Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Bakalářská diplomová práce

2020 Jan Hrazdíra

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Jan Hrazdíra

Social Techniques in Dystopian Writing Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A.

2020

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

I would like to thank my supervisor prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A. for enabling me to engage in this topic, for her kind guidance and many helpful advice while supervising this work.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ...... Chyba! Záložka není definována.

1. Introduction ...... 7

2. Primary sources ...... 8

2. 1. Defining the terms ...... 8

2. 2. The Handmaid’s Tale ...... 12

2. 3. Nineteen Eighty-Four ...... 13

2. 4. Brave New World ...... 14

3. Control through language ...... 17

2. 1. Control through language in The Handmaid’s Tale ...... 17

3. 2. Control through language in Brave new world ...... 18

3. 3. Rhymes in reality ...... 19

3. 4. Control through language in Nineteen Eighty-four ...... 20

3. 5. Euphemisms in political rhetoric ...... 24

3. Natality control ...... 24

4. 1. Natality control in Brave new world ...... 24

4. 2. Cloning in reality ...... 27

4. Control through conditioning ...... 29

5. 1. Conditioning in Brave New World ...... 29

5. 2. Eugenics in Brave New World ...... 32

5. 3. Social control through upbringing compared to real life ...... 32

6. Control through surveillance ...... 33

6. 1. Surveillance in Nineteen Eighty-Four ...... 33

6. 2. Political Murder in Real World ...... 35

6. 3. Polarizing Society in Nineteen Eighty-Four compared with reality ...... 36

6. 4. Surveillance in reality ...... 37

6. 5. Surveillance benefits ...... 39

6. 6. Abuse of surveillance ...... 40

6. 7. Surveillance in China ...... 43

6. 8. China Credit System...... 44

6. 9. Human Rights in China ...... 45

7. Conclusion ...... 50

Works Cited: ...... 52

Summary ...... 59

Resumé ...... 61

1. Introduction

Present-day and historical non-fictional state politics use and used techniques that are described in fictional dystopian novels as a tool for controlling their inhabitants. This thesis analyses those techniques of control over society described in anti-utopian literature, namely

Nineteen Eighty-four, Brave New World and The Handmaid’s Tale, and compares them with real political solutions to draw a conclusion to which extent dystopian society control is present in reality.

A popular idea connected to the topic of anti-utopia says that proposed ideas are already happening in reality. It is important to say that it is no wonder dystopic ideas were, are, and most probably will be used in the real world. Wilder Davies stated in an article to

Time magazine called “8 Books That Eerily Predicted the Future” that “There has been a lot of chatter about dystopias these days, mostly: are we living in one? Reading news day after day about our tumultuous presidency, unambiguous effects of climate change, or murderous self-driving cars may make it seem that way”. The dystopian social control did not originate from the works of literature describing the anti-utopian worlds, but from the sheer government’s necessity to command its citizens. But since human beings are destined to be driven by their free will, “I am condemned to be free” (Sartre 567), governments came up with complex systems to control their citizens. To direct inhabitants, the government has to replace an ego of individual personality with a universal set of principles falling under state ideology.

This thesis does not aim to provide an ultimate answer to the question which governmental strategies are either beneficial or harmful, but to describe some of them and provide a comparison with their real-world counterparts. The novels were not meant as a guide book to dystopia, but to warn or raise awareness about certain topics. It is the technology that enables the manipulators to use some techniques to the extent which may be

7 found alarming in recent days. Paradoxically the technology – book print, books, internet – are also the bearers of the awareness about social manipulation.

This thesis aims to explore the degree of similarities between social control described in dystopian literature and the way certain states control their inhabitants. Also, it aims to touch upon whether are present-day business companies also associable with the topic of “Big

Brother” (Orwell 2) via privacy violations that modern technologies inevitably bring. The care for individual privacy is a pressing issue of today’s reality, not only in an online environment but also in cities filled with cameras. Its high importance is given by the fact that this topic touches everybody living in a society surrounded by modern technologies.

“Big brother is watching you.” (Orwell 2) is a notoriously known line taken from

George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and it entails perfectly the idea behind this thesis. Whatever one may do, or try to do, they are being watched. One’s actions are not entirely theirs since the ideology embedded in the society excludes any signs of individualism and omnipresent surveillance prevents anybody from doing prohibited matters. One will be told what he or she can and cannot do, what they can or cannot read, where they can or cannot go, who they can or cannot meet, what one can or cannot think. People in fictional dystopian regimes are controlled in many aspects, the government subdues inhabitants to their ideology so that leaders such as Big Brother, Gilead Government, or Mustapha Mond compel society to work by state’s indoctrination. There is only a little space for distinctiveness, or uniqueness so that only blank, empty cloud of uniformity is left, covering anything that would show the least sing of individuality. No other volition than the universal party volition will be fulfilled.

2. Primary sources

2. 1. Defining the terms

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To clarify the terms frequently used throughout this thesis it is needed to define the meaning of utopia and anti-utopia/dystopia. Etymologically the noun utopia is a coinage and comes from Greek ou which means no, not and topos meaning place (“Utopia”). Combined, the meaning resembles a place which does not exist and it is either immensely remote or fictitious. It was coined by English humanist and philosopher Sir Thomas More to be used as a title for his book. The Utopia was published in 1516 and it is written in Latin. The book is considered to be a socio-political satire. It depicts a fictional island close by to the shore of

America with flawless government, social stability and prosperity, unlike Europe. The title suggests that the perfect conditions found on the island are impossible to transform into reality. There are two possible meanings of utopia given by the difference in spelling. If lower u is used, as in utopia, the meaning is, “an impractical scheme for social improvement”

(“Utopia”), this meaning is more general. With capitalized U it means, “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions” (“Utopia”). Utopia may also be used in a regular speech for its figurative meaning as in the sentence: “It is a complete utopia, to have him resign from his prime minister post”. This sentence expresses the belief that he will never resign. In this example, utopia marks something which is strongly desirable but seems unachievable in reality.

Dystopia, also anti-utopia or cacotopia, is a perfect opposite of utopia in the sense which represents an ideal place. Dystopia adds Latin prefix dys meaning bad. From the definition of etymonline.com, “imaginary bad place” (“Dystopia n.”), the word resembles a

Utopia that went wrong. The first recorded usage of dystopia and cacotopia is dated to 12

March 1868. It was the well-known philosopher John Stuart Mill, Member of Parliament of

United Kingdom at that time, who in his speech during the parliamentary debate regarding

Ireland used these two terms,

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I may be permitted, as one who, in common with many of my betters, have been

subjected to the charge of being Utopian, to congratulate the Government on having

joined that goodly company. It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians,

they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or cacotopians. What is commonly called

Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favour is too

bad to be practicable. (Public and Parliamentary Speeches 248)

This quote ties to a parliamentary debate which resulted in the “Irish Church Act of 1869”.

The Conservative government was a strong objector of disestablishing the Catholic Church in

Ireland. Mill on the other hand demurred with the government and remarked that not disestablishing would be a mistake since parties in parliament would reject it. Although it was not until the 1950s when dystopia would be in the spotlight with a growing number of novels, essays and text which used the word for its meaning for deceived society troubled by injustice under the rule of totalitarianism, or for a post-apocalyptic world.

Dystopian literature is a vast genre that includes an enormous number of books. The genre is very popular since its first writings have been published. One of the reasons is that the ideas presented in the books are intriguing and frightening at the same time. Conditions represented in dystopian literature most usually serve to explore the possible outcome if government driven by a certain ideology applied that ideology to society in an amplified and exorbitant degree. There are multiple reasons to write this type of literature. To say that authors write dystopian literature only to publish a book to pay their bills would be a false judgment. Every book that serves as a primary source for this paper has its deeper meaning and purpose. For example, the publications try to raise awareness about a concealed issue, to bring into a spotlight disguised problem and generally to warn the readers to remain cautious about facts that are either completely unfamiliar to the public, or unaccepted alternatively. In an interview called “Light in the wilderness” to The Guardian, Margarete Atwood addresses The

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Handmaid’s Tale as speculative fiction. She insisted that her novel is not science fiction, because, “Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen”. Also, the fear from specific markers of social control may already be present, such as China’s credit system, but generally ignored. In any of these cases, writers try and succeed in their goal, thanks to the use of good written story and rich imagination, to expose certain issues, warn and force the public to open its eyes.

The primary sources are arranged according to the length of time that elapsed between revolutionary events and the main storyline. Handmaid’s Tale takes place shortly after the

Gilead overthrows the government. Set in the near future, Margarete Atwood’s novel depicts the first steps of the revolutionary movement. The change of social order is very recent and still in its origins. Older people still remember the world before and because of that they are very dissatisfied with the regime. Same as in the case of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Set many years after the Big Brother takes control over Oceania, the world before the revolution remains only a vague memory from childhood in the minds of older inhabitants. Basic signs depicting the society in Handmaid’s Tale and Nineteen Eighty-Four are that the government officials are established, but they are not yet universally accepted as leaders by all inhabitants.

Riots aren’t very common since they are heavily suppressed, but can occur. Also, undermining activities by resistance movements are present. There are many individuals among ordinary citizens but also among officials who despise the regime, question new order and disagree with it. This might sound like a statement of any dissatisfied citizen. The dividing line between democracy and totality is the fear of serious persecution and punishment so severe that it prevents inhabitants from rioting. Punishments might include losing one’s job, persecution of relatives and friends, imprisonment, psychical and physical torture, and execution.

