Psychological Manipulation and Physical Control in 1984

Through the years many governments have tried to control their people through many different ways. However, none of those civilizations came even close to the amount of control that the government displayed in George Orwell’s 1984 had over its’ people. The government of 1984 addressed the task of controlling the people through two main techniques. These two techniques the government used were psychological manipulation and physical control to rule over the people.

The government (also known as Big Brother) bombards the people of the civilization with rules, regulations and other methodical methods that cause the people to be anti-individualistic.

The people are so focused on fallowing the laws in order to prevent the harsh penalties for breaking the law. These penalties for breaking the law ranged anywhere from the death sentence to many different forms of psychological torture modus operandi. One crime that the people could commit was called a thought crime. A thought crime was any thought that was not in line with Big Brother’s ideology.

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Not only does this control the people directly through the people’s actual thoughts (psychological manipulation) but it also dictates them physically through how Big Brother determines if someone is committing the thought crime. Big Brother determines a thought crime through using cameras everywhere and they examine the reactions on the face of the people and what they say to find out how they feel about what Big Brother is doing. This physically controls the people because it makes them not display any opposition to the government.

Another example that concerns to Big Brother controlling the people was by the way that Big Brother had children brought up. The government brought the children into the organization called the “Junior Spies”. Once the children were in this organization they were taught and trained to betray their parents by being additional eyes and ears for Big Brother. This form of control psychologically manipulates families not to talk about anything that would display individuality. In addition to the psychological manipulation, this form of government controls the people physically through the reformation of how families interact with each other.

Yet another example of Big Brother controlling its’ people is by taking away the passion and the enjoyment out of the bedroom. In the society that Big Brother establishes sex as something that should only be used for the reproduction to keep the population up. Sex is supposed to not be enjoyed and only done by specified members of the inner party. Sex expresses individualism and free thought, so by psychologically manipulating the people to not like sex they are eliminating more individualism in their society.

Big Brother also displays another example of controlling the people by instilling nationalism in them. Big Brother takes the problems in the society and uses them to say that other parties and cultures are the reasons for their faults. This creates hatred in the people and stirs up emotional responses against the other parties and cultures. The way that the government does this is very similar to the propaganda tactics used by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and also by Joseph Stalin in Communist Russia.

The nationalistic propaganda is how Big Brother psychologically manipulates the population of the civilization. One last example of Big Brother psychologically manipulating the people is observed through the posters that the government hangs up. All around the civilization you are able to find posters that say “Big Brother Is Watching You! ” This is a scare tactic that the government uses. Big Brother uses fear by creating an environment in which the people are constantly reminded that that they are being watched for disloyalty to the almighty government.

That is how Big Brother manages to use posters to psychologically manipulate the people. There are countless examples of how Big Brother dominates these people lives through the use of psychological manipulation and physical control. The government uses their totalitarian power to strictly enforce its’ ideological control over the people. The people are trapped in a government which is full of so much propaganda and other psychological/physically abusive tactics that the people have grown accustom to the society that Big Brother creates for them.