NylonStrung
NylonStrung t1_it8j5k9 wrote
Reply to comment by MotionTwelveBeeSix in Does 1984 ever dive into how the Party took control over Oceania? [no direct spoilers please] by INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS
That's an interesting way to put it, since it's often referred to as a "political novel". And it is, in some sense, but maybe its core theme is "anti-political". I don't want to directly quote from the text (no spoilers), but one character essentially says just that: the party believes in nothing but the pursuit of power. There's no ideals, no vision, nothing that makes for a political project. Just control.
NylonStrung t1_it9f6s6 wrote
Reply to comment by MotionTwelveBeeSix in Does 1984 ever dive into how the Party took control over Oceania? [no direct spoilers please] by INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS
I'd suggest that depolitisisation of the population is a phenomenon in most modern states, even outside of the obviously authoritarian ones. Whether as an actual strategy (e.g. pioneer of information warfare, Post-Soviet Russia, where nothing at all is really "real"), or simply as a by-product of the modern capitalist system, which cleverly creates atomised individuals who necessarily find thinking politically to be difficult (almost every state, and they're only slightly less propagandistic).
Right, looks like I'm reading 1984 again. You've inspired me. :P