War is Peace

         War is not Peace, but in 1984 by George Orwell, it became peace. The word “war” itself lost its meaning and became misleading to refer to peace. To begin with, in the book there were 3 main dictatorships in control: Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceana. This means that there will always be 2 of them allied against the 3^rd, which leads to a state of continuous war. It could be said that this constant war implies that war itself ceased to exist and it became peace. That is because in the past, the purpose of wars was to gain new resources (land, oil, workers…) or for political gain. But in the created world in the novel, there was no need to fight for resources given that there were only 3 powers, each with enough resources. Also the purpose of war was to keep society united instead of fights of territory.

       The concept of Double-think in the novel is also related to “war is peace” although it is a paradox. Quoted from the novel about Goldstein referring to black & white: 

… But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. (Chapter 9)

This means that the Party follows a strategy which is focusing on a common enemy becomes a reason and a motive for peace and union in the society. This also distracted from the fact that they are in fact not living happily in their own society, which reduces rebellion and difficulty for the Big Brother. What the government did was exaggerate small victories for the people in order to convince them of the strong country they live in and give them a sense of satisfaction.

Basically, the result would be somehow similar if the 3 powers agreed to live peacefully, but that could give the people a bigger opportunity to wake up, express themselves and even rebel.

Taken from the Washington Post:

… It's a little reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, where the three slogans of the ruling party were "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength." Since the disclosures about Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program, Bush critics have been citing that other dominant slogan from Orwell's book: "Big Brother is Watching You." But there are plenty of potential Orwell analogies in Bush's use of language, and his historical revisionism, as well.

War Is Peace. The Washington Post, 20 Mar. 2006. Web. 7 Apr. 2010. .