The Book1984 by George Orwell: Brainwashing as a Key Ingredient In a Totalitarian Government

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Recommended: Reflection about novel 1984 by George Orwell

During the 1950s and the Korean War, people were worried about brainwashing and mind control techniques. In 1949 the book 1984, written by George Orwell, was published. At this time Korea was in a civil war. The civil war ended up with North Korea as a totalitarian government and South Korea as a separate nation, with a permanent state of war existing between them. Orwell's novel accurately predicted this scenario. In 1984 brainwashing was used to distort the citizens' concepts of reality, and these distorted concepts led to a total belief in a totalitarian regime. As a result, brainwashing, as described in the novel and as seen in the reality of North Korea, is the principle ingredient in totalitarian governments.
Brainwashing is a complicated process that can be used for many reasons. Brainwashing is a prolonged psychological process designed to erase an individual's past beliefs and concepts and substitute new ones (Summers 69). It combines the compliance method, the education method, and persuasion into one big process (Layton). The process is often carried out without one's consent or against their will. The system of brainwashing can be broken down into steps. The first step is that the interrogator breaks down the victim's identity so that it does not work anymore. Step two is to replace the victim's old beliefs with new ones that will work in the environment the interrogator has created (Layton).
In the Korean War (1950-1953) brainwashing was used to convert the UN prisoners of war (POWs) to communism. Nearly 13,000 UN soldiers became POWs of the North Koreans and the Chinese during the Korean War (Sandler 52). Just over 10,000 of these were Americans. Most of the South Koreans captured seemed to disappear. The British s...

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... the Korean War." Global Research. Global Research, 03 Sept. 2008. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Orwell, George. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Published by Signet Classic, 1977. Print.
Pash, Melinda L. In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation: The Americans Who Fought the Korean War. New York: New York UP, 2012. Print. 141, 150, 154-5.
Sandler, Stanley, ed. The Korean War: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Pub., 1995. Print. 52-4.
Stokesbury, James L. "The Prisoner-Of-War Issue." A Short History of the Korean War. New York: W. Morrow, 1988. Print. 190.
Summers, Harry G. Korean War Almanac. New York: Facts on File, 1990. Print. 69-70.
Tucker, Spencer C., Jinwung Kim, Michael R, Nichols, Paul G. Pierpaoli, Priscilla Roberst, and Norman R. Zehr, eds. Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Print. 89-90.

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