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Dystopia

History contains many examples of authoritarian rulers rising to power, only to fall.  Take, for example, the Revolutionary War.  The British army lost to a ragtag band of soldiers, most of whom were volunteers. The Americans did have a few distinct advantages—namely the French with Lafayette and a certain Prussian named Baron Von Steuben.  This goes to show that a government can only stand if its subjects allow it to, and this is especially true of dictatorships. A country could have the strongest army in the world, with every mean to nip an insurrection in the bud, but if the people come together, the military would fail to stop them. No army, regardless of numbers or power, will ever stand a chance against a united people with something to fight for. However, in the case of most authoritarian governments—especially modern ones—the ruler maintains strict control over his subjects by effectively stripping them of their human status and brainwashing them. The novels 1984 by George Orwell and Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden are set in two different versions of this state. By way of indoctrination, inhuman identification, control of language, assigning of tedious tasks, and strict rules, a government exercises complete control over its subjects; it demonizes any dissidents, deprives its subjects of basic commodities, controls intimacy between its subjects, and uses humiliation and emasculation as a way to put down any possible rebellions before they start.

The brainwashing starts early.  Children in both novels are taught to spy on their peers and parents from a painfully young age.  Escape from Camp 14 details how snitching was not only incentivized, but mandatory. Anyone privy to an escape plot who did not tell the camp authorities would be shot immediately (Harden 198). In 1984, an organization known as Junior Spies recruits The Party’s youth to serve as informants to The Inner Party and to big brother.  This system feeds off of a child’s natural desire for adventure and a sense of purpose.  It makes the children feel as though they are a part of something, which is a key part of their development.  They are taught to love the Party and everything it represents, no matter what.  Winston’s neighbor’s children even exclaim that they “Want  to see the hanging!” (Orwell 23).   There is an irony in the fact that the dehumanization process begins in the most human part of a child. Like a virus, the brainwashing these children are subjected to takes root, infects them, and, in the end, takes away their humanity.  For example, in Escape from Camp 14, Shin says, “I am evolving from being an animal, but it is going very slowly. Sometime I try to cry and laugh like other people, just to see if it feels like anything, yet tears don’t come, laughter doesn’t come” (Harden 181). After being brainwashed, tortured, and starved throughout his formative years, he had lost his ability to think and feel the way a human should.  Sadly, this is far too common for children who are, like Shin, born into a prison camp.  Shin, however, could be considered lucky among those like him. Most people imprisoned in these camps never escape, and escape is even more rare for those born into the camps.

One way a government keeps its people from being human is by using inhuman means to identify and address them.  This may be a number, as depicted in 1984.  During daily exercises, the woman on the telescreen refers to Winston as “6079 Smith W.” (Orwell 36). This form of identification, one that refers to people as if they are robots, causes people to think of themselves as such.  Names have power, and what a person is called shapes their entire personage. Another way of stripping humanity from a person by way of identification is using derogatory terms to refer to people.  The camp officials of Camp 14 use this to address prisoners. Shin and the majority of the other male prisoners are referred to as “sons of bitches” while the woman are called “bitches”. A phrase uttered when camp overseers are dissatisfied is “This bitch won’t do” (Harden 19), or “This son of a bitch won’t do” (Harden 56).  By taking away a person’s name, one can shave his humanity away, bit by bit.  This process is so gradual that the victims do not notice it is happening until it is too late.

Another way dictators control their people is by controlling the language they use.  The best example of this is seen in 1984.  The people use a language called Newspeak. “It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought—that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc—should literally be unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words” (Orwell 300). By controlling the language a person uses and thinks in, the government can manipulate their very thoughts.  This deeply personal control over a person is chilling to think about. Independent thoughts and emotions, ones that are not influenced by outside forces or primal instincts, are what make a person human, and controlling this takes away the very foundation of their humanity. Some people worry about having their thoughts controlled by aliens or the government, but this seemingly schizophrenic fear is a stark reality in both real and fictional dystopias. If a person can think for themselves, they possess the ability to harbor thoughts that would endanger the government’s control over them.

