Freedom and Human Rights in Orwells 1984 - Essay Example

?Freedom and Human Rights in Orwell’s 1984 Introduction The paper is focused on Orwell’s utopian novel “1984”. Orwell is a prophet of past and present times of the humanity. It is surprising and weird for a modern reader to understand the way Orwell managed to predict all the truth about humanity living under the immense pressure of perverted socialism. In his novel “1984” Orwell depicts a socialist society and claims that socialism was positioned as the only right way to preserve human freedom, justice and human rights. The issues of freedom and human rights are discussed further on. A process of individual’s degradation in the face of oppression and intimidation is shown by Orwell. It is interesting to trace individual’s transformation from an independent citizen to a dependant person oppressed by a perverted socialism. A novel’s background Socialism by itself is not destructive. It is more relevant to look at its rulers and discuss their history. In accordance with Marx, a great philosopher of socialism: “revolutionary violence was inevitable since those in power will never voluntarily relinquish their position, and he viewed the future communist society as the redemption of that nightmare of history that we have had hitherto” (Scaliger, 2007). Another position is expressed by Orwell. Socialists showed violence to fight against violence; an example of the Soviet Union shows to us that the society based on violence would lead to freedom opposition. Therefore, it is necessary to develop human rights protection laws and take control over freedom achievement in the society. A political form of Socialism is not bad in its essence. It is better to reach socialism by democratic means and not through violence. Orwell shows that working people have their own ethical concerns creating a bridge for decency development under socialism (Deery, 2005). Consequently, Orwell is positioned as an ethical socialist, who is focused on the basic moral values of working people and he does not want that people would lose them. Social justice for Orwell can be reached in case liberty, equality and fraternity are preserved. It is interesting to discuss external factors influencing on conceptual representation of freedom by Orwell (Deery, 2005). In accordance with Marx and Engels, freedom is an integrative part of self-determination. In reality, freedom has a broader meaning; it should be clarified that freedom “means being in charge for one’s own life and being able to reveal the highest potential of an individual” (Scaliger, 2007). In this utopian novel, Orwell created a satire of an ideal type of socialism. Stalinist practices and Trotsky’s practices provided Orwell with fruitful information about the cruel and violent regime, degrading human souls. The world order reinvented by Orwell is an interesting fantasy of a writer: “His narrative gifts having flowered during the ugliest days of Stalinism and soared at a time when such ideas were in the air, he thereupon extrapolated Stalin's system and Burnham's schemes--worldwide and into eternity” (Deery, 2005). Freedom in the novel An interesting vision of freedom provided by Orwell is appealing for contemporaries as well: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four" (Orwell, p. 69). The Party is intimidated by the emergence of extra-linguistic reality and by the fact that some global issues may be intimidating for the whole society. It is easier and more convenient for the Big Brother to reshape the minds of his people, take away a hope from them and transform their skills into a motive force for socialism. For Winston, the Party is bad, because “its infallibility, or freedom from the strictures of falsifiability, is buttressed by its ability to impose, through Foucauldian disciplinary techniques, a radically groundless regime of purely local and discontinuous epistemes” (Orwell, p. 45). We can see that there is an internal and external fight for freedom among the main characters of Orwell’s novel. Winston is directed by a concept of freedom in his life. It is a motive force for him. An individual’s freedom plays a crucial role for this character. Unfortunately, a blind hegemony wants to take away an individual’s freedom from its citizens. It is much desirable for them to create a dumb herd of stupid sheep following its shepherd. The Party positions freedom as slavery. It puts a stake on collective thoughts and ideas and it discards individuals’ freedoms. Moreover, Orwell writes that “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing” (Orwell, p. 51). Orwell is too pessimistic, as for me, but on the other hand his prophecy about Stalinism and future Soviet Union cannot be underestimated. In spite of the fact that Orwell’s predictions did not come into reality to the fullest extent around the world, it is obvious that a soulless humanity has occurred. In the face of terrorists, criminals and law breakers, there are many people who avoid spirituality. Orwell depicted this picture in darker tones, but he wrote that “Nowhere in 1984 can any hint of lingering moral conviction or religiosity be found. No churches nor any trace of Christian belief survive anywhere, and what's more, no attempt has been made to perpetuate or revive them” (Orwell, p. 63). Therefore, Orwell wanted to write about the history development in the future in case the basic principles of humanity are lost. In the face of an individual’s degrading, a person would not appeal for spirituality or think about his self-identity or freedom. It would be much convenient for