The Fourth Kind of People--- Thoughts about 1984

       

    

                                              

  

       In The Book by Emmanuel Goldstein in 1984, it states “Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low” (pg. 184, 201); however, O’Brien admitted later that “I wrote it. That is to say, I collaborated in writing it” (pg. 261). The general structure of Oceanic society in which Orwell creates, Big Brother is at the top of the pyramid. Below Big Brother comes the Inner Party, less than 2% of the population of Oceania. Below the Inner Party comes the Outer Party and below that is the dumb, swarming, and disregarded masses called “the proles,” about 85% of the population (pg. 69, 208). The question is what we are? We are not in the party. Certainly we don’t like to be categorized as “the proles” because “the proles are not human beings” (pg. 52), even though they are free as the party’s slogan, “Proles and animals are free” (pg.72). So, what are we? I will say that we are the fourth kind of people who are in between the Middle and the proles. Therefore, we are not only learning Doublethink and Newspeak from the Middle, but also we tend to do things that only the proles will do such as gambling. We are also like the ants, which mean we see small objects but not large ones (pg. 93). Where will those concepts we adopted from the Middle and the proles lead us?

          According to Orwell’s 1984, doublethink means the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs and believe in both of them (pg.35). Unfortunately, not only the politicians but we practice it all the time. For example, you are on a team doing a group project. The teacher/ the boss says, “you must fit in,” but when it comes to grading/ promotion, the teacher/ the boss says, “No one stands out.” Since when can these two ideas: you must work well as a team/ you must be a rugged individual work together?  In addition, are you going to marry a man who keeps changing his job in order to follow his dream or a man who has a secure job but buried his dream? Why do we always have to fight with these two ideas: follow your dream/ find a secure job when it comes to reality? Moreover, affirmative action is an excellent example of doublethink. It says that no matter how many qualified people there are for a job or to get into a good college, there has to be a certain number of minorities admitted. Which means, in plain English, if you’re white, it will be harder, if you’re yellow, it will be “double” harder than if you’re black to get in due to affirmative action, because employers will have to hire a certain number of minorities even if they are not as qualified as you. As a result, many institutions have begun to practice it. I don’t think even Martin Luther King would be happy to see this, as he addressed in his “I have a dream” speech. In his speech, he stated, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” People think it is okay to fix discrimination by discriminating against a different group of people. Doublethink has emerged in our, the forth kind of people’s life. Sooner or later, two plus two can be equal to five (pg. 197) because everything is so nebulous that we can’t tell its true value. Furthermore, we’ll believe that “the earth is flat” (pg. 278) and “The earth is the center of the universe. The sun and the stars go round it” (pg. 265). We are going to live in a world of lies that we create which will lead us to be ignorant. That’s fine, I guess. “Ignorance Is Strength.” All this doublethink is preparing us to suit the society that Orwell foresaw in the future.

          As a married woman who lives with the man she loves for 10 years, I know him perfectly well that I have to remind him every year before Christmas, “Do not buy me the smart phone,” just in case if he is lost in the rolling snowball liked ads. You can say that I am old school but you can never change my mind. One of the reasons is the screen is too small. The main reason is I don’t want to be one of the people whose brain has been occupied by technology. They bury their head in the little screen whenever they can and ignore their surroundings which cause a lot of problems as you saw in the news. On the other hand, maybe I should give it a try so I won’t feel lonely and left behind. For instance, my 4 year old nephew will not tell me again that my computer is not working properly after his little index finger attempted to slide the display and failed. Another example, my niece, who is 19 years old lives in Taiwan, was chatting with me through Facebook one night. The last sentence she typed was, “99, 381, TTYL.” I later found out what it meant, “Night night, 3 words, 8 letters, 1 meaning (I love you). Talk to you later.” What a great way to simplify the language even superior than Orwell’s Newspeak. Syme in 1984, a philologist, a specialist in Newspeak, his job is “to cut the language down to the bone.” Syme said, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought” (pg. 52)? In the end, there will be no words in which to express ourselves. We, the fourth kind of people, the majority, are on our way towards an ignorant society.

           “Gambling filled up the horizon of the proles’ minds” (pg.71). You’ll see the proles talk about the Lottery with absorption in every line of their faces in 1984. Many times they get involved with violence arguing over the numbers. For most of the proles, the Lottery is the purpose, the only reason for them to stay alive; it is not only their delight but their pain killer and intellectual stimulant (pg.85). We, the forth kind of people, are supposedly lucky because the prizes in our society are not imaginary. Not like in Oceania where only small sums are actually paid out; as a consequence, the winners of the big prizes were being nonexistent persons (pg.86).  However, gambling is illegal in the U.S. but not the ones that are approved by the government; for example, casinos, Lotteries, and horse racing… Why?  Here is another example of doublethink but worse. The government knows it causes a lot of problems; indeed, if they can collect tax money, they don’t care. For most religions, gambling is a sin. It is written in the Bible that if God wants to destroy you, he would have you gamble. This is a quote from the old testament, “Ephesians 4: 14 – That we henceforth  be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and  cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” The word used for sleight means “game or gambling, hence entrapping by deceit. God is saying that He does not want His children to be tossed to and fro, and blown about by all of men’s doctrines.” We, the forth kind of people are ignorant enough to gamble away our happiness and security.

          Finally, we are like ants. We work and breed. We care for our home and our children. We quarrel with friends; enjoy movies, soccer, and alcohol (pg.71); yet, we don’t care about all the relevant facts outside the range of our vision. It is foreseen vividly in The Book, “They are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives”(pg. 201)  When Obama said, “You can keep your insurance, period.” We believed. When Clinton said, “I was never alone behind closed doors with that woman.” We believed. What are the results? We found these statements to be untrue. “The lie always one leap ahead of the truth” (pg.214). Still, we ignored it. One of the two aims of the party in 1984 is “to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought” (pg.193). We are all like ants blindly following a trail of honey into the future world of Big Brother.


          In conclusion, we simply swallow everything, and what we swallow such as Doublethink, Newspeak, gambling, and a vision of an ant did us no harm, because “it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird” (pg.156). It leads us to narrow our thoughts and be easily controlled. “We are the dead” (pg.135, 176, 221). But before that happens, let’s be ignorant together. “Ignorance is bliss.” However, ignorance also gives us strength to keep going to the future as Orwell predicted. Hopefully, by 2050, we’ll all say in unison, as Winston said in the end before he died. We love Big Brother.