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The second category is represented by Brave New World which is set roughly six centuries after the breeding revolution. Wars are long gone and readers learn about them only through mentions. According to the length of time which divides the story and revolution, the precautions of social control strategies changes. The upbringing, or rather conditioning as

Huxley puts it, is very effective in Brave New World. The effectivity of child conditioning in other two societies from The Nineteen Eighty-four and The Handmaid’s Tale does reach the complex heights of Huxley’s novel since those societies still deal with civil revolts and apply repressive policy rather than focus on mind shaping of future generations.

The technique of social control by the totalitarian government described in primary literature is a highly specialized field. In a democracy, if people are dissatisfied enough, they will demonstrate. The first step of totality is to discourage them from doing so. The will to demonstrate has to be weakened by threats in the form of prosecution or imprisonment. But the will to express one’s voice in form of demonstration against oppression can hardly be ever silenced. Human beings are watchful and if their rights are endangered, they are often willing to sacrifice their own lives to make a statement, to make their message clear and their voice heard. For example, Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc who burned themselves in 1968 as a protest against Russian occupation in the Czech Republic. It is clear that by use of external motivation, the will is hard to break. Therefore, to truly influence citizens to the degree which prevents him from thinking about demonstrating at all, the internal motivation has to be manipulated.

2. 2. The Handmaid’s Tale

In 1985 speculative fiction novel called The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores what might happen if patriarchal theocracy took over the United States. Atwood depicts a

New England set in near future controlled by a totalitarian government that is trying to create an ultra-conservative society. The story is set in a world where human natality is descending

12 and as a result of military conflicts, the environment is contaminated by toxicity. The typical family model of a father, a mother, and children is broken into a model where fertile women are sent to a Commander’s house to serve as child bearers. They are referred to as Handmaids.

Infertile women, or those who serve their sentences, are sent to the colonies where they clear out the toxic land. They are called the unwomen.

Gilead, as the society is called, is highly stratified even among men. Those who serve to

Gilead are divided into four castes. Members of the highest status are the Commanders who are the ruling class, and one each of them is assigned with one handmaid. The role of spies is assigned to the Eyes who serve as secret police and search for any violation of Gilead rules.

Angels are ordinary soldiers who fight in wars and serve to any tasks that require a man with a gun, such as guarding the borders. Lowest are the Guardians who are recruits that can be promoted to Angels.

Sexual repression is one of the main themes as Gilead applies a super conservative rule over its ill-fated citizens. Sex is allowed only to married couples. Only Commanders and

Angels get the permission to marry. There is no joy involved in marital intercourse, as it is forbidden. The only purpose of having sex is breeding. Many doctors and similar professions are persecuted, pursued and executed since their craft is considered unnatural. Inequality which follows from the caste system, oppression based on gender, theocratically enforced ignorance, present in the form of prohibition of literature and literacy, builds up a world which is not science-fictional but only speculative since Atwood takes existing paradigms and blends them into a one setting.

2. 3. Nineteen Eighty-Four

It is Nineteen Eighty-Four which takes the premise of social control by incorporating internal manipulation many steps further, but also provides many examples of social control and techniques on multiple levels. Written in 1949, George Orwell sets a high bar for dystopic

13 literature since the novel is being considered as one of the most influential books of 20th century (“Explore the list of 100 Novels That Shaped Our World“) and “arguably the best- known novel in English of the 20th century” (McCrum). Inhabitants of Oceania live in constant tension. They are under surveillance even in their sleep. It is an example of dystopic social control at its best with multiple layers of techniques for manipulation: speech, violence and force, history manipulation, censorship, and ideology.

An important factor for manipulation in Nineteen Eighty-Four is psychical control.

Citizens are controlled by the fear of surveillance, arrest or disappearance and, at the same time, by long term manipulative actions and measures such as change of the language and information embargo (all information is in the hand of the government). To change the present, the party actively changes history by rewriting the news, books, and all sorts of records. Disappearance is commonly called vaporization, meaning that one is being wiped out not only from their being, but also from every possible record, so there is no single evidence of their existence left. It is set in the times when older inhabitants are still able to remember the world before the perpetual war. Nobody knows if the war is real or just illusive in the purpose of supporting higher economic output and justifying very low living standards.

In this novel, the hero miscarries and the ending leaves the reader with the notion of failure of Winston’s individual resistance against the party since he is left broken and loving Big

Brother. But on the other hand, as the ending proposes, Orwell sees hope for future generations because the amount of effort that took it to break Wilson, who is after all only one among many anti-party individuals, might be a promise that other resistance fighters will go undetected.

2. 4. Brave New World

The second category of primary literature in this thesis explores the world as it is after a long period of the new world order rule. Brave New World is a 1932 novel written by Aldous

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Huxley. The story takes place in year 632 A.F. (After Ford) since people in the Brave New

World set the new beginning of the calendrical system according to the invention of Mass production. Mass production was perfected by Henry Ford in the form of the assembly line which was introduced in 1913 (“Moving Assembly Line Debuts at Ford Factory”), therefore by our calendrical system, Brave New World takes place roughly in the year 2547.

This calendrical system is a clear parallel with our calendrical system i.e. anno domini or in the year of our lord. Throughout the book, it is evident by the use of Ford’s name that society has found its new God in the father of mass production; Henry Ford. His name is being mentioned in casual speech in many ways, mostly as an exclamation. Lines such as,

“Our Ford” (Huxley 34), “Oh, Ford!” (Huxley 31), “Straight from the mouth of the Ford himself.” (Huxley 36), “Oh, for Ford’s sake, be quiet!” (Huxley 94), “Thank Ford” (Huxley

97), or simply “Ford!” are frequently used throughout the book as exclamations such as

“lord” in English is being used to “express surprise, shock, frustration, or annoyance about something.” (“Good lord”) Brave new world marks no difference. The name of the new, technical and factual God is also used to mark intense anger “Ford, I should like to kill him”

(Huxley 55). Christmas is in the result of this trend replaced by the “Ford’s day celebration”

(Huxley 54). Or “this is his fordship, Mustapha Mond” (Huxley 35) which shows that his lordship is replaced by his fordship. The term fordship marks one of the 10 most powerful men in the fictional world called simply World state (It entails the fact that the world is unified except a few deviations). The fact, that God has been replaced by precise, effective, and controlled manufacturing of human life is a primal premise of this piece of literature.

Unlike The Handmaid’s Tale and Nineteen Eighty-four, Huxley’s novel puts a reader in a world, where the political strife for social change is already won. The fight for a change of society is long gone and the unity of society is ensured because all people are fabricated and fostered precisely how they need in order to be to have a meaningful purpose in their lives. It

15 is the perfect world; it is a perfect utopia. But only for those who cope with its rules. Bernard

Marx and Helmholtz Watson find out that their predestined lives lack the sensation of freedom. As a result, they try to find something unorthodox, not from their civilized society;

John the Savage. Therefore, this novel poses a question, whether is it better to be happy or free thus creating a specific kind of dystopia.

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3. Control through language

The idea behind control through language is based on the concept described by Sapir-

Whorf Hypothesis, “that an intellectual system embodied in each language shapes the thought of its speakers in a quite general way” (Kay 66). Therefore, this theory developed by two scholars Sapir and his student Whorf in the 1930s inclines that one cannot express or even comprehend certain concepts without grasping their meaning and naming them through a word. And also, by shaping the language, governments can easily shape citizens’ way of thinking. Controlling people through language is, therefore, a very strong weapon for manipulation.

3. 1. Control through language in The Handmaid’s Tale

The main character in The Handmaid’s Tale is named Offred. The name is combined by of and male name Fred, which means that this woman is possession of Fred; Offred. All

Handmaid’s that are placed into Commander's house get a new name according to this formula. Other examples include “Ofglen” (Atwood 269), or “Ofwarren” (Atwood 33). The notion of naming after Commanders is an important part of Gilead's effort for deindividualizing women from their previous lives. The new names detach women from their distinctiveness, strips them from their independence. In result, it means, in symbolical and also in a very practical way, that they are possession of men.

Atwood, through Offred thoughts, analyses the sexist nature of the English language that many English readers may not notice since they take it as normal. “I wait, for the household to assemble. Household: that is what we are. The Commander is the head of the household.

The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part” (Atwood 77). Atwood analyses the symbolical meaning of words by playing with them and taking them literally.

Thus, she shows the embedded patriarchal way of thinking. It helps to amplify the message of

17 her feminist dystopia which describes dystopia from women’s point of view. The Language in

Handmaid’s Tale serves as a tool of oppression and a tool for maintaining power over those who serve, such as Handmaid’s. Not only the men execute their superiority, but also the

Aunts, who are Handmaids’ instructors during their training, use the language to demonstrate the very same thing. Handmaids are trained in “Rachel and Leah Center” (Atwood 92) called among women “The Red Center… because there was so much red” (Atwood 92). In these centres, they are re-educated to be obedient breeders. This is what Aunt Lydia teaches the

Handmaid’s, “We want you to be valued, girls. She is rich in pauses, which she savors in her mouth. Think of yourselves as pearls. We, sitting in our rows, eyes down, we make her salivate morally. We are hers to define, we must suffer her adjectives” (Atwood 106). The women in Gilead are treated purely as a tool for breeding, which strips them from any individuality, and thanks to the manipulative language forces them to accept their new lot, a lot of patriarchal oppression and ignorance. Yet again we catch a glimpse of Offred’s thoughts, “I think about pearls. Pearls are congealed oyster spit.” (Atwood 106) showing that she retains her individuality.

