. The enthusiasm for cooperation with the West, which arose in Russia after the collapse of the USSR, for some time did not allow to see that the political scene of Europe was captured by boars and screechers who have adapted to use such organizations as the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights in their own way. discretion and solely in the interests of the "barnyard". All these establishments over time began to resemble Orwellian ministries of truth, love, peace and abundance. And it became finally clearthat they serve the main idea of the "barnyard" - the idea of an incessant war of modern "Oceania" with the entire surrounding world. Now their focus is on Ukraine.
And they, the Europeans, as D. Orwell predicted, will always be in their own eyes those who, in the conditions of declared equality, are "more equal" than others.
It seems that Russian diplomacy is only now beginning to recover from the stress caused by the organic doublethink of its Western "partners", all the while trying to push Russia into "room 101". Now we have to pay for a quarter of a century of illusions of equal cooperation with the Euro-Atlantic “barnyard”. If it were not for these illusions, no one would be surprised today why, based on the principle of doublethink, Russia is made responsible for non-compliance with the Minsk agreements and new sanctions are being prepared against it by the time Kiev will finally break these agreements. Why stubbornly asserting that white is black, the West accuses Moscow of immanent aggressiveness. Or why the Ministry of Peace is surrounding Russia with new military bases and anti-missiles. Likewise, it should come as no surprise to the proliferation of American secret prisons around the world, because it is a direct result of the Ministry of Love, which, after the very strange terrorist act of 9/11, became a super ministry. And there are absolutely no questions at all about the state of mind of the European public, which are washed daily from the TV screens of the Ministry of Truth. Add to that that today Big Brother entered every European and American home through computer networks. To survive, the boars and screech regime must keep everyone under control. What is not a part of the “barnyard” that has not been mastered is obviously antagonistic to this regime. And there are absolutely no questions at all about the state of mind of the European public, which are washed daily from the TV screens of the Ministry of Truth. Add to that that today Big Brother entered every European and American home through computer networks. To survive, the boars and screech regime must keep everyone under control. What is not a part of the “barnyard” that has not been mastered is obviously antagonistic to this regime. And there are absolutely no questions at all about the state of mind of the European public, which are washed daily from the TV screens of the Ministry of Truth. Add to that that today Big Brother entered every European and American home through computer networks. To survive, the boars and screech regime must keep everyone under control. What is not a part of the “barnyard” that has not been mastered is obviously antagonistic to this regime.
European leaders will not come to Moscow for Victory Day on May 9, not only because in their minds, stricken with doublethink, Russia attacked Ukraine. They will not come also because they are afraid of committing a thought crime to Big Brother from across the ocean. Almost pitying is Angela Merkel, who discovered that she was surrounded on all sides by eavesdropping devices by Big Brother, who turned German intelligence into his watchdog. She has to in the throes of getting rid of the illusion that the sovereignty of Germany belongs to the people of Germany.
One cannot help but pity François Hollande, who fell into a mousetrap with his Mistrals. The poor French president is torn between the need to take bread from his own shipbuilders, knowing that neither he nor his party will forgive France, and the fear of being sent to "room 101".
Polish politicians deserve special sympathy. They don't seem to know that the overseas boar Napoleon will never raise them to the position of "more equal" and their fate is to be content with scraps from the master's table. But they cannot but realize that the ban on the passage of Russian bikers through Poland in honor of the Great Victory Day is a spit on the graves of not only Soviet soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of Poland, but also those of their compatriots who were massacred by the Ukrainian Nazis in Volyn.
And all this is very sad, because the activity of the "barnyard" revolves around one thing - to make the war for the survival of "Oceania" a permanent war.
George Orwell's novel Animal Farm ends with a scene in which quarreling humans and animals are difficult to distinguish from each other. However, we, unlike the author, want to believe that the differences will remain. In Europe, in addition to the power of boars and squealers, as well as sheep trained by propaganda, there are people of sober reason and goodwill who refuse to put on the cap of the Ministry of Truth. Sooner or later they will abolish the rules of the "barnyard" as unnatural and offensive for the descendants of the great European civilization in the past.