The Travesty of Truth in 1984 Essay Sample

Hollywood's run-of-the-mill idea of scary typically consists of a zombie apocalypse, an alien invasion, creepy clowns, and a possessed doll or two. George Orwell’s ground-breaking classic, 1984, explores a different kind of horror: the horror of a world governed by lies, scrutiny, propaganda, uniformity, and censorship of the past. Through its bleak, macabre lens, 1984 illustrates this terrifying dystopian reality, encompassing themes such as totalitarianism, individualism, classism, and the value of language. An especially notable idea this novel discusses is how the government (referred to as the Party) infringes on our perception of reality through its regulation of the media. As we see, one of the Party’s primary means of imposing conformity on its citizens is through the fabrication of the past-- a prospect Orwell thought possible in the real world, hence his decision to weave its consequences into his cautionary tale. Unfortunately, we as a society have not heeded his warning in terms of the abuse of media censorship, thus leading to mass deception and an inability to separate fact from fiction. As a result, our society must treat Orwell's words as a wake-up call and become more vigilant about how the media is swaying our minds and swindling us out of the truth. 

One particular warning we have failed to harken is of the government’s fabrication of the past and manipulation of objective truth, simply to further its political agenda. In Orwell’s dystopian world, the Ministry of Truth is the institution that oversees this notorious falsification through extreme censorship of the media the citizenry consumes. Due to the Ministry’s historical perversions, “[e]very record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered…. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right” (Orwell Tk). The paradoxical, fatalistic perception that “[n]othing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right” indicates that the government distorts the past to suit its agenda, asserting they are perpetually in the right. In doing so, the Party molds their blatant lies and fabrications into the incontrovertible truth, making it impossible for citizens to conceive the actuality, proving that abuse of media censorship can leech on perceived reality. Unfortunately, this encroachment of truth is present in our own political climate, as governments use the Internet as a channel for deception to satisfy their agenda. Communist China, for instance, cracks down on its Muslim citizens online due to its notorious agenda aimed at antagonizing followers of Islam. According to an article by AP News, The Guilin University of Electronic Technology in China leaked a notice which "warned that hostile domestic groups and foreign powers are 'wantonly spreading illicit and illegal videos' through the Internet…the search for violent, terrorist, reactionary and obscene content, which was to be conducted this month, was necessary to resist and combat extremist recordings that it called mentally harmful” (Kang). China’s stereotypical regard of Muslims as “hostile domestic groups” and creators of “violent, terrorist, reactionary and obscene content” paints a taboo surrounding Islam, alienating Muslims as inherent enemies to the state and justifying their urgency to “resist and combat extremist recordings that it called mentally harmful”. This reproval of religion and quelling of the truth through media proves that the censorship issue exists in the real world; the truth is not always welcome, especially if it does not accommodate the government’s standards. All in all, the uncanny similarities between the real world and a totalitarian dystopian society must not go unnoticed; the government’s interference with the media is unwarranted, as it blurs reality and works to build a world governed by lies.  

As Orwell testifies how the media is used to distort the truth for the government's benefit, he also discusses how these tactics are detrimental when the masses fall for the fibs: the more we continue to distort reality, the harder it is to distinguish between fact and fiction. Such a hazard still pertains today, especially in the age of the Internet, a place where misinformation spreads like wildfire, and it is all too common to be hoodwinked by phonies online. For instance, when the Party shoves its alternative facts down the citizens’ throats, its constituents swallow them unthinkingly, in an almost mechanical fashion. Through its draconian censorship of the truth, the Party controls the past, present, and future simultaneously; thus, “if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth” (Orwell 34). The idea that a “lie passed into history and became truth” personifies the idea that in this society, any lie propagated by The Party is blindly accepted as truth, and thus leaving the citizenry extremely vulnerable to brainwashing and further manipulation. This proves that the alteration of the truth through the media can lead to a deterioration in one’s ability to steer clear of deception. Alas, such consequences are just as dire in the real world as they are in the fictional world. Much like in 1984, the mutilation of truths just as easily hoodwinks us today; the Internet introduces a whole new playground for trolls and conspiracists to spread misinformation to the public, particularly in the form of fake news. According to the article, “The Remedy for the Spread of Fake News? History Teachers”, “fake news operations occupy a unique place on the Web and constitute an obvious and menacing threat to unsuspecting visitors”; in regards to fake news and real news, the “inability of so many readers to distinguish between the two, and know when to steer clear of a website altogether, is undoubtedly concerning” (Levin). The fact that Internet surfers are considered “unsuspecting visitors'' who are unable to “distinguish between the two” demonstrates how often we blur the line between truth and falsehood when it comes to the media we consume. This proves that distorting the truth through the media ultimately leads to blind acceptance of the lie, simply because we are unable to catch onto the red flags of cozenage. Thus, we must combat the abuse of media as it prevents us from separating reality from fiction, leaving us particularly vulnerable to mass deception.

However cynical these warnings may seem, Orwell’s intention was not to frighten; rather, it was to rouse and call future generations to action, to warn us against the dangers of unbridled political powers. As he asserts time and time again in his novel, we must be vigilant against the misuse of media, particularly when it blurs reality for the sake of political agenda. If we fail to do so, our ability to distinguish fact from fiction will soon erode, leaving us at the disposal of any brainwashing, totalitarian regime. Given these deceptions are widely exercised by our own governments, these ideas remain pertinent today; as readers, we are urged to bear these warnings in mind, tread carefully when consuming our media and, most importantly, not give in to the travesty of truth.

Works Cited

Orwell, George. 1984. Signet Classics ed., New York, Penguin Group (USA) Inc, 1950.

KANG, DAKE. “Backlash at Chinese university shows limits to surveillance.” AP News, 20 November 2018, https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-international-news-china-beijing-technology-3406f8964d54414d9ab1ad25fb473874. Accessed 16 December 2021.

Levin, Kevin M. “Opinion: Asking the right questions helps students steer clear of fake news.” Newsela, 9 January 2017, https://newsela.com/read/fake-news-history-teachers/id/25301/. Accessed 16 December 2021.