In the novel 1984, why does a totalitarian regime not only eliminate its enemy but also seek to convince them of its own righteousness?
George Orwell’s novel 1984 is one of the most comprehensive literary texts demonstrating that totalitarian power operates not only through physical force but also by transforming the subject’s consciousness. In the novel, power does not merely eliminate its enemy; it aims to sincerely convince them of its own righteousness. This choice is not a coincidental or sadistic excess, but a necessary strategy stemming from the ontological and epistemological nature of totalitarian power. Through this strategy, Orwell reveals that modern power aims to control not only bodies but also regimes of truth and forms of subjectivity.
- The Insufficiency of Physical Elimination and the Logic of Totalitarian Power
While eliminating the enemy is sufficient for classical despotic regimes, it is not for the totalitarian structure in 1984. Because totalitarian power aims to eliminate not only dissenting behavior but also the possibility of dissenting thought. As Hannah Arendt pointed out, totalitarianism tends to control “not what people do, but what they think, or even what they might think” (Arendt, 1951). In this context, physical death does not completely eliminate the possible continuity of thought; on the contrary, it risks transforming into a suppressed but legitimizing myth of resistance.
In Orwell’s world, the real threat to power is not a living dissenter, but the existence of a subject who believes they are wrong. Therefore, the Party must conquer its enemy epistemologically before destroying it.
- The Monopoly of Truth and Epistemological Domination
In 1984, the fundamental claim of power is this: Truth is not an objective reality, but the will of power. O’Brien’s statement to Winston, “The truth is in your head and nowhere else,” is a concise expression of this approach (Orwell, 1949). Totalitarian power eliminates the subject’s capacity for verification through reference to the external world; Thus, reality becomes identical with the discourse of power.
At this point, convincing the enemy of the legitimacy of power means not only a psychological surrender but also an epistemological re-establishment. As Michel Foucault expressed with his concept of the “regime of truth,” every power produces its own criteria of truth and presents them as natural, inevitable, and universal (Foucault, 1975). In 1984, the Party took this process to its extreme: Truth is now only what power says.
- Doublethink and Internalized Power
Convincing the enemy is possible through the mechanism of doublethink. Doublethink allows the subject to accept two contradictory propositions as true simultaneously. This is not an ideological disorder of consciousness, but a form of subjectivity consciously produced by power. Louis Althusser’s definition of ideology as “the imaginary relationship that individuals establish with their real conditions of existence” is illuminating here (Althusser, 1970). Winston’s being forced to accept the Party as true, even though he knows it’s a lie, is an extreme example of the internalization of ideology through coercion.
Therefore, persuading the enemy for the sake of power means not only obedience, but also the subject redefining himself through the eyes of power. Winston’s eventual “love for Big Brother” is the ultimate victory of power.
- The Purpose of Torture: Transformation, Not Knowledge
In 1984, torture is not a means of acquiring knowledge in the classical sense. The Party already knows everything. The purpose of torture is to dismantle the subject’s perceptual structure and reconstruct it. In this respect, the novel foreshadows the biopolitical and psychopolitical dimensions of modern power. Foucault’s emphasis that the aim of punishment in disciplinary societies is to produce “obedient bodies” coincides with O’Brien’s pedagogical torture of Winston (Foucault, 1975).
The enemy’s conviction of the legitimacy of power is the moment of completion of torture; because at this point, external force becomes unnecessary. Power is embedded within the subject.
- The Ultimate Goal of Totalitarian Power
In conclusion, the fact that in 1984 totalitarian power not only seeks to eliminate its enemy but also to convince it of its own righteousness stems from its desire to establish itself as an absolute and indisputable ontological reality. Physical death is temporary; however, the internalization of power as truth is permanent. By demonstrating this, Orwell reveals that the real danger of totalitarianism is not so much oppression as the impossibility of thinking. Thus, 1984 becomes not only a political dystopia but also a profound warning about the epistemological fragility of the modern subject.
References
Althusser, L. (1970). Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. London: Verso.
Arendt, H. (1951). The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company.
Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon Books.
Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker and Warburg.