3. 2. Control through language in Brave new world

The power of language is clearly executed in the Brave new world mostly in the form of rhymes that all children learn thanks to the “hypnopaedia” (Huxley 30), or sleep learning.

During children’s conditioning, they are thought the basic principles and rules of their world.

As the Director of hatcheries puts it, “In brief, hypnopædia. The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time” (Huxley 30). The children are given, by the simple rhymes, moral and psychological radar which guides them about what is right and what is wrong. In this dystopian society, people will retain the same credo until their very death. For example, one of the basic principles is “But cleanliness is next to fordliness” (117) which teaches children that hygiene is something worth of Ford, I.e. god, himself. A deep source of soma-

18 related nurseries is Lenina. Soma is a drug that has all the positive aspects to its user such as euphoria but none negative, unlike alcohol. By taking a few grams of soma, all negative feelings can be instantaneously quenched. Throughout the book, nurseries such as “A gramme is always better than a damn” (Huxley 94), or “A gramme in time saves nine,” (Huxley 94) are very common. Also, the World state’s society uses songs to reinforce the need for what is called an “orgy-porgy”. It is a term for community sex. “Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make them One. Boys at 0ne with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release” (Huxley

88). All fabricated human beings are in result prepared to live the predestined and prescheduled life in this futuristic society, which reinforces the need for drugs (soma), sex, and hygiene to keep their citizens in a good temper. It is a positivist approach to manipulation through language.

3. 3. Rhymes in reality

Teaching children rhymes is not anything that would not be found in the real world. It may seem like a normal thing, all children across the world learn rhymes. The difference is between rhymes and propaganda. Nursery rhymes have a long history, they help form children's minds at least since ancient Rome - the oldest example of a recorded nursery is

“Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacta” (Restle 241). The discussion of whether the rhymes are intended only for the purpose of entertainment and children's development has been challenged. The purpose is to prepare the children to situations in their culture which might come later when the children grow up. For example, in Chinese culture, the hierarchy and traditions are taken very seriously. In the book Translating Chinese Culture: The process of

Chinese-English translation, the authors state about Chinese rhymes for children, “The rhymes carry a mixed propaganda. They state what the situation is, for example that girls will be married to men they have never met, for the sake of family stability” (80). Therefore,

Huxley takes an old principle of teaching children through nursery rhymes, which parents use

19 to teach their children at least since the Ancient Rome, as the oldest recorded example goes, and applies it in a fictional futuristic setting to teach children dystopian dogmas. It is the same reason why parents teach their children rhymes in the real world.

3. 4. Control through language in Nineteen Eighty-four

Language in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four is unlike in Brave New World entirely controlled by the government. Broadly, language has according to Geoffrey Leech five functions: informational, expressive, directive, aesthetic and phatic. (Leech 40) But in

Oceania, language adopts also another function; ideological. Language serves as a tool for the regime of Big Brother and the totalitarian party which controls Ingsoc (English Socialism) society. Orwell was well known for a critique of political speech decay “Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” (Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” 8). This idea ties to the

Sapir-Whorf Theory mentioned in the introduction of chapter 3.

In the appendix to Nineteen-eighty-four, Orwell describes profoundly the peculiarities of Newspeak which is an official language of Ingsoc, “Countless other words such as

HONOUR, JUSTICE, MORALITY, INTERNATIONALISM, DEMOCRACY, SCIENCE, and RELIGION had simply ceased to exist” (Orwell 277). If certain concepts such as demonstration, manifestation, oppression, or injustice are omitted from vocabulary, no one can ever think of them and therefore act according to them. As all of Newspeak’s negative qualities go, omitting words from a dictionary is only one of its many features since Big

Brother’s regime not only works on diminishing the range of thought but on making heretical thinking impossible what so ever.

“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the

end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in

which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly

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one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and

forgotten.” (Orwell 47)

The conversation between Winston and his colleague shows that some citizens of Oceania see the reduction of thought freedom as beneficial. It shows that citizens can turn to zealous advocates of dystopian control if properly manipulated.

Grammatical structure in Newspeak is changed to convey only orthodox thinking. The basic principle involves eliminating expressions that have a second or even third meaning. To achieve lingual neutrality, many words were replaced by the use of new prefixes and suffixes.

For example, bad was replaced by ungood, “the word GOOD, there was no need for such a word as BAD, since the required meaning was equally well — indeed, better — expressed by

UNGOOD” (Orwell 274). Newspeak is based on the English language, which is referred to as

Oldspeak. Newspeak is peculiar in “an almost complete interchangeability between different parts of speech” (Orwell 273). It means that for example the noun and the verb share a common root as “There was… no such word as CUT, its meaning being sufficiently covered by the noun-verb KNIFE” (Orwell 274). Another unique characteristic is Newspeak’s regularity. Inflexions are in general formed without any irregularities such as “preterite of

STEAL was STEALED, the preterite of THINK was THINKED, and so on throughout the language, all such forms as SWAM, GAVE, BROUGHT, SPOKE, TAKEN, etc., being abolished” (Orwell 275). Thus, limiting the range of thought about language even more, on the level of grammar. The goal is to reduce any variations so that one has to choose only from prescribed components. In effect, speaking or writing would not require any thinking whatsoever.

As a result, only mostly vague and broad terms were left in the Newspeak dictionary. In the following scene, Winston is having a conversation about Newspeak with his colleague

Syme, zealous Big brother fanatic, “You don’t grasp the beauty of the destruction of words.

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Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?” (Orwell 46). As shown, unlike any other dictionary, newspeak vocabulary reduces the total number of entries which is considered a big success by masses. “Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller” (Orwell 47).

Therefore, leaving only approved words in the Newspeak dictionary.

But not all terms are removed from Ingsoc speech as many potentially heretical words are only stripped of their secondary meaning, which is a second strategy for limiting a range of thoughts.

For example, ALL MANS ARE EQUAL was a possible Newspeak sentence, but only in

the same sense in which ALL MEN ARE REDHAIRED is a possible Oldspeak sentence. It

did not contain a grammatical error, but it expressed a palpable untruth — i.e. that all men

are of equal size, weight, or strength. The concept of political equality no longer existed,

and this secondary meaning had accordingly been purged out of the word EQUAL. (Orwell

281)

As the provided example shows, uttering an unorthodox thought is impossible in newspeak.

To retain an indispensable word, Newspeak dictionary is divided into three parts. A part consists of words for everyday matters such as expressions related to working, cooking, eating, or drinking which consisted mostly of Oldspeak vocabulary. B part consisted of newspeak original compound words used to convey a certain degree of political meaning. For example, “the word GOODTHINK, meaning, very roughly, ‘orthodoxy” (Orwell 276).

Among others are words such as “CRIMETHINK”, “OLDTHINKERS”, “JOYCAMP

(forced-labour camp)” (Orwell 278), or “BELLYFEEL, which implied a blind, enthusiastic acceptance” (Orwell 277). The usage of euphemisms is very frequent and the true meaning of many terms is the exact opposite. C part consists of technical and scientific terms, but it is

22 inaccessible for a conventional citizen since education is tightly held in the hands of higher party members'.

Ingsoc (English Socialism) is subdued to terminological dichotomy. Such as “WAR IS

PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 14). For example, the Ministry of Peace is involved in “planning the logistics of future wars; others devise larger and larger rocket bombs, more and more powerful explosives” (Orwell 174), or the Ministry of Love serves as an intelligence and spy network. It is also a place where

Winston undergoes his gruesome interrogation. This ministry is also a site of ideological re- education as O’Brien explains to Winston because “The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them”

(Orwell 228). The euphemisms and dichotomies are a clear parallel to political rhetoric

Orwell reproached. Orwell published several essays which criticized euphemism in political rhetoric. For example, in his 1946 essay called “Politics and the English Language” he proposed six rules which should one follow to maintain clarity of one’s speech. For instance, he stated that, “i. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do. iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out” (8). Dichotomy and euphemisms served as a source of inspiration for the creation of Newspeak, upon which Orwell added multiple layers of dystopia. Escalating the degree of dichotomy to an ad absurdum level, Orwell demonstrates that one should always express clearly without equivocation since dystopia decay tends to hide behind the superficial language.

Therefore, political speech existed before Nineteen-eighty-four and Orwell used it as a source of inspiration. But this phenomenon has never left the political sphere, as more recent examples of “Doublethink” (Orwell 7) are visible in reality. “Doublethink” (Orwell 7) means saying one thing but referring to the exact opposite.

