1984 by George Orwell; A Reflection of Censorship in Our World
“1984” a book written in the 1940’s by George Orwell, is a guide to identify censorship in modern politics.
Free will is the embodiment of what it is to be a functional human. Our consciousness is embedded in our minds, luring us to have desires, curiosity, aspirations, all of which seem like natural human instincts. So when those instincts are stolen or taken away, our minds would fundamentally be at battle.
In between confusion and anger while coming to terms with freewill - a human right, our tool, our only true self-control to be taken away. That would be a normal response. But some would disagree with that. Rather, some would even want to twist that response into an act of crime of even daring to respond. That battle to find an appropriate response is a recurring dilemma in the mind of Winston, the protagonist in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, written in 1949..
1984 by George Orwell, is considered to be a classic work of literature and is praised highly for its depiction of censorship, power, greed, and chaos. The novel follows Winston, a man described as someone who is very ordinary, very quiet - someone who keeps to himself. He is accustomed to a dystopian society that is under a totalitarian government, a setting that is assumed (questioned) to be within the year 1984.
The society is run under a government known as “BIG BROTHER” - a political party that keeps citizens of Oceania (one of the three superstates, followed by Eurasia and Eastasia) in a repressive state. Life in Oceania is difficult. The novel depicts people must follow harsh rules, everyone works tirelessly, most are in poverty while the small elite thrives and of course, everyone must listen to “Big Brother”, as “Big Brother is always watching” - a recurring slogan the political party uses that is meant both literally and figuratively.
Art illustration by: (Hannah Arabella Gabling//The Underground)
As the book progresses, the reader quickly understands the severity if one resists the government’s way of ruling. Winston’s inner thoughts of critique of the government are at risk of being a direct threat to himself. The act of resisting is incredibly difficult in this dystopia, as those who even think to go against the party, will be set for punishment known as “thoughtcrime”. If caught, any resistance found would essentially be “suicide” in the book, implying the government would do unspeakable things by placing them in an ominous place called Room 101, where those who rebel will face their deepest fears.
The continuous pattern in the book is the lack of freedom. The placing of restrictions creates a natural imbalance of what autonomy humans should need; freewill is what makes humans thrive in life, therefore humans have a difficult acceptance of the repercussions of restrictions being forced upon them as it goes against their self-expression and the option of choice..
It shows exactly what these tactics, laws, routines and need to control the population is doing to Winston and the society around him. Propaganda, often described as the increased spread of information that is based on false facts, half-truths etc, in order to sway the public’s opinion to their advantage, is used repeatedly throughout the novel.
It bleeds together with censorship, as it always starts with propaganda and quickly with new influx of followings, the power they now have will be used on censoring. Some strategies used in the party are to manipulate the thoughts of those who question them, and using the erasure of the society’s real history by rewriting it to favour the party’s outlook and benefit, aiming to have any proof (truth) of the against to disappear. This removal of the truth produces the ability of manipulation toward the people, an act that gives full authority to the government to pick and choose what is information and what is “misinformation”. Conveniently, implementing this would only leave the option for the citizens to believe the government as there is no evidence to go against it.
Rewriting history is taken literally, having those who work in the ministry create a whole new dictionary with language called “Newspeak”, a new form of “english” that would later be required as the only spoken language allowed. A particular scene between Winston and an acquaintance of his (who is working on this new language) shares his work’s goal, creating confirmation for Winston of the party’s further plan to increase censorship. Page 66 highlights, “Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
1984 showcases a society that is under extreme censorship. Censoring to the point of no retaliation being liable, history being erased and humans living in paranoia and fear. The novel is an intense depiction of the effects of censorship, a trail that is leading to a common goal most dictatorships want. Full control and power. With a government party like BIG BROTHER being in sole control of citizens' lives, orchestrating what they are saying, believing in, is a direct relation to corruption and greed overthrowing freedom and ethical morality. To achieve this, they begin to censor their people.
Our world is not innocent in this tactic either. Our world is where this book came from, a guide to the harm of what the continuation extremists could do when put in a position of power. We are no strangers to censorship, we have seen in history what censorship can turn into.
Evidently, World War II did not jump start into invasions, bombs, concentration camps. No. It started small. With Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party gradually gaining followers, collecting his power step by step until he found himself in the high chair of authority. Censorship in World War II era Germany, was used in many ways. Radio was heavily surveilled with pro-Nazi ideologies being spread, the shut down and takeover of any anti-Nazi newspapers, banning books, surveilling soldiers’ letters they might send home are just a few. Censorship and propaganda influenced the citizens with pro-Nazi beliefs, leading very quickly to the allowance of complete power to the Nazi party, therefore leading to tragic history being written.
Art illustration by: (Hannah Arabella Gabling//The Underground)
In 2025, we see similar ways of censorship like in 1984. However, our digital media age has morphed our understanding on what censorship looks like, creating an entire new territory we are collectively having to learn together.
Social media is used and participated by anyone in the world. Algorithms are individually catered to you, videos seeking you and your enjoyability and creating an echo chamber . Therefore, identifying what is or is not propaganda is getting harder to decipher. But it exists, with millions of people on apps, it leads to voices of people hitting the nail on identifying when this propaganda occurs, leading to amplifying awareness and education. Now those who promote said propaganda, undoubtedly do not like this. Therefore, they lead to other ways of attaining power, which is censorship being fully plastered openly. The display of censorship is used uniquely for different countries. For early stages but increasingly concerning use of it, the example of the US’s recent elections would come into mind.
President Donald Trump ran through executive orders at the speed of lightning this past month, leaving Americans and the world to the trouble of processing. His recent proposal of drafting to abolish the department of education is a clear first step to censorship. With this extinction, the education system will not be held liable, chaos would occur and the direct order of what is taught in school is not held accountable, creating a dangerous precedent of the misuse of control on the education that is taught to the next generations. Already, discourse is circulating through the U.S., the demand for the education of African American studies to be restricted from the curriculum, referring to it not being relevant to history, already take small steps to remove history by not teaching it.
In extreme examples, Afghanistan has reached a point of full domination of eradicating a woman's right to education, to a career, to a choice, and to live. North Korea, famously known as the country with the most extreme censorship in the world, has successfully banned the whole world from truly knowing the conditions inside North Korea for years.
Many countries, like Israel, Norway, Poland, India, Japan etc. show an increase of censorship, with an uprising of blocked websites and revealing policy changes made in order to obtain these blocks. All of this is to enable internet censorship, the digital media version of censorship. Therefore, they are scared of us and our control of what we consume and abide by, so it is taken away.
When reading 1984, the direct reflection of our world is nauseatingly spot on, from the reason on reasons for censoring to the inner turmoil Winston goes through, this is not simply fiction. History has countlessly shown evidence where censorship, propaganda, and dictation is attempted. It never works out, but humanity will always suffer immensely. However, in this new time of digital media, the control is harder to achieve, granting the human race a chance to escape during the propaganda stages. To know history is important, to apply it in our morals is important, to implement resistance is important. And as a guide to help understand how to separate those who work for our humanity rather than those who work for their personal greed, the following quote by George Orwell from 1984 can help…
“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past”
