1984 and the Principle of Non Contradiction - Personal Thoughts on the Novel "1984" By George Orwell

I just finished a first reading of 1984 by George Orwell. Again, listening via audiobook doesn't lead to the deepest comprehension, but I wanted to offer a few thoughts. The basics outlining the book I'm sure have been done plenty of times, so I'll rather pick up on a few themes that connect with my own studies on totalitarianism. I probably started and put down 1984 three or four times before finally preserving in fully reading the novel. I think part of this is because there is not a lot of character driven action. In the middle of the book there is some relief for the reader when Winston and Julia have their relations, but otherwise a lot of the book is a description or explanation of the current state of Oceania and the tactics used therein. Nevertheless, by the end you can see why this is a great book that will stand the test of time. It is deeply philosophical and dense with ideas that need unpacking to truly appreciate. Overall, it is definitely a necessary read. 

Major Outline

I will offer a brief outline in that the first part of the book is Winston working in the Ministry of Truth, having grown up in this society and trying to work out why he is having certain doubts about what is going on in his country. The second part of the book is his connection he finds with Julia, a younger woman somewhat like him, having grown up in Oceania fully participating in the life of the outer party, but interiorly rebelling against it. They have their love affair together before finally getting caught after they think they are entering a rebel group, "the brotherhood". The third part of the book is the reprogramming torture Winston endures in the Ministry of Love, where his betrayer O'Brien tortures him for an unknown amount of time until every last aspect of rebellion in Winston is completely gone and he is "rehabilitated". 

Undoing the Principle of Non-Contradiction 

Part of the genius of the book is the central tactic of the inner-party, Big Brother, Oceania, or whatever you'd like to call it, in attacking the principle of non-contradiction. This phrase is not used directly, but it is described by Orwell in the book very clearly. The principle of non-contradiction is the first and fundamental metaphysical principle and thus the first principle of logical thought -- namely that reality is not contradictory of itself: "Something cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect." To recognize this is to recognize an objectivity to the world, both physical and social. It is to recognize a teleology to things that we cannot escape. It is to recognize truth. It is to recognize that this objective truth makes demands on the human conscience and action. And so if you are going to have a state which worships power, as O'Brien admits that Oceania does -- where power is God -- then this must include power over reality itself. 

And so there are the famous images from 1984 of double think and double speak, of the different major Ministries of Love, Peace, Truth, and Plenty. The central tactic of control is to manipulate man's reality such that the principle of non-contradiction does not have control. How could it be possible to do that, one might ask? And here we can think of the tactics explained throughout the book: of continually altering all past history and documentation so that no one knows anything different from the current propaganda, of teaching people from youth how to use a technique of forgetfulness and unconsciousness towards contradictions when it is useful from one moment to the next to further the party's will, creating an culture of informants which police anyone who might think for themselves and creating a certain mental isolation from others, and having a true panopticon technological dystopia with Big Brother listening and watching at all times. 

Indeed O'Brien gets into a metaphysical view of the world during his torture sessions in which he explains that all that exists, exists in man's consciousness. They reject any metaphysical existence to the world. And so by altering and controlling consciousness they alter and control reality itself. They have that total power. They become God. 

Rebellion?

But what if someone rejects their programming and constant surveillance? What if they do think for themselves? What if they do see that reality exists outside perception? Well, this is what the Ministry of Love is for. They are sent there, not for death right away, but for complete psychological reprogramming first. It is there that through continuous torture they get the person to relinquish anything that the individual holds as individual. They must give up their own perceptions of reality. They must give up their own conclusions from those perceptions. They must surrender their thoughts, their emotions, and their will to that of Big Brother, to that of the party. They must denounce every person they ever loved or cared about. They must denounce themselves. They must speak lies and believe them and feel them to be truth. They must become part of the collective consciousness of Big Brother and submit their minds to his universal and eternal mind. And once the reprogramming is done, it is permanent. They are no longer even watched by the Thought Police because they are incapable of acting as individuals anymore. They are merely manifestations of the Big Brother. 

Why Is it Always Individual Consciousness that is the Enemy?

In Jean Jacques Rousseau's Second Discourse on Inequality he gives a theoretical account of man's evolutionary history. His conclusion is that it is man's individual self awareness ... the birth of human consciousness as being an individual amongst other individuals that is the greatest evil that has befallen man. Man was better off in an unconscious animal state. Nietzsche too in his Genealogy of Morals holds the same fundamental conclusion: everything bad in the world is the result of the birth of the higher conscious self and the loss of the human as pure Dionysian animal. The same is true of the work of the totalitarian governments in the 20th century, and thus probably why Orwell makes that the theme of 1984 as well. 

But why? Why is individual consciousness so bad? Why does modern philosophy hate it so much? Is not the consciousness of man as man the pinnacle of all human life? Are not the "humanities" that which we educate children in so that they embody the highest differences that humans have from mere animals? I believe this is because modern philosophy in inverting the starting place of the human experience from reality itself to the beginning in human consciousness has lost any sense that there is a real metaphysical world at the foundation of all things. And if there is no ultimate truth, teleology, and objectivity which shapes human existence, then O'Brien is right --- God is pure unadulterated power. And when you have whole governments with this as their foundation they must rule through total power. 

Hence individual consciousness is enemy number one since the individual's mind and conscience allows them to perceive the truth of the objective world which supposedly doesn't exist. And in thinking about acting for oneself and one's understanding of the objective world others no longer have power over them. 

Consciousness is likewise related to the word conscience. When we begin to perceive objective truth, that truth takes a moral hold over us. It makes us aware that there is a power and reality greater than myself, a reality that I cannot transgress or control, but rather must submit myself to. This is unbearable for many to handle because it means that we are, at the end of the day, responsible for our actions. Every action has some type of ultimate meaning. Every action is judged against a real standard. The world is full of meaning ... a much scarier thought for many than nihilism could ever be.