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3. 5. Euphemisms in political rhetoric

During the presidency of George W Bush, the United States of America found themselves in an unheard of situation; 3000 American citizens were killed on American soil by a foreign power. After the events of 9/11 in 2001, when a terrorist attack lead by organization Al-Qaeda on high scraper building of World Trade centre and western side of Pentagon headquarters was hit by a hijacked plane, the president announced a war on terrorism. This is what George

W. Bush said to Americans during his speech to congress, “Let me first talk about how to make sure America is secure from a group of killers, people who hate -- you know what they hate? They hate the idea that somebody can go buy a home. They hate freedom; that's what they hate. They hate the fact that we worship freely.” (G. W. Bush) the speech later followed by, “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace”

(G. W. Bush) then, the former president adds, “I also want the young to know that this country, we don't conquer people, we liberate people” (G. W. Bush). Bush performed clear doublespeak to make his statements about declaring a war more soothing to the general public and in order to gain approval and support for his actions. His appeal to liberty, which is deeply imprinted in The Bill of Rights in the US constitution (for example in Fifth Amendment “No person shall be….; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” (“Bill of Rights“) addresses the basic right that American citizens possess, using it as an excuse to

“liberate people” that are not Americans which makes his point clear doublespeak.

Therefore, this thesis concludes that the writers often take inspiration from already existing manipulation through language and build upon them. At the same time, language manipulation in the form of political euphemism is present in our reality and influence our lives.

4. Natality control 4. 1. Natality control in Brave new world

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In Brave New World rather than natality control, it is population mass fabrication since obstetrics is entirely driven and planned by the government on the level of human manufacturing. Therefore, the need to control natality is completely irrelevant since humans are not born naturally for many centuries. In a scene from chapter two, students guided through human factory are asked what does a word parent mean. The answer comes from one of the students, “‘Human beings used to be …’ he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks.

‘Well, they used to be viviparous’” (Huxley 24). The Director who asked the question beforehand continues in his explanation of things of the past,

“In brief,” the Director summed up, “the parents were the father and the mother.” The smut

that was really science fell with a crash into the boys’ eye-avoiding silence. “Mother,” he

repeated loudly rubbing in the science; and, leaning back in his chair, “These,” he said

gravely, “are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant.

(Huxley 25)

The casual population of World state does not know terms such as to be born, a mother, or a father and among specialist, notions and concepts of old-world, when people were still viviparous, cause confusion, embarrassment, and awkwardness beyond belief.

The book starts with a depiction of a human factory. “A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY

AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY,

IDENTITY, STABILITY” (Huxley 1). Very first lines of Brave New World describe the place where the manufacturing of humans is happening. It may be obvious that the writer intentionally introduces the reader with the facility right from the start, it resembles a foundation stone of World State; eugenics, artificially engendered society and industrially made happiness which ensures stability.

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There is no individuality in this fabricated society, but only the collectiveness. Every member of the society serves a very specific purpose which they are assigned during artificial fertilization. “We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future … Directors of Hatcheries,”

(Huxley 13). The book opens with a scene that stretches across the first chapter and describes the process behind the manufacturing of human beings. This procedure takes place in

Hatcheries, which is a vast complex of “Two hundred and twenty metres long, two hundred wide, ten high. He pointed upwards. Like chickens drinking, the students lifted their eyes towards the distant ceiling” (Huxley 11). In this scene, the leading director of Hatcheries and

Conditioning guides students through the complex. Their journey is accompanied with the director’s detailed lecture about procedures, specific details, and many figures concerning the hatching. They are also accompanied by Mr. Foster, leading scientific workers in the laboratory, who gives the students insight into the problematic of limited oxygen dosage treated to embryos. But it is not until one student asks about the reason for oxygen shortage,

“‘But why do you want to keep the embryo below par?’ asked an ingenuous student.” (Huxley

14) when the director gives him his rather indignant explanation which sums up the core procedure in the fabrication of the prescheduled society.

“Ass!” said the Director, breaking a long silence. “Hasn’t it occurred to you that an

Epsilon embryo must have an Epsilon environment as well as an Epsilon heredity?” It

evidently hadn’t occurred to him. He was covered with confusion. “The lower the caste,”

said Mr. Foster, “the shorter the oxygen.” The first organ affected was the brain. After that

the skeleton. At seventy per cent of normal oxygen you got dwarfs. At less than seventy

eyeless monsters. “Who are no use at all,” concluded Mr. Foster. asked an ingenuous

student. (Huxley 14)

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From this moment on, it is established that every human being is predestined to live as a member of a fixed caste and to serve a specific purpose since embryo to a corpse.

There are five castes in the World State’s social pyramid. Members of the lowest one are called Epsilons. During artificial embryonal development, they receive the least oxygen to obtain specifically low mental and physical abilities. They cannot read or write, have hight obedience and their life goal is to perform laborious and unskilled works such as sewer cleaning. Together with second-lowest; deltas, who lack individuality and serve in menial jobs, and third cast; gammas, who are half-skilled workers at repetitive tasks, they are the result of an operation known as Bokanovsky Process which involves egg separation resulting in the highest number of individuals made from a single batch of 96.

“One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will

proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a

perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six

human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.” (Huxley 4, 5)

The goal is to achieve maximum effectiveness. Later, members of lower castes are divided into Bokanovsky groups in which they will work together. The result beings of this process are twins. “Identical twins–but not in piddling twos and threes as in the old viviparous day”

(Huxley 5). Remaining two castes are the upper ones; Alfas and Betas. These are not

“bokanovskified” (Huxley 5) as lower castes. They are left longer time to develop to a full extent since they created for challenging tasks in their future carriers. Betas are intelligent individuals who usually work in complex professions which require higher intellect such as laboratory workers, but they lack the ability of leadership. Leadership is left to the highest caste; Alphas. Those are referred to as superiors, they work as bosses of departments and facilities, they are bred to be highly intelligent and to occupy influential posts.

4. 2. Cloning in reality

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Cloning in present-day reality is a common thing, but it almost always includes the cloning of animals. The first successfully cloned mammal, and probably the most famous animal to be cloned, is a sheep named Dolly. “On July 5, 1996, a female sheep gave birth to the now-famous Dolly, a Finn Dorset lamb — the first mammal to be cloned from the cells of an adult animal — at the Roslin Institute in Scotland” (Bradford). Since then, scientists have already made a great number of successful cloning on various mammals such as mice, dogs, or cats. Cloning technology also created a field for new business opportunities. In the USA, the technology of cloning gave birth to a company called Viagen pets that provides services such as cloning of pets (“ViaGen Pets”). Another similar company originated in South

Korean. If one wants to have their dog cloned after it dies, Sooam Biotech Research

Foundation instructs in their guideline, “When your dog has passed away, DO NOT place the cadaver inside the freezer. Then, patiently follow these steps: 1. Wrap the entire body with wet bathing towels. 2. Place it in the fridge (not the freezer) to keep it cool. * Please take into account that you have approximately 5 days to successfully extract and secure living cells.”

(“When Your Dog Passes Away”) The kind of mass cloning described in Brave New World is not at hand at the moment since the effectivity of current cloning technology is very limited.

As an experiment of cloning human embryos carried out by Korean scientists proved to have very low efficiency of “having created 11 human embryonic cell lines from 185 eggs”.

(Greely, “Cloning Humans”) Compared with “bokanovskified egg” (Huxley 4) capable of producing 72 embryos on average, the numbers are immensely lower. In this aspect, the

Huxley’s proposed cloning efficiency remains a science fiction in 2020, as far as known records go.

But the question in place always was, how close to the cloning of the human genome can the scientists get. The question should be theoretical since human cloning is proclaimed as unethical and banned in 80 countries around the globe. Regardless of that, in 2018, Chinese

28 scientist He Jiankui announced that he had successfully edited two embryos which later following year become living babies. As Henry T Greely concluded in his research called

CRISPR’d babies: human germline genome editing in the ‘He Jiankui affair, “He Jiankui has taken us on a long and winding path. His production of those two babies was, in my view, unforgivably reckless. He deserves our condemnation. But I want to close by bringing us back to the near future—and to human germline genome editing.” International scientific community denounced He’s experiment and he is being referred to as “mad genius” (Low), or

“China’s Frankenstein” (Yan). Jiankui was sentenced for his experiment to three years imprisonment.

Today’s science is holding the knowledge and technology for human cloning, albeit it is not by far as effective as proposed in Brave New World in any aspect. But the factor holding human cloning from becoming ordinary in reality is legislation that considers human cloning as unethical. Even though examples of successfully cloned humans appear, they are condemned and the persons responsible are sentenced and penalized. Therefore, human cloning is possible and is illegally practised, but do not reach the scale of Aldous Huxley’s

Brave New World, which remains a sci-fi.

5. Control through conditioning 5. 1. Conditioning in Brave New World

The process of predestination of babies does not end in the Hatcheries, where they are created, but continues in other locations. The second chapter of Brave New World takes place in “INFANT NURSERIES” (Huxley 19) and the “Conditioning centre” (Huxley 25). For, not only physical and psychical capabilities predestine a human being to be able to appreciate or to like certain things. For example, there might be a skilful blacksmith who likes to go to hikes, etc. But in “Conditioning centre” (Huxley 25), by the usage of positive and negative stimuli, it is ensured that specific caste creates a bond or disinclination to certain objects.

