“Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”The world of George Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four is divided into three totalitarian superpowers: Oceania, Eurasia, and EastAsia. And the novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, is a mid-level bureaucrat within Oceania’s “Ministry of Truth”.Early in the book we learn that Oceania is in the midst of a protracted war with Eurasia.But suddenly the party announces that they were, in fact, at war with Eastasia… NOT Eurasia. Everyone was simply expected to forget that Oceania was ever at war against Eurasia.The ideological dictatorship of Orwell’s world demanded that all citizens memory-hole the old truth and internalize the new truth “Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”Watching what little of the Democratic National Convention I could stomach; I couldn’t help but think of this scene from Orwell’s novel.
