Germany Essay, Research Paper
When the year 1948 rolled around, the world was actively involved in a war between two superpowers, one with a government ruled by the people known as a republic, and the other ruled by one man known as a totalitarian regime. An author by the name of George Orwell provided a realistic insight into the future concerning the totalitarian regimes before and after 1948. This scary insight was symbolized within the text of 1984, a book written to show the manipulation used by totalitarian regimes to create a pure party. Orwell showed similarities between 1984 s party, Ingsoc, the Nazi party, and Stalinist Russia, all totalitarian regimes. He did this by portraying the leadership ideals, the propaganda techniques, the fierce secret police, and the basic idea of creating a pure party used by all of these regimes. Big Brother was a mirror image of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin in many aspects. All three rulers ruled with an iron fist, this means that they ruled with basically no tolerance of opposition and by dictatorship ideals. Orwell showed this through Big Brother s ideas, and beliefs. Throughout Stalin s rule, he enforced several Five-year plans , which called for increases in industrial production, and collectivization of agriculture. These plans led to the emergence of an all-powerful nation, The Soviet Union. In 1984, Big Brother used similar three-year plans, The telescreen was still babbling away about pig iron and the overfulfillment of the Ninth Three-year plan, (Orwell, pg.6) to bolster Ingsoc s productivity and success. Much like Stalin, Big Brother s plans were a success in creating a powerful state. Adolf Hitler on the other hand, concerned himself more with spreading a feeling of pride amongst his party. He believed that his party was superior to all others, and stride for all others to agree and accept this idea. Stalin and Big Brother both believed this idea of superiority, and spread it by use of similar propaganda techniques. The use of propaganda was an asset in the success of creating the totalitarian regimes of Big Brother, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin. The Two Minutes of Hate, a program designed by Big Brother, was one of many of his propaganda techniques. This program glorified Big Brother, naming him as a savior, and denounced capitalism and all opposition as immoral and unacceptable. False advertisement was widely used throughout The Two Minutes of Hate. Similar to Big Brother s program of false advertisement, was Stalin s remakes and Hitler s control of historical films. Stalin once took an inspirational battle speech by Trotsky, a great military leader, and replaced Trotsky with himself and the showed it all around the classrooms. Hitler controlled the films and decided what could be shown. All films creating bad critiques towards the party were disallowed and destroyed. Hitler also used mass parades to heighten the spirits of the people, while Big Brother showed parades on his program to do much the same. All though these techniques were highly successful, opposition still arose. Much of this opposition was dealt with forces appointed by the rulers known as Secret Police. Whenever a totalitarian regime is created, it is almost guaranteed that a secret police force will follow. These forces are usually brutal and they are disguised within the civilian population. Hitler and Stalin s secret police forces were known to striking fear into the hearts of all people. They destroyed homes, families, and people s lives. The bizarre thing was that all accused were based on assumptions by others, and not straightforward facts. Big Brother used a force capable of discovering thought-crime, a crime in which opposition stirred within one s mind. Orwell showed the irrational practices of the secret police and how innocents were killed on assumptions that were usually untrue. The secret police of all three parties were primarily concerned with bringing down the opposition as stated before. This was done on the idea of creating a pure party, could only be done by destroying all opposition. Totalitarian regimes are well known for their desire in creating a pure party. Stalinist Russia tried to accomplish this by changing historical facts as well as documents, making them promote the party as the only correct party. Stalin also promoted a steady if not tremendous increase in infant birth, and he stressed the use of medical budgets to be appropriated for the health of babies. Older people were allowed to whither away, this was done so that the reminder of older ways was destroyed. Nazi Germany participated in mass exterminations in the process of ethnic cleansing. Millions of Jews and Arabs were killed by Hitler s troops just to maintain a superior race. 1984 provided an insight of what it would be like if the dream of creating a pure party was accomplished. Orwell showed how totalitarian regimes trained kids in military aspects and how the kids were taught to spy and report any opposition. The kids were programmed to only understand one party, thus prolonging the parties pure existence. 1984 taught many people around the world what really occurred within the gates of totalitarian regimes. It also made people realize the dangers that could occur if totalitarianism prevailed, thus expanding the policies of containment throughout the world. After it s publication, the Soviet Union was commonly known as The Evil Empire and was always depicted as the bad guys. Orwell showed the idea of a negative utopia, which he claimed would become true if all things continued the way they were occurring. 1984 opened many eyes and helped show the light on Socialism as well as Capitalism. The publication of 1984 helped foreshadow the evils of totalitarian regimes after 1948 and the regimes for years to come.