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Since everyone in World State has predestined faith and can only focus on predetermined activities. The reason behind this is clear; it is considered a wasting of society’s resources. For example, Epsilons, Deltas and Gammas are treated by electrical shocks as soon as they see flowers and books, “A love of nature keeps no factories busy” (Huxley 23). Like so, by the fear of shocks when encounter flowers, it is ensured that lower castes will stay in town, where their workplace lays – between factories, in city facilities, working on technical issues – not ever wanting to go out of the city, therefore enforcing their aversion against nature. Also, the aversion to the books is formed because it is undesirable for World State’s society to “have lower-caste people wasting the Community’s time over books, and that there was always the risk of their reading something which might undesirably decondition one of their reflexes”

(Huxley 23). The reason is that the working force has to focus on their lot.

On the other hand, conditioning also involves positive stimuli to reinforce desired behaviour. “‘We condition the masses to hate the country,’ concluded the Director. ‘But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport. Hence those electric shocks’” (Huxley 24). In this case, the aim is to increase consumption and therefore to boost the economy.

Another practised instrument for the conditioning of children is hypnopaedia or sleep- learning already mentioned in chapter 3. 2. Language control in Brave New World. But hypnopaedia also falls into a category of upbringing. Hypnopaedia means that person can learn a lot of information by listening while sleeping. In Brave New World, it is said that it was discovered in the 20th century, but as the director explains, was abandoned as the person did not derivate any meaning from the information since they only learned it by heart. As the director states, “You can’t learn a science unless you know what it’s all about” (Huxley 27).

But sleep-learning’s potential was reconsidered. The director is clear about it, “‘These early

30 experimenters,’ the D.H.C. was saying, ‘were on the wrong track. They thought that hypnopædia could be made an instrument of intellectual education …’” (Huxley 26). In

World State’s conditioning centres, Hypnopaedia was “first used officially in A.F. 214”

(Huxley 26) (A.F. stands for After Ford) and became a standardized procedure to teach children morals, or rather undisputable indoctrination reinforcing government-favoured behaviour in individuals. As director cleverly adds, “Whereas, if they’d only started on moral education” (Huxley 27) clearly cutting boundaries between gradually absorbed morals learned while growing up and systematically learned morals enforced in Brave New World. This is evidence that morals in the World State are unconcerned with ethics. Therefore, the advancement of human manufacturing has no place for ethics.

The definition of ethics according to Merriam-Webster dictionary is, “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation” (“Ethic”) but also, “a set of moral issues or aspects” (“Ethic”). Broadly, ethics describe moral principles and rank them according to whether they are right, or wrong. Whereas morals deal with one’s subjective view on right or wrong values, depending on specific moral philosophy, such as hedonism, stoicism, positivism, or eugenics as is the case of Huxley’s novel. Generally, while dealing with important scientific matters such as cloning, morals should be subordinate to ethics since subjective good does not imply objective or general good. But in World Order, everything is subjected to the governmental goal of maximum-efficiency society. Therefore, making World State’s society unethical.

The question of ethics practically applies on the conflict between the free will and happiness presented in Brave New World via three characters – Bernard Marx, Helmholtz

Watson and John the Savage – who paradoxically only find frustration in the society which was designed and constructed to provide nothing else than fulfilment and happiness. Since childhood, the given set of instructions is deeply sunk in everyone’s psychology. This is one

31 of the ways that government shapes people to its vision and therefore they control them from cradle to grave, or rather from conditioning centre to fertilizer.

5. 2. Eugenics in Brave New World

It might seem that social inequality of castes, clearly cut by the government, may cause social instability because the lower castes will inevitably rebel against the oppression.

The opposite is true. During a conversation between Henry Foster, an alfa male who represents the conventional Londoner and Lenina Crowne, a beta female technician, an object of many men’s desires, it is explained why does the caste system works, “‘I’m glad I’m not an

Epsilon,’ said Lenina, with conviction. ‘And if you were an Epsilon,’ said Henry, ‘your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren’t a Beta or an Alpha’”

(Huxley 77). The reason why does not epsilons, deltas and gammas rebel against higher castes, even though they occupy an inferior position in society, is because they are made and conditioned to be obedient and to be satisfied with their lot, never wanting more, even if they only serve betas and alfas and even though they are often referred to as semi-morons and higher castes openly express their deepest contempt to them. But in reality, the existence of epsilons, deltas and gammas is as important, as the existence of alfas, since the society uses them as a workforce forged to perfection. “Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one …” (Huxley 76). Eugenics is a key to social stability in World State. Unlimited governmental power over the fabrication of castes, undisputed by any moral or ethical dilemmas forms a pyramid of World State’s artificial civilization.

5. 3. Social control through upbringing compared to real life

Every society raises its children by its own rules, dogmas, conventions and customs. It is therefore very simple to find real-life reflection for conventional upbringing. But on the

32 other hand, in Brave New World upbringing falls into the category of conditioning. While using instruments such as electrical shocks to dishearten individuals from certain activities as stated in chapter 3. 2. Another approach is oppositely based on positive stimuli and is also applied to young children in the conditioning centre. The goal is to have a society that is obsessed with the pursuit of happiness. Happiness in Brave New World is generally generated by sex and drugs. Soma, the wonder drug, is freely distributed to all citizens and all citizens are stimulated to have a promiscuous sex approach. To condition children to have promiscuous sexual attitudes, small children orderly engage in what is called an “erotic play”

(Huxley 33) taking part in “rudimentary sexual game” (Huxley 32). This thesis does not find real-world counterparts to this type of upbringing. Therefore, social control through sexual conditioning does not have a real-life resemblance. Anyhow, it remains a powerful type of social manipulation in Huxley’s novel.

6. Control through surveillance

Surveillance is a key factor for controlling people since totalitarian systems have to

have information about its inhabitants to sufficiently control them. The extent of

surveillance might differ, it might be omnipresent in society, or just gently or even go

undetected.

6. 1. Surveillance in Nineteen Eighty-Four

Masterful surveillance is depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four, embodied by the notorious

quote “The Big brother is watching” (Orwell 2). Big Brother’s regime is relentless in

surveillance and the role of monitoring is critically significant. Surveillance in dystopian

Oceania consists of many layers to ensure not a tiny bit of information goes under the radar

of the party. Besides Newspeak and the strategy for limiting language described in chapter

3. 4., Ingsoc also incorporates “telescreen” (Orwell 2). These television-like devices are

33 placed in every apartment so that an incorporated camera scans the whole view of the room. Telescreen is also fitted with a microphone for auditory surveillance. The device serves to arrange a two-way information flow. Both to instruct the citizens of Oceania and to monitor their every step or whisper. As Orwell describes through the Winston, the main character, “You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized” (Orwell 3). Telescreens are placed even in the exterior, creating a tight monitoring net making Oceania’s inhabitants live in constant paranoia.

The fear of saying heresy or only showing the slightest sign of apostasy is due to omnipresent surveillance immense. As the novel describes, the danger springs from oneself nervous system, “They were a few metres apart when the left side of the man’s face was suddenly contorted by a sort of spasm. It happened again just as they were passing one another: it was only a twitch, a quiver, rapid as the clicking of a camera shutter, but obviously habitual. He remembered thinking at the time: That poor devil is done for”

(Orwell 57). The danger citizens of Oceania have to face spring from their own unconscious actions. To add up, sleep talking is one of the many fears that Winston has since it can give up his anti-Big Brother attitude, “The most deadly danger of all was talking in your sleep. There was no way of guarding against that, so far as he could see”

(Orwell 57). Surveillance results in constant paranoia from being watched and judged.

But not even zealous party members who showed a remarkable passion for Big

Brother were safe. Even those can get vaporized. For example Syme, a linguist, as Winston though “Unquestionably Syme will be vaporized, Winston thought again” (Orwell 49). But not in consequence of being unfaithful to the Ingsoc, or being unorthodox, but as a result of being too avid, as an example shows, “he lacked: discretion, aloofness, a sort of saving stupidity” (Orwell 49). To put it simply, Syme is overly educated and talks too much about

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the inner manners of their society. As Winston puts it, “Zeal was not enough. Orthodoxy

was unconsciousness” (Orwell 49). The result of any wrongdoing is milder punishment;

lowering one’s orthodox-citizen score. But anyhow, nearly anyone can be vaporised

because of any violation, such as showing slightest sigh of unorthodoxy as it happens to

Syme who “had ceased to exist: he had never existed.” (Orwell 133) since he is vaporised

in the end.

Vaporization is one of the means of Oceania’s social control. Vaporizing someone means that a person vanishes into a thin air and any records of his life are simply deleted from existence. The person is simply wiped from being as they would never exist. Orwell describes the desolating circumstances of vaporization as,

It was always at night — the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out

of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring

of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases there was no trial, no report

of the arrest. People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was

removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped

out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished,

annihilated: VAPORIZED was the usual word. (Orwell 16)

Not only the disappearance from the world but also any notion of a person is deleted, which entails perfectly the kind of oppressive world-shaping in the name of one government. Murder in the name of the government is not a murder, but an act of patriotism.