him to follow the Party’s line blindly. Human rights violations in Orwell’s novel The society depicted by Orwell was prevented from the major freedom: a right to think independently. The members of society had to develop their "doublethink," when they accept the opposite side of truth. The Party "rejects and villifies every principle for which the socialist movement originally stood, and it chooses to this in the name of socialism" (Orwell, p. 67). For people ideology means dictating a leading principle of their lives. The Party obtrudes on people politics, which is advantageous for them. Consequently, Orwell claims that a false vision of socialism, perverted by Russians bad politicians prevented people from their rights. They were a herd of ships and no one more. This herd was prevented from an independent thinking and had to follow wrong principles. The absence of social individualism, initiative and idealism was an intimidating factor for Orwell’s society development (Deery, 2005). A pure materialism mixed up with religious or spiritual concerns is a slightly mitigated form of socialism. A depressing picture of the society presented by Orwell depicts a degradation of the human nation and not only enemies. The members of the society feel hopeless and resigned; they feel depressed and oppressed. Orwell claims that it is possible to dehumanize a person, destroy his life and turn him into a vegetable. Moreover, another option is to take away human rights from citizens and turn them into a mindless sheep herd. Humanity has to suffer from boredom and anxiety; they go mad, because they cannot find themselves or they do not have a right to express or realize their individuality. No thinking, no freedom, no rights. Just a blind and dumb following after the despotic Big Brother is the most viable form of existence of living masses who can be easily misguided into the darkness of mindlessness and not a viable world (Deery, 2005). Still, Orwell’s novel should not be considered as an appeal for the world’s society to go wrong. It is a warning showing a wrong path to hell of human insanity and cruel, mindless leaders. The Big Brother made an attempt to bring up people who would perform like machines. This was necessary to introduce people in the era of dehumanization and alienation. Orwell is not a prophet of disaster. He is a teacher of bad rulers, who oppress their people. To protect and individual, develop his individuality, help him to restore his self-determination is a crucial function of any government. Unfortunately, in “1984” the rulers oppressed individualities of its members of the society. This novel is a powerful warning and an appeal for the world’s governments to develop their national strategies and human rights for their nations. Moreover, the oppressing government discussed by Orwell is afraid of its own unfair oppressing strategies: “It was always at night — the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring of hard faces round the bed …People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word” (Orwell, p. 85). Thus, there was no an individual; there were no individualistic features of any person. Human rights are violated even at homes of the citizens. Technical advancement of the society enabled cruel leader to take control over patients by means of television, which must be turned on at all times. Therefore, the absence of privacy is a violation of human rights. The Thought Police could read off information from the minds of individuals at any moment. The lives of the citizens were under a microscope. Every moment of citizen’s life was scrutinized. Thus, Orwell looks like a prophet who shows drastic consequences of a lack of attention to an individual, his rights and personal development. The following abstract from the novel describes a gradual degradation of human rights. At first, no freedom of feelings expression, love or any other feelings is allowed. The only love is possible for the Big Brother. The abolition of other activities except those devoted for the Party’s service. All other pleasures are inaccessible for the citizens. The most famous quote devoted to the human rights’ discussion is: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever” (White, 2008). Conclusion Thus, Orwell’s novel “1984” is an interesting prophetic literary masterpiece. Based on realistic facts from Stalinist regime, Orwell in his imagination expands the limits of perverted power of socialism. There was no initial intention of the regime to degrade an individual. Bad rulers have started up a cruel machine of humanity degradation and there is no way back. Consequently, Orwell is a teacher for the modern rulers, who makes an emphasis on the important role of freedom and human rights development and protection for any citizen of the society. The aspects of freedom and human rights were not properly studied by the researchers and need further research. Still, it is relevant to note that these aspects are crucial for Orwell’s novel and it should be underlined that George Orwell plays a role of human rights’ promoter in the very emergence of it. Works cited 1. Deery, June. "George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four." Utopian Studies 16.1 (2005): 122+. 2. Orwell, George. 1984. Routledge, 2003. 3. Scaliger, Charles. "Orwell Was Right-And Wrong: George Orwell's 1984 Accurately Portrays Many Aspects of Totalitarianism, but This Tale of "Big Brother" Is Not without Its Flaws." The New American 14 May 2007: 29+. 4. White, Richard. "George Orwell: Socialism and Utopia." Utopian Studies 19.1 (2008): 73+. Read More