Reading Blog #1: 1984

          In the book 1984 by George Orwell, the government creates a society where people are all the same. The people are supposed to remain "unconscious" (not have individual thoughts) and agree that whatever Big Brother/the government says is the truth. The government achieves this by having the Thought Police monitor everyone and ensure that people who commit thoughtcrimes are dealt with. Conflict and individual rights are also reduced. The people are convinced that individuality is bad (one of the slogans is "freedom is slavery") and they are encouraged to not develop opinions and thoughts (another slogan is "ignorance is strength"). The government gets everyone to think they're happy by altering the past so that there is factual proof to support that the present is better than the past (before the Revolution). Also, anyone who disagrees or has their own thoughts is caught by the Thought Police and vaporized. The past is then altered again and vaporized people have never existed. In this book, George Orwell creates a dystopia. Nothing is perfect about the society, and everything the government does/says is based off of lies. The people aren't actually happy, the government just convinces them that they are. Also, conflict is avoided within the society because the government kills anyone who opposes, but conflict is not actually in anyway reduced because, as a matter of fact, the Party supports war and encourages violence.