6. 2. Political Murder in Real World

Vaporizations, or rather assassinations, murders, and disappearances of political opponents, unwanted witnesses, or former colleagues is not a creation of sheer Orwell’s imagination. Murder as a means of dealing with unwanted circumstances is a tactic old as

35 humanity itself. Examples might include the Biblical story of Cain and Abel or the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 A.D. As Joseph Stalin allegedly said “Death is the solution to all problems. No man— no problem” (Conquest 92). In reality, this line is incorrectly attributed to Stalin. The quote comes from the novel Children of the Arbat by

Anatoly Rybakov. Although the line is pronounced by Stalin in the novel, the author Rybakov later explained that there is no evidence Stalin has ever said it and that it is his interpretation of Stalinist principle (“There is a Person…”). Despite that, the quote is more than fitting to describe the Stalinist rule over Russia as one of the worst eras of the Soviet Union with a high mortality rate caused by famine and Stalinistic purges. During Stalin years as General

Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which ranged from 1922 until 1952,

Stalin gained the reputation of a harsh dictator. He is attributed as an initiator of a Great

Purge. From 1936 to 1938, the Stalinist regime repressed political opposition, army opposition, Trotskyists, wealthy peasants and ethnical minorities. Death tool is estimated to be between 680 thousand up to 1 million and 200 thousand killed. As Amy L. Atchison and

Shauna L. Shames AMY say, “It was Stalin, however, who took mass murder to the next level by scapegoating people as “Enemies of the State” (77). Therefore, by murdering all opposition, Stalin gained unlimited control over the government and in result over the whole

Soviet society.

The reflection of these events is visible in Nineteen Eighty-Four as Orwell frequently criticized the Soviet Union also through his books such as The Animal Farm, often took inspiration from Soviet history while bringing attention to its issues.

6. 3. Polarizing Society in Nineteen Eighty-Four compared with reality

In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four citizens of Oceania are obliged to watch “Two minutes Hate” (Orwell 10), a broadcast of video footage featuring purported enemies of Big

Brother. As the narrator describes it, 36

The programmes of the Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none

in which Goldstein was not the principal figure. He was the primal traitor, the earliest

defiler of the Party’s purity. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries,

acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching. Somewhere

or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps somewhere beyond

the sea, under the protection of his foreign paymasters, perhaps even — so it was

occasionally rumoured — in some hiding-place in Oceania itself. (Orwell 10)

Polarizing society to us and them and proclaiming someone as the enemy of the state has always worked for dictators in order to control the crowd. This strategy is expedient in two ways. The blame for any unsuccess and failures – economic, military, social – is diverted from the ruling party and in return, the hate for the enemy or the others is even strengthened.

This might seem as an overstated tactic that does not work in the real world. But the desperate crowd that is manipulated to believe in the all-mighty leader is capable of believing in almost anything. As history shows, anti-Jews attitudes that escalated in Germany in the 1930s, and subsequently seven million people were murdered, were also a consequence of simple-minded stupefied rhetoric of blaming others for any national unsuccess. In present-day Europe, right- wing nationalist parties are yet again on the rise. BBC summarizes in its 2019 article called

“Europe and right-wing nationalism: A country-by-country guide” that, “Nationalism has always been a feature across Europe's political spectrum but there has been a recent boom in voter support for right-wing and populist parties”. Luckily, extremist parties do not dominate the political environment, being rather on the margin of the political spectrum. But a less militant form of social manipulation is present in many countries’ government in form of populist movements such as Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, or President Trump in the USA. (Rice-Oxley)

6. 4. Surveillance in reality

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Surveillance control described in Nineteen eighty-four is a field in which our reality not only compares but also surpasses the Big Brother. According to the report called The

Global Expansion of AI Surveillance published by Carnegie Endowment for International

Peace in 2019, “at least seventy-five out of 176 countries globally are actively using AI technologies for surveillance purposes” (Feldstein 7). The technology of camera monitoring is much older having its roots in 1927 when Russian physicist Léon Theremin presented his

CCTV (Closed-circuit television) system to Soviet officials with Joseph Stalin. This system was subsequently used to monitor approaching visitors of Moscow Kremlin (Glinsky 46 - 47).

Theremin’s system was revolutionary for its time, but camera systems still had a long way to go before evolving into an institutionalized tool of control. The industrial usage of CCTV became common in the 1970s with the introduction of videocassette recorders. Those provided the option to record and erase footage, therefore usage of camera systems spread to the security industry. Important step the technology made in the 1990s was caused by the introduction of an Ethernet network which made communication between the camera and the supervisor much easier. (Kruegle 276) Anyhow, today’s camera surveillance is much ahead thanks to many technological advancements.

The difference between those systems used back in the 20th century and modern ones is the advantage of AI, which stands for Artificial intelligence, and Facial recognition. AI surveillance has two major advantages. It “allows regimes to automate many tracking and monitoring functions formerly delegated to human operators. This brings cost efficiencies, decreases reliance on security forces, and overrides potential principal-agent loyalty problems” (Feldstein 13) and secondly automated technology is tireless, do not suffer from weariness and can operate continuously. “As a result, this creates a substantial ‘chilling effect’ even without resorting to physical violence; citizens never know if an automated bot is monitoring their text messages, reading their social media posts, or geotracking their

38 movements around town” (Feldstein 13). Another vital technology is Facial recognition. It is a term used for “computer-aided technology that allows people to be identified by scanning their faces, especially for security purposes” (“facial recognition”).

In the span of the last ten years, facial recognition is a widely debated trend that many institutions became to use. The capability to scan one’s face comes via omnipresent CCTV cameras that are very common in the majority of cities around the globe. Most cities have many streets covered by cameras. The difference of today’s surveillance is in its interconnection with police departments which have great databases of citizens biometric data at their disposal. As this report describes, the technology available and used today surpasses the technology proposedly used by Big Brother. The question arises, whether the governments use the surveillance only for democratic purposes such as tracking criminals, preventing terrorist attacks or similar.

6. 5. Surveillance benefits

To better understand why AI surveillance is used, it is necessary to draw some examples. One of the reasons is crime prevention. A 2017 review called Surveillance cameras and crime: a review of randomized and natural experiments examined the effect of cameras in public areas.

Included studies that reported changes in total crime found crime reductions ranging

from 24 to 28% in public streets and urban subway stations, but no desirable effects in

parking facilities or suburban subway stations. Moreover, surveillance cameras may

help reduce unruly behaviour in football stadiums and theft in supermarkets/mass

merchant stores. These findings indicate that video surveillance can reduce crime in

several settings. (Alexandrie, abstract)

The study concludes that thanks to the surveillance cameras, the range of crime has been lowered in certain locations.

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CCTV can also help in crime-solving. As a BBC article concludes that CCTV has its many uses in London, including “a man who raped a woman while she was sleeping at

Bridgend bus station, was only caught after CCTV operators spotted the incident and raised the alarm with police.” (Flint) The man was later jailed for 14 years thanks to the camera system (“Man Jailed”). Or another example of a beneficial effect of the camera system comes from London. It includes a case of a man “seriously injuring six people when his car crashed into a nightclub smoking shelter during a police chase” (“Porthcawl Nightclub”). As a result, he was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail. In short, if there is a crime happening, police can interact quickly by the interconnectedness of cameras and maps. If the police make it in time, the criminal can be stopped. If not, pictures provided by the camera system will help during police search and identification of the suspect

Another purpose of camera monitoring involves traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian.

Vehicle monitoring benefits from the incorporation of AI, register place identification and also facial recognition. The vast number of fines is imposed automatically, thus saving time and expenses for the lost labour. Further usage includes use in public transport, private homes or schools. As the Carnegie centre report puts it “tracking tools play a vital role in preventing terrorism. They help security forces deter bad acts and resolve problematic cases” (Feldstein

11). Therefore, there are multiple examples of the beneficial effect of the camera system, as it holds great potential for monitoring in cities.

6. 6. Abuse of surveillance

Every technology that intervenes to personal liberty has to be controlled by laws but unfortunately, those laws regulating AI surveillance are superficial and brief. In effect of insufficient legislation, the way the technology is used depends on the government’s decision.

Some government act honestly, others use AI surveillance for non-ethical purposes. Feldstein states, “Yet a growing number of states are deploying advanced AI surveillance tools to

40 monitor, track, and surveil citizens to accomplish a range of policy objectives—some lawful, others that violate human rights, and many of which fall into a murky middle ground” (1). As the report concludes, the usage depends on individual governments and their decision. Some states may use the technology honestly, but there are clear examples of unlawful usage. “The motivations for why European democracies acquire AI surveillance (controlling migration, tracking terrorist threats) may differ from Egypt or Kazakhstan’s interests (keeping a lid on internal dissent, cracking down on activist movements before they reach critical mass), but the instruments are remarkably similar” (Feldstein 11). Generally, countries with a high level of democracy tend to use AI surveillance in society's advantage. But others, for example, autocratic and totalitarian governments or states with a high degree of police control, see the usage in the monitoring of citizens.

A recent example of unlawful usage occurred during Black Lives Matter protests in the USA that sprung after Minneapolis’ police officers murdered Georg Floyd during his arrest on May 25, 2020. Protesters gathered in over 2000 cities in the USA, Europe and all around the world. Police in the USA allegedly used face recognition technology to identify protesters. Then, the police would compare facial scans to the bench warrant databases and arrest the protesters right from the crowd. It is not for the first time the police use this tactic since the police would use the same tactic in the 2015 Baltimore protests (Oliver 00:04:17 –

00:05:17).

The problem lies in insufficient legislation that would regulate the collection and usage of personal data, such as face scans. Civil rights activists now alert on this issue, because rules concerning usage of surveillance technologies should be grounded in the law.