Another way a dictator exercises and flaunts his power in the faces of his subjects is by assigning them tedious labor—grunt work, in other words.  This is most commonly seen in Escape from Camp 14, though instances are found in 1984 as well, such as  well.  One example is the mandatory daily exercises, known as “the physical jerks” (Orwell 31).  This seemingly frivolous ritual is both a way for the government to keep their workers--or, to put it more aptly, their machines--in good condition and a way for the government to remind the citizens that they have total control over their lives every day. To constantly drill into their minds the fact that what they do in the comfort of their own home is not up to them; it is up to Big Brother. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin details grueling work on farms, in factories, and in many other kinds of places that a child should be nowhere near.  For example, Shin began working in a coal mine when he was only ten years old.  During the time he worked there, he watched as a girl’s foot was badly mangled by coal-car’s wheel (Harden 31).  He and his classmates are also attacked and stoned by the guards’ children (Harden 33). In both cases, the Party forces people to complete tasks—some merely tedious and others grueling and dangerous.  A government does this to taunt its subjects, to say “We control your life more than you do.  We own you.”

A dictator will keep a chokehold on his subjects by enforcing strict rules and policies.  In 1984, the act of keeping a diary is a crime.  Even certain thoughts—ones that defy The Party and Big Brother—are illegal. This phenomenon is called thoughtcrime, and those convicted are subject to torture, imprisonment, even death. Many people today, take their first amendment right to free speech for granted, and they never think twice about their right to free thought. Having this taken away is completely incomprehensible, but for the people of North Korea, it is a grim reality they face. One thing it is important to understand about North Korea is that their televisions only have a few channels, all of which are for propaganda.  Camp 14’s rules are enforced with an iron fist and no level of mercy.  On one occasion, Shin saw one of his classmates be beaten to death for hiding a few kernels of corn in her pocket (Harden 25).  His mother and brother were executed for planning to escape, and he was tortured as a result of this as well. The appendix of Escape from Camp 14 lists the rules of the camp and the consequences of disobedience.  The word “shot” is repeated many times.  Strict rules and atrocious punishments create fear, thus preventing insurrections.

When someone does have the audacity to disobey, to go against the government in any form—be that as inconsequential as saying something that is not totally in tandem with the party—they are ostracized, shunned, and demonized by their community. In 1984, this is exemplified in the two minutes hate, described on page eleven: “As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the enemy of the people, had flashed onto the screen.  There were hisses here and there among the audience.” In Escape from Camp 14, the children are instructed to slap their classmates when they disobey camp rules.  This, however, pales next to the fact that real friendships do not exist in these camps. As shown on page three: “To survive, he abandons moral principles, suppresses feelings for others, and ceases to be a civilized human being...Before he learned anything else, Shin learned to survive by snitching on all of them.” The only thing the people living within the walls are focused on is their own survival, and caring about people does not help them. In this way, the frustration, anger, and bitterness felt by the underlings is used by the government to, in a backwards way, unite the people against a common enemy.  One way of many that a government can control its people is through a very twisted sort of comfort. By scapegoating a certain individual, group, or nation, the government can make the people believe there is a threat to their lives, but their ‘kind’, powerful leader will protect them.

Another method the government uses to dehumanize and control a population is deprivation of material commodities.  This may be due to a lack of resources, as is the case in North Korea—though within the prison camps is a different story. However, it is the way these resources are managed and how they are rationed to the people that makes this more disturbing than simple economic struggle. First of all, the elites take the vast majority of the country’s monetary income and use it to satisfy their own desires.  The best example of this lies in North Korea’s extraneous nuclear missile program.  This is where a large part of the nation’s funds go.  Another massive portion goes to the Kim dynasty’s private wealth. The remainder is distributed among the people, trickling down according to who the government favors most. In other words, the elites get the most, and the urchins living on the streets and prisoners in the gulags get next to nothing.  In 1984, the country is ruled by a strict doctrine of socialism, which means that no one gets much. For example: “A member of the outer party received only three-thousand clothing coupons annually, and a suit of pajamas was six hundred” (Orwell 31).  Through this, the people are essentially treated like cattle. Furthermore, they lack the resources and the energy to even consider fighting, as they are quite literally starving to death.  Having enough to last the year is their number one priority, and as long as that is true, it would be hard to rebel.

