1984 Government Control– Techniques and Purposes

 Why does the Oceania government use such harsh controls?

To stay in power. To create submissive, obedient, believing, loyal robots.

Other possible responses: They want total control. To stamp out rebellion. Because they can. To protect themselves. To hide the truth. To cause fear and paranoia. To exist. To suppress individuality. To divert attention away from gov’t errors. To make people easier to control. To create beliefs, i.e., belief in government.

What techniques do they use?

Specific technique (or group of techniques) / Purpose of the technique (what is it supposed to do?) / What similar techniques of control are used today? AND/OR What similar technology is available today?
Surveillance 1 – telescreens, hidden cameras, bugs (microphones) / To control dissent
To create paranoia
to watch everyone so completely they are afraid to act out, & to catch rebels before they act. / 2011: Google gets almost 6 million hits for surveillance equipment. Walmart offers 305 pieces of equipment, including hidden cameras, heat-sound-motion sensors, wireless motion detectors that can transmit info half a mile, an alarm clock with a camera that can hold 40 days of footage, and indoor/outdoor night vision cameras that can see 40 feet in the dark. Check out where they say “In the unstable world we live in today, only our products can give you the peace of mind that comes with truly being secure and knowing what is really going on around you” (Spy Associates). They offer bugs and bug detectors, cameras, telephone tapping and recording, GPS tracking, metal detectors, and voice changers, among others. Also look at which offers everything you need to watch, listen and record (including equipment to spy on cell phones), plus tazers, PC monitoring software, and xray vision glasses that can see through objects and clothes and record what they see!
2010 security x-rays; email and credit card surveillance; GPS built into every cell phone; satellite photos; ability to search any computer record. Within the USA, the Patriot Act allows legalized surveillance of populace without warrants. Also, discuss secret phone record/email issue.
Surveillance 2 – Thought Police, junior and adult spies / (same as Surveillance 1)
To control dissent
To create paranoia / Discuss when/how spy organizations become “thought police.” Examples include “money for info” programs and calls for turning in suspicious people. If you have time, check out the 2003 Twilight Zone episode, “Monsters are on Maple St.”
Propaganda – using posters, radio, TV, etc. / To control information
To keep people ignorant
to hide the truth and create a belief system. Both of these help to brainwash people into believing what they are told. This creates the robots described above.
See also Fear. / Check out takebackthemedia.com which links to some great sites, but even more info is available at
A few years ago, 10 big companies controlled almost all the media in the USA; then it was 8; check new numbers and consider political leanings of the owners. Consider the way the Bush gov’t cast the media as an enemy from the start of the move toward war with Iraq.
Control education / To control information
To keep people ignorant / “Government control education” gets over half a million hits, while “No child left behind” gets 6 million. Be very aware of propaganda in the voices on both sides of the argument. The gov’t does set requirements of what schools teach. Consider evolution debate today.
Update papers by changing and deleting facts + Memory hole / To control information
To keep people ignorant
wipe out info that shows problems and replace with positive info /
  1. Censorship. Holding back FOIA documents. Reclassifying documents. Changing posted websites (get ANWR website and original), newspapers, etc. See memoryhole.org
  2. Look at changes in our allies, how allies become enemies and then allies again. US support of USSR, Saddam Hussein, Taliban, a variety of Latin American dictatorships, more.

Newspeak / To control information
To keep people ignorant
control language to control rebellious speech, & eventually, even rebellious thought, by reducing the population’s ability to express itself / Consider the dumbing down of the American populace. “Dumbing down education” gets almost 775,000 hits. Check out Consider the reduction of whole thoughts to emails, IMs and text messages (and their abbreviations).
Doublethink / To keep people ignorant
Allows Inner Party to justify their existence & Outer Party to pretend to believe it all works / Consider willful ignorance, including our own tendency to ignore uncomfortable information, like coffee and chocolate being connected to slavery issue, like popular clothing brands using child labor, like over-consumption being a major cause of worldwide pollution, global warming, and lack of natural resources…
Fear 1 –
Atmosphere of fear / Control emotions
Create fear
  • Creates obedience through fear of punishment
  • Fearful people are obedient & do not ask questions because they believe they need the gov’t to keep them safe
/
  1. Discuss atmosphere of fear post 9/11; discuss whether it is used to control people; discuss to what extent it is present in the USA today. Consider the terror threat color scale and announcements of upgrades.
  2. Consider also how the news presents information…the selling of frightening news to get the ratings to sell the advertising.
  3. Time permitting in class, we’ll excerpts of a documentary that relates to this issue: how everyone has unlocked doors in Canada