Subsequently, many companies such as IBM, Google, Amazon steps down and refuse to provide their scanning technologies to the police and law enforcement in the USA in the course of June 2020. For example, Microsoft president Brad Smith said that Microsoft “will

41 not sell its facial recognition software for police use until a national law is in place, ‘grounded in human rights,’ that governs its use.” (Levy). The signs of an immense problem are obvious if business companies refuse to sell their product, depriving oneself of profit, because of the unethical usage of their products.

In January 2020, The New York Times released an extensive article about a company called Clearview. The article is called The Secretive Company That Might End Piracy as We

Know It, subtitled “A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images — and ‘might lead to a dystopian future or something, ’ a backer says” (Hill). The debate about the law issues of the Clearview company has been snowed under by the events of Corona Virus pandemics, but thanks to the connection with surveillance at demonstrations against police brutality in June 2020 the discussion once again comes to life. Clearview claims to have hold on “a database of more than three billion images that Clearview claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites” (Hill). While the system and people behind Clearview are generally unknown,

600 law-enforcement agencies in the USA, both federal and private, started using “its app to help solve shoplifting, identity theft, credit card fraud, murder and child sexual exploitation cases” (Hill). The possibility of abuse of these technologies is not only hypothetical but also proved.

The power of technology such Clearview lies in its ease of use. Clearview works as a mobile app. A police officer takes a photo of a suspect by their mobile phone and the face scan is identified and matched to a database. In theory and practise, this tool has become very helpful in the hands of police officers. But the question about the prevention of abuse of the technology remains unanswered. As Hill explains the possible outcome of unregulated use of face recognition technologies,

42

Searching someone by face could become as easy as Googling a name. Strangers would be

able to listen in on sensitive conversations, take photos of the participants and know

personal secrets. Someone walking down the street would be immediately identifiable —

and his or her home address would be only a few clicks away. It would herald the end of

public anonymity (Hill).

As the reporter concludes, if apps such as Clearview would remain unregulated and abused, the result would make even the Big Brother humbled. The app developed by Clearview proves that the technology is capable of tracking citizens and linking the identity with databases available to the state is at disposal. The problem of personal data privacy has risen in more or less democratic United States by the fault of leaky legislation. On the other hand, it looks that the government of the USA takes the issues seriously. Since the senator Jeff

Merkley proposes passing a bill called Ethical Use of Facial Recognition Act, “To create a moratorium on the government use of facial recognition technology until a Commission recommends the appropriate guidelines and limitation for use of facial recognition technology“ (Merkley). This effort shows a determination to regulate the usage of face recognition technologies. More problematic is the use of the same technologies by totalitarian states.

6. 7. Surveillance in China

The question concerning the result of advanced surveillance technology in combination with the totalitarian government is already answered. That answer is China. China is not only a top exporter of surveillance systems to the world thanks to companies such as Huawei, ZTE or Dahua, as the Carnegie centre report shows, “Huawei alone is responsible for providing AI surveillance technology to at least fifty countries worldwide. No other company comes close.”

(Feldstein 1), but also the biggest user of AI surveillance technologies in their own state.

Huawei mentioned above is a very controversial company. On one hand, they offer a variety

43 of technological solutions in networking, surveillance, manufacturing of electronics, but on the other hand, Huawei’s connection to the Chinese government is tight. Many states declared

Huawei as unreliable because of possible data leaks to the Chinese government. In 2018, USA banned using technologies made by Chinese companies Huawei, ZTE and others from

Government Contracts (Lee). Subsequently, the same decision has been made by Australia,

New Zeland, Japan and Taiwan (Buchholz). Also, Czech Republic’s cybersecurity agency issued a report in which it warned against the use of Huawei and ZTE technology. “The use of technological or program mediums of following companies, including their subsidiary companies represents a threat in cybersecurity” (NÚKIB). The Czech issue was later reversed, but cautious approach to Huawei is kept even by other governments around the world and it is advised to prefer other manufacturers.

6. 8. China Credit System

China represents a glowing example in the incorporation of surveillance technology in its social order. The combination of totalitarian government, advanced AI surveillance and urge to control Chinese inhabitants creates what is called a China “Social Credit System” (Parsons

74). Every citizen is assigned a social credit score according to their behaviour. What they buy, where they go, who do they meet with, what they do; it is all monitored by the government and enumerated in a mobile app. The reason why is China capable of such massive surveillance is the number of cameras installed in its cities. It is estimated that in

2020, the total number of cameras installed in China will reach 626 million with interannual growth of 213 per cent compared to 2019. Put in other words, “Eight of top 10 most- surveilled cities are in China” (Zhang) and China will have one camera per two citizens by

2020. The alleged purpose is to make Chinese cities smarter and safer. Chinese system for making cities smarter is called Skynet. The resemblance with 1984 The Terminator movie where the artificial intelligence program Skynet serves as the main villain is not coincidental.

44

As Xie Yinan, Vice President and Spokesperson for a company Megvii, which develops

Skynet and face recognition for China’s Government, explains, “The Terminator is the favourite film of our founder. So, they use the same name but they want to put something good into this system.” The reported asks the following question, “So okay, in The

Terminator, the Skynet is evil, rains down death from the sky, but in China Skynet is good.”

Xie Yinan responds, “Yes, that’s the difference” (Reeve 00:06:18 – 00:06:48). The conversation is taken from a Vice News’ on HBO video report filmed in the headquarters of the mentioned Chinese company. The video report is called “How China Tracks Everyone” hosted by reporter Elle Reeve. Even if the Skynet from The Terminator had no real-life resemblance in Skynet system used and enforced in China, the similarity is not only symbolical, and more importantly, the practical aspect of AI system which is monitoring and controlling inhabitants in China mirrors systems described both in the 1984 James Cameron’s film The Terminator and the Big Brother surveillance in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-

Four.

Social Credit System is based on a score. Every Chinese citizen is assigned a certain number of points at the start. Their score can be lowered or increased according to their actions. The correctness of these actions is judged by Chinese morals and Chinese law. But as

Chinese lawyer, who represents citizens with a low social score, Zhuang Daohe points out, “If these two environments are not sound, then the social credit system will fall apart. It will go astray. It may even change from a system with good intentions to something very harmful”

(Reeve 00:09:23 – 00:09:45). And since the control over the credit system is in the hands of the communist government, which can take human rights very blithely, the probability of abuse is very high. Following chapter serves to illustrate the treatment of human rights by the

Chinese Government.

6. 9. Human Rights in China

45

The Chinese government is being continuously criticized from the side of human right organizations, but also by many states for the violation of human rights. According to Human

Rights Watch World Report 2020, “China’s government sees human rights as an existential threat. Its reaction could pose an existential threat to the rights of people worldwide” (Roth).

In China, journalists are being arrested commonly as a case of Zhang Zhan, 37 years old journalist shows. She was arrested after reporting from Wuhan on Covid-19 outbreak for

“picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (Lau). There are other numerous reports of Chinese citizens missing, not only during coronavirus outbreak. As Amnesty International report for

China for 2019 states, “The human rights situation continued to be marked by a systematic crackdown on dissent. The justice system remained plagued by unfair trials and torture and other ill-treatment in detention. China still classified information on its extensive use of the death penalty as a state secret“ (“Everything you need to know about human rights in China”).

Reports show that kidnappings, police detention, imprisonment, interrogation or disappearances are usual tactics of Chinese officials while dealing with uncomfortable journalists, opposition, dissent or civil rights activists that shed a bad light on the People’s

Republic of China.

But also, a military engagement is not unusual. As events of 1989 Tiananmen Square protests shows. During the protests in 1989, martial law was declared and 300 000 troops were mobilized to Being. As a result, the estimated death tool varies from several hundreds to several thousand killed. Chinese government deployed tanks against unarmed civilians. “On the night of the 3-4 June 1989, the army moved tanks into Tiananmen Square and killed hundreds of unarmed civilians on their route. Tens of thousands were arrested across the country in the aftermath” (“China: 15 Years after Tiananmen”). China is not reluctant to the use of deadly force against its criticizers. Even today, protesters at Hong Kong protests, that

46 started during 2019 and are still ongoing in June 2020, are under imminent oppression from the side law enforcement (Hughes).

The communist government identifies citizens as either socially beneficial or socially harmful according to their actions as a video report by NBC shows, “Everywhere she goes,

Yo Hau Yang-Ju is followed. What she buys, how she behaves is tracked and scored to show how responsible and trustworthy she is” (NBC News 00:00:00 – 00:00:10). For example, the reason for degrading one’s score are “traffic violations” (Kobie), then violators are displayed on public screens and social media for public disgrace. Loss of points also happens after being caught at “littering, a messy yard, gossip, even jaywalking” (NBC News 00:01:13 –

00:01:20). Among other listed are acts such as “Participating in anything deemed to be a cult”

(Boquen), “Insincere apologies for crimes committed” (Boquen), “drunk driving” (Boquen), or “Not visiting aging parents regularly” (Boquen). This list consists of somewhat socially harmful activities and it might seem as socially beneficial to control and punish the violators.

