1984: Based On A True Story

It's been said before, and I'm going to say it again, and I'm going to say something you won't like.

There are three nations in 1984: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia.

In the real world, it has recently been offered by the nation of Russia to combine all the previous parts of the Soviet Union to create a new "Eurasian Union." It hasn't happened yet, but it will. Europe will collapse and be conquered by them, but the U.S. and NATO will be able to defend the British Isles. They will have influence over all the nations in North & South America and Australia, and they'll do whatever they are told pretty much anyway. China will expand a little nearby as well.

Oceania is a metaphor for the U.S.
Eurasia is a metaphor for the Eurasian Union.
Eastasia is a metaphor for the People's Republic of China.

All people believe that the others' ideology is evil, but are never told how similar their own is. It is said in the book, something along those lines.

"So, there you go," some people say, "1984 is simply the state of the world." And they are conspiracy theorists and they are happy.

That's not what it is.

It was said many times, it is perhaps the most significant part of the book, but it is rarely discussed. "Metaphysics is not your strong suit, Winston," O'Brien constantly says. Winston continually fights it, but O'Brien constantly tells him, "There is no reality outside of human consciousness. The Earth is as old as the Party. How could it not be...?" Et cetera. People will read this part, with a degree ridicule in their voice, but they avoid it. Everyone does.

No one likes the fact that 1984 is a story. It's not a society, the book. It's a story about people in the society. Winston is the last human alive, and this is an extremely important part in 1984's world. The Party tried to destroy all humans, but suddenly, out of sheer chance, O'Brien seems to find the very last human. This is important.

Winston is always looking for some meaning, something more. A significant point in the plot is that Julia does not share this meaning. Winston speaks with her about the piece of paper he had, but she seems uninterested. Does no one see this? It's important. At the end Winston had failed to convince Julia of its significance, but he was still convinced, and he was alone in that aspect. Another thing that you have to think of was when they met with O'Brien first, trying to join the resistance. Winston spoke for Julia. She didn't say anything. O'Brien asked whether the two of them were willing to committ this or that brutal inhumanity, and Winston invariably said yes, he would do it, and it would seem he would do it gladly. He answered the questions so quickly. No, he had no honor, he only wanted to win.

Winston always wanted something more. He had such drive. He wanted no less than to topple the government. It wasn't practical, but he knew that it was the only goal to possibly get. He knew it wasn't likely, but he kept thinking there had to be a way, and it was in the proles, he kept saying.

Allegedly the book that O'Brien undoubtedly gave Winston himself had a strategy involving the proles of how to win. O'Brien later says that it's absolutely ridiculous, hopeless. But it's not.

It's advice.

O'Brien contradicted himself. It's all that he needed to leave in Winston's head. When Winston met him to join the resistance, he could tell immediately that this man was different. He said he would give him the book in a little time. Why? Well, he's not omnipotent...he needs some time to write it.

He's just a member of the Inner Party who works for the Ministry of Peace. When he said to Winston, "You are the last man alive," he said it with some admiration. It was not an insult, it was a statement. He was outside of history, he said.

And they let him live. Why didn't they kill him? They always, always, always kill them.

O'Brien seems to run the entire operation. He explains the entire system to him, says things that are beyond the average man's understanding. And yet always next to the guards, but they say nothing. They don't accuse him of crimethink.

It's our advice again.

He said that they want power for power's sake, even after Winston knew he wouldn't. Why though? Winston never did understand. Why do they want power?

Big Brother is stupid. They want power, and they fully believe in the reality that they have imposed upon the people. That is why there is no monitoring what happens to Winston. Already captured, right? They are not human and they have gaps in their reasoning.

When he is freed, he has a regretful conversation with Julia. He says at the end that he had simply lost sight of her, that perhaps she was not immediately recognizable from behind anymore, with the implication that he didn't care, he didn't love her anymore. This was just pretension, though. Big Brother is stupid. The elite believe in their own reality, they believe that Winston really doesn't love Julia anymore, or vice versa. But there's an intimacy to their conversation. They sold each other, and they talked, agreed that they could get to them. A friendly conversation, but you could tell, there was pretension in the air.

The first thing he said was "I sold you," as though in greeting. It's not a greeting. They are ideological, to believe it's a sufficient greeting after what has happened, but it's simply not. It was over, after this conversation, in their ideology of greetings, it was no longer necessary to ever communicate again. But they obviously would. And when that happens, they will talk again, but there's nothing else to say. The pretension will fall, and they'll remember that they loved one another, and then betrayed one another. They will remember the perfect drama of it all, then they will smile and know it was pretension. They will see one another's pretension, and the intimacy will be so powerful. They will know each other through and through, know their pretensions, know their pretensions of pretensions, so much that it will be euphoric. They will laugh at the Big Brotherhood and their pretensions, that they thought they were cool in front of their friends for being so unabashedly evil just for power. They will laugh, "Power is useless" and then make sweet love all night.

They were trying to be cool for their subjects, but they'll help the proles to see it just by their presence and then the whole world will be laughing at the idiotic fakeness of Big Brother. "But, we rule the world," they'll say, but the world won't care, they'll be too busy having fun. The Big Brotherhood will still have power over them, but they'll say, "Ha! We don't care." And Big Brother will frown and see that his ploy to be cool was not working. He'll see that he does not need all this power. The whole will laugh at him and write an appendix about the laughable Newspeak. In a laughable tone. Then they do not even bother to topple him or anything, and he will be sublimely displeased when he walks through the streets, everyone sees him and don't even hate him or care that he could kill them at any time. He won't kill all of them.

Then Winston's parents come back to life and people write him a check for one million dollars.

The End.