George Orwell's 1984: Analyzing The Party Motto

2016 Or 1984?

One of the party’s three mottos in 1984 by George Orwell is “war is peace.” The party means by this that when they are at war with Eurasia, their control over Oceania is in there eyes strong, stable, and peaceful. Trends in today’s society do not support this motto. The U.S. is currently fighting the War on Terror, which seems to have no possible end in sight. During this time of war, there is little to no peace. The party’s motto of “war is peace” is not true and current trends do not support it or the fact that our society is heading towards that of the society in 1984.

War is not peace, war is war. In the novel, while Oceania is at war with Eurasia, the party believes that their society is peaceful. In reality, the party is spying on members of the party to make sure that they are not committing thoughtcrime, which Winston had done. The party then arrested Winston and tortured him. This is not a peaceful way to punish Winston for the crime he committed. The party believes that they are doing the right thing, but all they really want is to keep the power they have over society. This shows that in times of war, there is no peace in Oceania. There is only the government’s totalitarianistic control.

In society today, the U.S. is currently fighting the War on Terror. This war is not a peaceful war, if there ever was one. Bombing the Middle East has become a sort of “natural” way for America to fight this battle. In the second article of the war is peace packet, it states that “the vast majority of the schemes to fight ISIS put forth from the leading contenders in the GOP field amount to: more airstrikes....” This shows that we are making no attempts to end the fight in the Middle East, which also shows that war is not peace. Another piece of evidence from the articles that supports the fact that war is not peace is that the U.S. is responsible for about a third of worldwide exports. This includes the export of firearms and ammunition. The top ten recipients of American-made weaponry are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, India, Singapore, Iraq, and Egypt. This could become a problem because about half of these countries are in the Middle East and are known to house terrorists. By exporting firearms to these countries, we could be indirectly supplying weapons to enemies such as ISIS. Also by doing this, we are indirectly forcing the War on Terror to continue. This shows that war is not peace.

War is not peace. War is exactly what it has always been; it is war. The party in the novel 1984 believes that war is peace, because that is one of their mottos. This motto does not apply to today’s society because war does not make peace between nations. It creates anger and hatred between countries. This shows that our society today is not becoming a reality of the grim portrayal of the dystopian society in George Orwell’s novel.