Ignorance In 1984

Ignorance is defined as a lack of information or knowledge. Society often looks down upon those who are ignorant or less educated because they consider themselves to be better. Even though we do this, society as a whole is often misled or kept ignorant about meaningful issues in the world, especially in the news. However, almost no one is actually aware of this because their main source of information is the one that is probably leaving out information or lying to them. Some governments even block out all sources of news altogether. One might wonder why governments would do this. By using the novel, 1984, George Orwell establishes the theme that governments use ignorance as the most powerful means of control, conveyed by the use of fabrication

Some of Winston’s acts of rebellion included questioning authority figures and asking about history and not blindly believing whatever the Party told him. After contemplating actions against the Party leading to his torture, Winston realizes that to stay alive in the Party, “Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain,” illustrating how if citizens are intelligent, curious, and question too much, they will be punished by the Party (Orwell 279). Although numerous, the proles could never rebel as long as they were not smart enough and not educated by the party. Their lack of intelligence may have been the only factor holding them back. Fabricating information is also easier when a society only knows as much as a government wants them to know. If the people's knowledge is not within the government's control, then from other sources, they will realize that the information and news they're hearing are lies. People don't react well to being lied to and they might call the government out on their lies, which can lead to rebellion. Along with intelligence, people gain confidence from education and knowledge. Winston lacks this confidence and is absorbed in his self-doubt, which may have led to his capture. By limiting their knowledge, the Party makes it impossible for citizens to rebel. Moreover, the

One of the motto’s in 1984 is “ignorance is strength.” After seeing what the Party does with ignorance, it is reasonable to assume that ignorance makes the citizens stronger because with it, they can’t rebel, keeping them away from any consequences, and keeping the Party in power. Because ignorance is unhealthy for a society or nation, when people discover that they are being kept in the dark, they are outraged. In places with censorship similar to the Party’s, like Burma, people riot against the government in an attempt to end the censorship. News can be modified or based on a bias to make a nation seem better to its citizens, similar to what the Party does, albeit less exaggerated. Considering the fact that George Orwell wrote this over 60 years ago for a world over 20 years ago, he did very well in predicting what our world would turn out to be, which is alarming because it is supposed to be a gross exaggeration of the world. Looking at his world, in 1984, gives us an idea of what is wrong with the world and what will get even worse so that it can be