Principles of Oligarchic Collectivism, American style. Part I?

In 1984, Orwell is able to transmit the larger geopolitical factors of his dystopian world through a book written by the traitor Goldstein presented to Winston by its real author (or a member of the committee that wrote it) O'Brien. If 1984 the novel was written as the last warning of a dying man to an imperiled world, it is worth reexamining the properties of his new world order to see if there are any parallels in our system. We owe the great visionary that much.

The first principle to explore is that of unconquerable superstates. The US is the most obvious candidate, even if there were dire enemies out there it would be nigh impossible for us to be defeated, conquered, and occupied. But the other two superstates of the book roughly correlate to the present, I have my doubts whether the US even in alliance with another could conquer China or Russia given our current difficulties in foreign operations. The true importance of America's unconquerable status is that we can, and have, allowed our efficiency to atrophy. Orwell is very clear that it is fear of outside enemies that keep a ruling elite sharp and rooting in objective reality. Once this obstacle is removed, a ruling elite is freed to engage in exercises of "reality control" which would cause a normal state to fail in short order.

The US is, according the the Principles, a "self-contained universe" from the perspective of many of its inhabitants. It is incomplete in many ways, but through exercises of reality control these disappear from view. Worthless pieces of paper are accepted for valuable commodities which are rationed through fantasies of "free markets" such as manufactured goods, oil, and tropical agricultural products. I say fantasy because prices are more or less fixed by oligopolistic firms acting as gatekeepers for the necessities of life and it is the housing and service necessities such as health care and education that are really expensive. Though Americans can perceive the feeling of wealth through gadgets, even the poor are clothed and can eat cheap fast food through perverse incentives of our economic system.

The real source of social control is debt instead of simple shortages, intelligent Americans are kept in line through fear of individual crisis and distracted by entertainment. The key to a better life is still education, but for the ruling elite it is more the credentials of education than any skills learned. The killer instinct of members of the upper echelons of corporate life is internalized by many sources and to some degree hereditary, this goes by many names and the sanitized version is known as "entrepreneurial spirit." A key point in Orwell's Principles are the necessity of maintaining a hierarchical society, all methods and features of the system perpetuate this.

As the ultimate value of the ruling elite is not yet power for its own sake, independent thought is tolerated but never allowed to reach a critical mass among the population. While the US went through brief periods of actual imperial expansion and the liquidation of opponents, today discrediting ideas and those presenting them are sufficient to liquidate opposition. There also is a natural competition, pride, and exclusivity among independent thinkers of the left which limits their ability to affect changes to the system. While the Ingsoc party in 1984 sought to freeze history at a most advantageous point, our elite still use the cyclical nature of history to adapt and exploit events.

A pause in this analysis is necessary here, because the system is incomplete. In Orwell's world of 1984, atomic wars, national and civil wars, revolution and counterrevolution baptised the complete takeover of the world by three systems of oligarchic collectivism represented by the superstates of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. But contemporary America has seen a more evolutionary takeover, each high point in the cycle approaching the completion in small steps. Politics and government may be, as John Dewey argued, "the shadow cast on society by big business" but one side has mastered the art of thought and reality control within its ranks that they are approaching convergence. Yes, I mean the republican party and the conservative movement that drives it. In 1984, the only opposition was a shadowy group supposedly led by Goldstein called "the brotherhood" that was everywhere and nowhere, at all times threatening to undermine unity and harmony. This is quite similar to the illusion working class republicans have of the supposed "liberal social elite" Thomas Frank presented in What's the matter with Kansas. But on the surface, the presence of a "loyal opposition" creates a valuable scapegoat for the ruling classes' disasters. It also serves to channel energy from independent thinkers to elite-approved candidates which then disappoint and dissillusion opponents while perhaps making minor cosmetic changes to the social fabric.

Stay tuned for the next installment where we will tackle the problems of continuous warfare, glorification and worship of violence, thought control, the two minutes hate, and the ominous destruction and rewriting of history that characterize at least one half of the American population.