But the list of socially harmful activities goes on and involves manifestations such as freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Acts such as “Spreading rumours on the Internet” (Boquen) also result in a lowered score, while no one specifies what does count as a rumour or what does not. Freedom of speech is suppressed by lowering the citizen score when “Posting anti-government messages on social media” (Boquen) and “Illegally protesting against the authorities” (Boquen). It is evident that communist China is setting its ground for the persecution of protesters and opposition. The score can be improved by “donating to charity” (Kobie), “to do hours of unpaid work to get benefits” (NBC News 00:01:09 –

00:01:13), “Committing a heroic act, Having a good financial credit history, Helping the poor,

Positively influencing one’s neighbourhood”, but also “praising the government on social media” (Boquen).

47

But what keeps Chinese citizens from “misbehaviour” is not their score itself. It is a thought-out system of bans if one has a low score.

Travel bans – Individuals may be banned from flying or getting on a train, or from

purchasing business-class tickets. Some hotels have also banned people with low

scores. School bans – People with bad scores, or their children, may be barred from

enrolling in higher education or applying for high school. Job prohibitions – A bad

score can mean that a person may be denied the ability to perform work in a big bank,

executive job, or at a state-owned firm. Businesses may be excluded from public

procurement projects. (Boquen)

The list of governmental penalties involves not only individuals but also businesses.

Increased scrutiny – Businesses with poor scores may be subject to more audits or

government inspections. Public shaming – The government keeps a public list of

individuals and businesses with a poor score. This can make it difficult for businesses

with low scores to build relationships with local partners who can be negatively

impacted by their partnership. (Boquen)

As the list shows, the restrictions posed for misbehaviour intervene in all spheres except basics such as nourishments and shelter. The government even encourages grassing up on fellow citizens, “Information collectors are paid to report on their neighbour” (NBC News

00:01:25 – 00:01:36). On the other hand, rewards for good citizens include “include preferential access to government services and tax deductions” (Parsons 73). Rewards are also present, but their number is very low compared to the punishments. The danger of surveillance systems lies in their susceptibility to being abused. The responsibility, therefore, lies on the governments to issue appropriate laws.

The second factor in preventing misuse of surveillance are social ethical and moral values. In autocratic counties, the governments may more likely use AI surveillance to repress

48 civilians. But at the same time, as Feldstein states, “Democracies are not taking adequate steps to monitor and control the spread of sophisticated technologies linked to a range of violations” (2). As the examples show, the abuse of surveillance happens even in the US, but unlike in autocratic countries, citizens and public opinion in the US have a decisive factor and these technologies can be regulated. Via restrictions, repressive-based Chinese communist government is ensuring that any anti-government behaviour is either suppressed before it can even be manifested, or repressed. Chinese government holds tight control over its citizens by strict laws that are in some cases contradictory to human freedom and basic human rights. For a communist government of China, the elaborated apparatus of social credit functions as an undisguised system to control the society. Having an unprecedented abuser of human rights but also an oppressor of humanness who uses advanced technological systems such as mentioned Skynet is proof that the dystopian premise of control through surveillance comes to life.

49

7. Conclusion

This paper proves that some dystopian techniques of social control described in Brave

New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale are present in reality. The degree of their presence varies. After the definition of terms and description of primary sources, four major types of techniques for controlling society are identified in the primary literature. Each chapter analyses and compares an individual technique from primary literature with its resemblance to real political solutions mostly from recent history and from the history of the 20th century. Subchapter provides a further explanation where needed.

To conclude, control by language in reality is present in euphemistic political rhetoric, but do not reach the elaborate degree of Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Natality control from Brave New World is resembled in reality by cloning. Cloning humans in reality is illegal and due to current technology possible only on a very limited scale. Control through conditioning is tied to reality, as children upbringing itself is a form of control, but the real- life resemblance does not achieve the level from Brave New World. Control through surveillance is an area, where reality surpasses surveillance proposed in Nineteen Eighty-

Four. Complex monitoring allows the Social Credit System in China to disable citizens from access to services according to their citizens' score. It proves that the expansion of surveillance serves the interest of the communist regime to control Chinese citizens by restrictions.

Generally, real-world examples of dystopia are found mostly in autocratic states such as China and Russia, or the USA with law enforcement agencies abusing technologies such as facial recognition. Although in three of four cases, real-life resemblance does not reach the degree from the novels, authors of the novels urge people to remain vigilant against usurpations and ablutions of power, since is an easy way to a real-life dystopia.

50

The main message of all three novels is that citizens cannot let the government uncontrolled since it can guide society to autocracy and dystopia. Societies should supervise the government’s decisions and actions. It is the public’s and citizens’ task to be vigilant, to stand up to the oppression, and show the government its boundaries if it is necessary. The field of social control techniques is very wide. Future work should cover other multiple techniques. But most importantly focus on control through surveillance since it is the field that surpasses primary literature and is the most pressing threat to personal freedom in the present day.

51

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Summary

This thesis concludes that dystopian techniques of social control are present in reality. The methodology is to explain and analyse four dystopian principles for society control drawn in the primary literature and then (Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, The Handmaid’s

Tale) and prove their presence in reality by providing multiple examples.

The First chapter introduces the reared to the basic research questions, describes the terminology of utopia and dystopia, and sets the ground for the thesis. The second chapter briefly characterizes the primary sources, their scope, meaning, and message to the readers.

The third chapter ties to control through language which is present in all three novels.

In Atwood’s novel through the patriarchal naming system and language of oppression. In

Huxley’s dystopia through hypnopaedia, rhymes, and usage of Ford’s name as a God’s name.

Special attention is paid to Nineteen Eighty-Four which takes the manipulation by language much further than the two previous novels by the creation of a new language called

Newspeak. The real-world resemblance is found in children rhymes and more importantly in political rhetoric’s which can be in some cases, as the examples show, highly manipulative.

The fourth chapter focuses on control through natality which is profoundly described in Brave New World since almost the whole society of the World state is produced as clones in a laboratory. The resemblance in reality is found in human cloning which is possible, was already done, but is illegal. Anyways cloning is practised on animals in specialized facilities where owners can have their pets cloned.

The fifth chapter deals with control through conditioning which yet again ties to the

Huxley’s novel where children are thought morals and society dogmas through electrical shock and elementary sex games. Counterparts in the real world are not found by this thesis, but upbringing remains a basic tool for controlling given society.

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The sixth chapter is the longest and concentrate to control through surveillance. This chapter proves that surveillance in reality surpasses surveillance in Nineteen Eighty-Four greatly due to the social credit system currently practised in China. By examples, it is proved that the communist Chinese government uses surveillance in combination with the credit system to control its inhabitants. Therefore, proving that dystopia is present in today’s society.

The last chapter finishes the thesis and deduces the conclusion that dystopian techniques of social control can truly be found in reality.

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Resumé

Tato práce došla k závěru, že dystopické techniky ovládání společnosti existují ve skutečnosti. Postup spočívá ve vysvětlení a analýze čtyř dystopických principů na ovládání společnosti popsané v primární literatuře (1984, Konec civilizace a Příběh služebnice) a dokládání jejich přítomnosti ve skutečnosti pomocí mnoha příkladů.

První kapitola představuje čtenáři základní výzkumné otázky, popisuje terminologii utopie a dystopie a poskytuje myšlenkový základ práce. Druhá kapitola stručně charakterizuje primární literaturu, její rámcový záběr, význam a poselství.

Třetí kapitola se váže k ovládání skrz jazyk, které se objevuje ve všech třech románech. V románu Příběh služebnice se projevuje v patriarchálním systému pojmenování a utlačování skrz jazyk. V Huxleyho dystopii se projevuje v hypnopedii, říkankách a používání jména Ford namísto jména Božího. Zvláštní pozornost je věnována románu 1984, ve kterém je manipulace skrz jazyk dovedena mnohem dále, než ve dvou předchozích dystopiích, a to díky fiktivním jazyku Newspeak. Odraz ve skutečnosti je spatřen v dětských říkankách, a také ve patrný v eufemistické politické rétorice, která je ve skutečném světě v mnoha případech silně manipulativní.

Čtvrtá kapitola se soustředí na ovládání porodnictvím, které je podrobně popsáno v knize Konec Civilizace, jelikož téměř celá společnost Světového státu je stvořena klonováním v laboratořích. Podobnost s realitou se nachází v klonování lidí, které je technicky možné, ve skutečnosti již bylo provedeno, ale je nelegální. Přesto se klonování dělá na zvířatech ve specializovaných firmách, kde si mohou nechat majitelé naklonovat své mazlíčky.

Pátá kapitola se zabývá formováním dětí, které se opět váže k Huxleyho románu, kde jsou děti učeny mravům a společenským pravidlům pomocí elektrických šoků a jednoduchých 61 sexuálních her. K této formě výchovy tato práce nenachází protějšek v realitě, ale výchova samotná zůstává základním nástrojem pro ovládání společnosti.

Kapitola šest je nejdelší kapitolou této práce, jelikož se zaměřuje na ovládání policejním dohledem. V této kapitole je dokázáno, že dohled ve skutečnosti překonává sledování občanů popsané v románu 1984, a to především kvůli existenci systému sociálního kreditu, který je praktikován v Číně. Pomocí příkladů je dokázáno, že komunistický režim v Číně používá sledovací technologie v kombinaci s kreditovým systémem k nadvládě nad obyvatelstvem. Tím je dokázáno, že dystopie je opravdu přítomná v dnešní společnosti.

Poslední kapitola uzavírá práci shledáním, že dystopické techniky na ovládání obyvatelstva jsou přítomné nejen v literatuře, ale také ve skutečnosti.

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