Why does O'Brien claim that the Big Brother society will be eternal? What about their system lives on without interruption and how is that possible? Is there any hope for the future of Oceania or are they destined to be 'enslaved'? If there is hope for change, where should Winston look?
Coco, I'm countin on you're help, buddy. =P
One view is that Orwell is making digs at the Catholic Church.
The system described by Orwell functions like an inverted religion.
In the past, religious mythology ususally began with a creation-myth.
These myths are a monument to human imagination and creativity- creation and creativity are divine attributes, and they are what defines the very idea of 'God'.
In '1984', these principles are turned inside out, left to right and upside down.
This 'religion' is concerned with the concept of 'un-creation'- starting with the language.
Once the 'creation' of "Newspeak" (...the un-creation of the language...) is finished, it will be practically impossible to have any individual thoughts, any imagination, any curiosity.
With that, the very principle of creativity itself is 'vapourized'.
On the surface, this kind of society would be something chiselled in stone.
However- the concept contains a fundamental flaw.
What the 'rulers' in this kind of world are doing is akin to someone building a very elaborate electric train set.
Anyone who does stuff like that in earnest will tell you that the pleasure derived from it comes from the act of designing and building it- in fact, they will tell you that their beloved train-set will never really be finished.
There is always something to add, something to change- something to create.
By it's very nature, the "Trainset" created by Orwell's rulers will one day be completed- simply because there will be nothing left to 'un-create':
The pseudo-immortal rulers will be left to eternally watch the automated, computer-controlled trains go round and round.
Goldstein's book explains that in the past,
society consisted of an upper class which ruled, a lower class which was being ruled, and a middle class which kept the rulers in power.
Once the middle class discovers that they may as well become rulers themselves, they take control- by making the lower class belive that they will free them from their rulers- but all that happens is that the names of the rulers change.
You know the running gag about "what kind of Christmas-present should I give to such-and-such"...?
Well-if in doubt, give them socks...
With the result that the person in question may end up sitting there with a pile of socks.
What kind of Christmas-present do you give to a millionair...?
Well, Gucci-socks, of course.
But the effect is ultimately still the same.
And what about the multi-millionair...?
Once he has driven the sixth Maserati into the garage were it joins the five Ferrarris and the three Lamborghinis, he will forget about it. Like the socks.
By the time you deal with the billionair, you'll discover that he has lost his interest in material things altogether.
Instead, he may contemplate a competely differnt gift for his wife- like a small, south american country- for example.
The hunger for material things originates with the fear of physical hunger which the lower class often enough was more than familiar with.
Gandhi once said that to the man with an empty stomach, food is God.
The result is the desire to accumulate surplus, in case of bad harvests.
Greed and lack are interlinked- two different sides of the same thing.
Someone who already has the desired surplus will gradually become distanced from the original reason for his desire:
He forgets what hunger is.
A very rich man most likely inherited a family-fortune and never ever had to endure true hardship at all.
But he also will have lost his taste for mere material things- instead he developes a new hunger, a new form of greed:
The hunger for power.
But that ultimately results just in a different form of 'wealth':
In the end, he may have all the power he could wish for- and thus developes yet another hunger.
He begins to hunger for immortality- that which is the one thing neither money nor power will ever supply him with.
The rulers in '1984' have reached that point. They are god-like, and they have created their own illusion of immortality by way of an immortal collective formed by a ruling class (although even that is an illusion...but that doesn't belong here)
The fear of hunger is in reality the fear of death- which is what eventually becomes the hunger for immortality:
The key-word is 'permanence'.
In the past, a middle-class becoming power-hungry made for the opposite...
But once they have finished their 'permanent' dream-world, they will discover that watching the automated trains go round is mind-numbingly boring- and it can not be undone without the principle of creativity.
The principle of creation is divine. God IS creation.
When "GOD IS POWER", it un-creates-
with Goldstein's book being the relevant un-creation-myth.
What kind of Christmas-present could you give to a God ?
The answer is supplied by a film made in 1974 called "Zardoz"...