The government has hands in every aspect of life for the people of Oceania and Camp 14 alike, even their love lives—and sex lives, for that matter.  In both cases, marriages lack in love and only exist because the government wanted them to. In 1984, Winston describes feeling neutral about his ex-wife at best, with them having separated nearly a decade prior for reasons not completely specified, though overall dissatisfaction with the marriage and each other is a possible culprit (Orwell 66).  He very clearly loved Julia, but the relationship they had was dangerously illegal.  The Party controls any sort of relationships that are—or have the potential to be—sexual in nature.  “Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as well as outside it” (Orwell 65). In Escape from Camp 14, Shin describes his parents’ marriage being a reward for working hard and snitching on their peers, rather than a true institution of mutual love. “They chose her [Shin’s mother] and the man who became Shin’s father as prizes for each other in a ‘reward’ marriage” (Harden 19). These state-sanctioned institutions exist for any reason besides love—most notoriously, to make a family of pawns for the party. The government fears marriages that consist of real affection—romantic, platonic, or otherwise, as such alliances would endanger the grip the ruler has on the people. When two people who like each other and share beliefs work together, there is little they cannot accomplish, and the government knows this, so they do not allow such relationships to exist.

Another mode of dehumanization is humiliation, brought about by a culmination of topics previously explored: deprivation, ostracism, identification, and intimacy.  One could take, for example, the dreadful living conditions in Camp 14. Shin describes being filthy nearly all the time, seldom being allowed to bathe himself. “Soap was sometimes distributed to students as a special reward for hard work.  Shin did not distinguish himself with diligence and rarely touched soap” (Harden 26). The inability to maintain his appearance likely did not directly upset Shin during his imprisonment, but it is all too probable that it was both a result of and a significant contributor to his severely stunted emotional development. In 1984, Winston describes the exposure he feels when he finds out that The Party knew about him and Julia the whole time.  “Winston met his eyes. The feeling of nakedness, with one’s hands behind one’s head and one’s face and body all exposed, was almost unbearable” (Orwell 223).  Another way to humiliate a person is to address him like an animal. Through the government’s use of humiliation and exposure, a person is forced to build up a wall around themselves, to stop feeling in order to spare themselves the humiliation and to prevent their emotions from being used to humiliate them as well.  In this way, their humanity slowly dies within them in the same way muscles atrophy when a limb is bound in a cast. They stop using the part of them that allows them to feel because what they feel is too often painful.

A step up from humiliation is emasculation, that is, being tortured so brutally that one’s mind simply breaks, and every shred of willpower, every drop of courage, is lost.  The most prominent example of this is shown in the last part of 1984. O’Brien summarizes this concept perfectly as he is taunting Winston: “We have beaten you, Winston.  We have broken you up.  You have seen what your body is like.  Your mind is in the same state.  I do not think there can be much pride left in you. You have been kicked and flogged and insulted, you have screamed with pain, you have rolled on the floor in your own blood and vomit. [...] Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you?” (Orwell 273). This quote, said after Winston has been imprisoned, starved, and tortured to his breaking point, expresses that this was the intended effect.  O'Brien does not stop there. In fact, in the final stage of the torture, when Winston sees what is in Room 101, he begs O’Brien to subject Julia to the torture instead of him.  This is when O’Brien knows he has succeeded, because a whole, strong Winston would never have said that.  In Escape from Camp 14, Shin is tortured, being burned over a fire, starved, and held in a prison for months. Afterwards, all he feels for his mother and brother is bitterness, and this is not without justification.  “He hated his mother and brother with the savage clarity of a wronged and wounded adolescent. As he saw it, he had been tortured and nearly died, and his father had been crippled, because of their foolish, self-centered scheming” (Harden 68).  This mode of dehumanization is, without a doubt, the most brutal and most effective. In both cases, neither got through without losing a massive part of themselves, which is exactly what the perpetrators wanted.

In conclusion, the process of dehumanization and brainwashing is a very sly, very brutal occurrence; it much resembles a frog in hot water, where if the frog is placed in a pot of boiling water, it will leap out immediately, but if it is placed in a pot of lukewarm water, and the water is gradually heated up, it will remain in the pot and die, as it does not notice anything is happening until it is far too late. In an authoritarian nation, the dictator will do anything in his power to make sure his underlings have as little humanity in them as it is possible for a human to have, because a human populace can go rogue and defect.  An army of robots is loyal only to who their programming tells them to be loyal to. For this reason, those in power in both 1984 and Escape from Camp 14 effectively reprogram anyone whose humanity leads them to stray away from The Party’s ways and principles. The government employs multiple techniques to slowly shave away inches of humanity from an individual, making them a pawn of The Party.  People are treated like cattle because cattle can be controlled.  As long as the government can control its people, the people are powerless to do anything. The lesson to be learned from these works is that in order to maintain freedom, people must think for themselves rather than letting the government think for them, because when a society fails to think for themselves, that is when corruption, strife, and terror take hold, and that is when a society becomes a dystopia.