Wednesday, 19 August 2009

What is oligarchical collectivism in 1984, and how can we understand this in our world?

Oligarchical collectivism is the name given to the prevailing
system of international power politics by the mysterious Emmanuel Goldstein.


Collectivism is a political practice whereby the group takes
precedence over the individual. That's definitely the case in Oceania, where individuals
likehave no rights whatsoever. The collective, in the form of the Party, is everything. An
oligarchy is a political and economic system where power is concentrated in
the hands of a small, privileged minority. Again, this is an apt description of life in Oceania,
where the elite members of the Inner Party exercise absolute control over the rest of the Party
and of society as a whole.

One can certainly see why the Party seems so keen
to suppress Goldstein's criticism: it's supposed to represent the will of the ordinary working
people, yet the reality, as ruthlessly exposed by Goldstein, is quite the opposite. The Party
represents its own interests and no one else's, or, to be more precise, it...

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