Fear 2 –
Harsh punishments – torture, executions (may be public), arrest without cause or without fair trial, disappearances, forced labor camps / Control emotions
Create fear
People are too afraid of being punished to act out. Constant threat contributes to atmosphere of fear. / All. Within USA, ongoing arguments about the use of these tactics. Guantanamo (especially look at a collection of ideas from outside the USA at Sending prisoners to countries that torture. Extraordinary rendition to secret military detention camps that use torture. Military Commisions Act (late 2006) and loss of habeus corpus. Outing a CIA agent to punish her husband. Leonard Peltier, the West Memphis Three, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Fear 3 –
Ongoing endless war / Control emotions
Create fear
War propaganda raises nationalism. Desensitizes people to horror of war. Fear of enemy takeover leads to dependence on gov’t.
Maintain class system
Wastes excess. Explains shortages. /
  1. Identify countries which have been at war continuously & for which no end to war is in sight; perhaps make list of all countries in world and whether they have been at peace or at war in last 50-100 years.
  2. Track US involvement in wars (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I and II, Afghanistan) and military interventions (esp. Latin America) and/or continual military attacks (Kosovo bombings, Iraq in the 90s) from WWII to present.
  3. Consider Iraq war: about $700 billion in 2006; other source says $550 billion in 2008. Update? One site says now at 941 billion. costofwar.com/en/ says total war since 2001 is 1.2 trillion dollars, with with 781 billion in Iraq and 419 billion in Afghanistan. Brown U report of 6/2011 says 225,000 lives and up to $4 trillion!
  4. Consider “wars” on drugs, poverty, crime, and terrorism.

2 minute Hate / Control emotions
Create fear
Creates a scapegoat. Focuses all negative energy on outside enemy. Creates unity in populace. / Organized Hates, maybe…consider focus on bin Laden, then switch to Hussein, and now Iran. Consider celebrations of bin Laden’s death. Scapegoating, definitely.
Call all critics “enemies” / Create fear
To keep people ignorant
Silences criticism by associating critics with the war enemy/scapegoat / Yes. Attacks on war protestors for lack of patriotism and sending a negative message to the troops and being “supportive” of terrorist enemies.
Anti-sex league
(Connected to nationalism & patriotism) / Control emotions
Encourage love for country & discourage love for people. Use energy to foster war hysteria. / Discuss attitudes toward sex in different places. Abstinence-only programs, restrictions on women’s health, birth control and family planning.
Uniforms. Call each other comrade. / Keep them the same
Reduce individuality / Discuss: How much do we have to conform? How much is to fit in? Burkas, fashion, music
Class system / Control goods
Stop progress
Keep all real wealth in 1 group that has control (Inner Party); give one group some privileges so they remain obedient (Outer Party), keep Proles working hard / Google“wealth distribution in America” for 40 million hits. Read sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html. Look at the numbers, and then at the number of wealthy people in positions of governmental power.
Rations/poor substitutes/shortages / Control goods
Stop progress
Maintains class system / Consider minimum wage, Fast Food Nation, reduction in support for food, school support programs, Medicaid…vs. tax cuts for the very wealthy and corporations
Lottery and cheap entertainment (sports, porn, etc) / Control emotions
To keep people ignorant
Keeps people (proles) happy (or at least thinking they are) & distracted / Got ’em all.

Government control techniques 1