War is Peace
In modern day most people would not consider war to be peaceful because it is destructive and soldiers are sent over seas to fight for their countries and no matter what the outcome is, there are always loved ones that do not survive. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the party uses the contradictory phrase; War is Peace, as propaganda and as slogan by which the citizens abide by. However, the meaning of the slogan is true in the world of Oceania because there is no real conflict with the other superpowers, the social hierarchy remains equal and there are no economic issues. Big Brother, the tyrannical dictator uses War is Peace to create an ideal utopian society for the citizens of Oceania.
In the novel there are three superpowers at war, which are, Eastasia, Eurasia and Oceania. In the world of Oceania, the party claims that they are at war with one of superpowers, but occasionally they will alter their enemy. All three superpowers are permanently at war with one another, but two of the superpowers would be unable to take over the other. “None of the three superstates could be definitely conquered even by the other two in combination” (Orwell 186). Since the superpowers will not allies themselves with each other there is no physical warfare between the superpowers. This makes war peaceful because even though the Party declares that Oceania has an enemy there is no confrontation and none of the superpowers are willing to challenge the other. Therefore war is peace because the war never endangers any of the Party’s land or citizens.
Not only is there no real physical encounter, but also there is no reason for the ongoing war in Oceania. In current day, countries usually go to war with each other because there is conflict in religion, the economy or territory; however in Oceania there is no conflict. Big Brother presents the idea of War to the members of the Party to unite them and spark their nationalism. “Secondly there is no longer, in a material sense, anything to fight about” (187). In the world of Oceania war is considered peace because it is warfare of limited aims between opponents who are unable to destroy one another and have no material cause for fighting.
Within Oceania there are three principle social classes that make up the population which are the proles, the Inner Party and the Outer party. The proles are considered to be the lower class, the Outer Party represents the middle class and the Inner Party signifies the high class, with Big Brother overseeing all three social classes. In present day when there are three defined social classes that have distinctive privileges there is one class that desires to have the power. For example the middle class struggles to overthrow the upper class and the upper class always wants to remain their authority.
Although the proles are considered to be the lower class, they are also free from the reigns of Big Brother, but they do not have special privileges and they are not provided with jobs. The proles are carefully chosen because they are the unintelligent majority of Oceania. Since they are mindless they are unaware of their ability to overthrow The Party. Big Brother inflicted fear into the outer party so that they will never make a mistake or attempt to conquer and take control. The inner party is attentively chosen as the minority because they aspire to always continue in supremacy. “It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste” (190). In the world of Oceania there is no conflict between the social classes because the citizens are either unintelligent or too intimidated to take power from the Inner party.
The Party slogan War is Peace applies to the social classes because there is no disparity between the three groups, although one group may be more privileged than the other there is not one specific group that is wealthier than the other. “The splitting intelligence which the Party requires of it members, which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the high up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes” (192). Each social class is equal because they all share the same wealth; therefore there is no incentive for one class to try and overthrow the other. “But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction-indeed, in some sense was the destruction of a hierarchical society” (189). Since there is no accumulated wealth there will be no uprising. Big Brother uses War is Peace to create an ideal utopian society amongst the social classes because the citizens may not be satisfied, but they are all equal. In an ideal world most people long for egalitarianism in wealth, but by constructing certain social classes, Big Brother has resolved this issue in Oceania.
The citizens of Oceania are constantly producing goods to support the economy in the time of warfare. War uses up all the resources, so nobody has too much of a product, which also ties into the wealth of the social classes. “Goods must be produced, but they need not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare” (191). Since Oceania is permanently at war and consuming goods the citizens have to continue to work to replace the goods that are utilized. “The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor” (191). During the time of war the products are consistently destroyed, causing the citizens to make more of manufactured goods. “In principle the war effort is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population” (191). In Oceania, when there is an excessive amount of goods The Party will destroy any extra so that it is distributed equally. The Party controls the economy cautiously and allows the citizens to have an equivalent quantity of produce.
The War in Oceania causes the economy to keep producing and consuming resources and when the resources are consumed in a war the citizens are not accumulating wealth. “Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labor power without producing anything that can be consumed” (191). The economy makes war peace because by creating weapons of destruction the citizens do not gain prosperity. It keeps the masses poor because the economy is only producing by products of war that will eventually be destroyed; therefore the citizens are not gaining any wealth because these products are not useful to them. Big Brother uses the economy to create a utopian society because there is no advance in wealth since the citizens are forced to make supplies that are consumed by the war.
In the society ruled by Big Brother, war is peace because there is no confrontation, it consumes resources and prevents any social class from gaining excessive wealth and not one class is viewed as having an economic advantage over another class. With the slogan, War is Peace, the people of Oceania can consider themselves to be living in a utopian society because they are all equal and there is no struggle for them to overcome. In the world of Oceania there is no internal or external conflict, which causes peace to be the result.
