In 1984, this idea is demonstrated with Thought Police. It is certainly bad enough to never feel alone in one's own community but it even worse to never feel alone in one's own head. This idea is maddening, as Orwell illustrates through Winston. He says, "At home and in bed in the darkness you were safe from the telescreen so long as you kept silent" (96-7). Here we see that Winston can only find time to think his own thoughts when the Party believes he is asleep. There is nothing more controlling than making people think they have no time to themselves and anything they think outside the permission of the Party is evil and wrong. This keeps people obeying the law because it is safe and comfortable there. If people do not make any trouble, they will not get any trouble. Malcolm Pittock agrees adding the Party does not want anyone to be more than average. He writes:
Any would-be rebel is disabled from the start. Formed by an inhuman society, he will already be infected by it because he is serving its purposes. Winston grasps the significance of the systematic falsification of the past by the regime, but he is not only actively engaged in it but actually enjoys it. (Pittock)
Pittock identifies how the Party controls the people through a system of modification. It takes serious thought for Winston to realize something is amiss. His ability to begin to think on his own the effort it takes for him to reach that point is what Orwell wants us to remember. Thinking is difficult and most people would rather not think about things that are difficult or troubling. This is how people can be taken over: make them just comfortable enough to keep them marginally happy and they will not speak out because things are tolerable.
Orwell warms of technology,...
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