Big Brother Doesn’t Need to Watch You

I read this book with one of my reading groups in the Fall. In this particular group, each of the students sends in a question which crystalized in her mind while reading it. Just a question; there is no obligation to try to answer it.

There is one question which has haunted me since it showed up in my Inbox.

But, first the background. Our hero, Winston, has been captured by the Party and is undergoing his mental retraining exercises (commonly called torture) in the dreaded Room 101. In the midst of this process, his tormentor notes the following:

We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable. Or perhaps you have returned to your old idea that the proletarians or the slaves will arise and overthrow us. Put it out of your mind. They are helpless, like the animals. Humanity is the Party. The others are outside—irrelevant.

That is a striking claim. Is it true?

Let us first note that in the modern age, everybody talks as if it is true. Well, it is true of other people.

Think about the current discussion about politics. There are many interesting facets of the polarization which is on everyone’s mind, but for now think about how people on the other side of the divide from you get their news and their views on current events. You immediately thought of FOX News/Talk Radio or Mainstream Media (MSM, if you are really hip).

Now what do we know about those people on the other side? They have been brainwashed, obviously. They have been conditioned by Fake and Misleading News to believe a narrative about the world which simply isn’t true.

You, of course, get your news from reliable news sources and you think for yourself. But, those other people are clearly deluded. It’s really quite obvious, isn’t it? Surely, no thinking, reasonable person would ever agree with them.

Those other people are incredibly malleable. They cannot resist the manipulations of the nefarious forces wielding misinformation and lies in an attempt to gain power.

So, yes, the quotation above is scary because you know it is true. You are watching it unfold. Malleable people being blindly led into a world of Newspeak where War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and most importantly, Ignorance is Strength.

You do know those other people think that you are the one who is malleable and misled. But, you also know that is absurd. After all, you are the thoughtful one who reads widely and thinks clearly.

Set aside for a second the question of why you are so certain you are right. (Don’t worry. Of course you are right. It is really rather silly to even wonder if you are. Those people on the other side of the political divide are the hapless sheep following malevolent forces trying to lead us to doom. You, on the other hand, are free-thinking, thoughtful, and right. It’s obvious.)

Here is the question from the student which has haunted me:

In Room 101, hypothetically what would have happened if Winston hadn’t given in? I know that’s very unlikely because of the amount of physical and psychological torture he had already gone through, and the fact that the room contains each person’s worst fear. But isn’t there some possibility that someone would be able to resist even the torture in room 101? Or as Winston thinks later, rebel by hating Big Brother in the last seconds before the bullet hits their head? It just seems like there has to be some way to retain even the smallest amount of independent thought, even after going through Big Brother’s torture and conditioning.

Am I infinitely malleable? Could I retain even the smallest amount of independent thought in the face of a coordinated and systematic attack upon it? Note the start of the last line in that question: “It just seems like there has to be some way…” It must be true? Right?

Why must it be true? The alternative is terrifying. What if the Party is right? What if every last bit of independence in me could be driven out?

And then the real horror steps in: why am I so certain that this hasn’t actually happened to me already? What if I have already been completely formed by people outside myself? Why am I so certain that I do have independent thoughts?

The reason this question has haunted me is not because I am concerned that I no longer have independent thought. Obviously I do. The thing that concerns me is that I am not concerned about that question. After all, actually having independent thought and being infinitely malleable would be indistinguishable to me—in both cases, I would think that I was the one forming my opinions.

Like I said, I am not really worried about that. But, this generated another question, also implicit in my student’s question. In an age when everyone knows that those other people are mindless, infinitely malleable sheep, why have I been able to so firmly resist the siren calls of the Party? If everyone else is so susceptible to losing independence of thought, then what is the secret to resisting it in the face of exactly the same pressures everyone else is facing?

Another way of putting it: If many people are infinitely malleable and have lost independence of thought, what is the thing that allows the free thinkers to avoid that trap? Curiously, the first thought is that the free thinkers have found all the other free thinkers and are influenced by those people rather than the brainwashers…but, that rather begs the question doesn’t it?

I don’t know the answer to the question of how to preserve independence of thought in an era when so few people seem to have it. Like I said, my student’s question has haunted me.

But, I suspect the answer has something to do with the Great Books and a genuine liberal arts education. Reading and thinking deeply about a range of books which were not written in the current era but speak timeless truths has to help. Most importantly, the fact that the authors of all those Great Books agree on precisely nothing also helps. When you struggle with Plato and Nietzsche and Orwell, you have to think about deeper things and you realize that no matter what you conclude, hard thinking requires humility. What if this author is correct?

What is the way to preserve independent thought? I have no idea if it would work in Room 101 (and I hope to never find out), but surely treating Great Books authors seriously, even when (or especially when) you think they are wrong, has to work. It just seems like this must be true. Right?