“And what way of know that the dominion of the Party would not endure forever? Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back to him: WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
--p 26
These three slogans of Big Brother are all rather jarringly twisted paradoxes. I’m still not totally sure that I understand them well enough to argue their truthfulness or not, yet they seem unsettlingly incongruous with my beliefs. This is most likely due to the fact that I’ve grown up in a democratic country where freedom, peace, and knowledge are so strongly valued. To me, these slogans carry little if any truth or validity; they simply make no sense. Yet citizens believe them and abide by them. They have learned that two extremely different ideas are in fact the same, and their mental processes reflect this convolution. Despite Winston’s growing realization that these slogans are weak and that Big Brother is oppressive, he takes pride in his ability to fit into Big Brother’s system so well. He knows that Big Brother is always right and benevolent, yet simultaneously he knows that Big Brother is wrong and malevolent.
This condition, known as cognitive dissonance, was also experienced by the ancient Egyptians, who both trusted their Pharaoh to provide for them as a god, yet blamed him for not appealing to the gods when crops were meager. This cognitive dissonance led the Egyptians to become obsessed with religion and fanaticism. Perhaps the same will happen to Big Brother.
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