Only party members in 1984 are killed or taken to room 101, who are supposed to be around 20% of the population. The rest of the population is kept brainwashed through things like purposeful illiteracy and an alcoholic beverage called "victory gin" (suggested by the text to cause long term brain damage). The average person in 1984 isn't supervised or threatened with death at all. The most supervised class are "outer party" members, educated bureaucrats and skilled workers, of which the protagonist Winston belongs. The "inner party" is the one that does the supervising. The way the Ingsoc government in 1984 controls the average Prole (proletariat) is through minimizing the use of language as well, through newspeak. The "double plus ungood" type of talk. There's a brief mention of the inner party trying to make anti-government phrases impossible or grammatically incorrect, since the phrase "BB is double plus ungood" would be technically possible, they want to make it a grammatical mistake.
I've read this book too many times and I still hate it.
Also, every study I've seen, external or internal, shows a near 90% approval rating for the Chinese government. By any metric the Chinese people largely approve of their government. There's no widespread insurgency. There aren't widespread movements to overthrow the state and replace it with liberalism. There are regional protests against certain policies mostly.
Only party members in 1984 are killed or taken to room 101, who are supposed to be around 20% of the population. The rest of the population is kept brainwashed through things like purposeful illiteracy and an alcoholic beverage called "victory gin" (suggested by the text to cause long term brain damage). The average person in 1984 isn't supervised or threatened with death at all. The most supervised class are "outer party" members, educated bureaucrats and skilled workers, of which the protagonist Winston belongs. The "inner party" is the one that does the supervising. The way the Ingsoc government in 1984 controls the average Prole (proletariat) is through minimizing the use of language as well, through newspeak. The "double plus ungood" type of talk. There's a brief mention of the inner party trying to make anti-government phrases impossible or grammatically incorrect, since the phrase "BB is double plus ungood" would be technically possible, they want to make it a grammatical mistake.
I've read this book too many times and I still hate it.
Also, every study I've seen, external or internal, shows a near 90% approval rating for the Chinese government. By any metric the Chinese people largely approve of their government. There's no widespread insurgency. There aren't widespread movements to overthrow the state and replace it with liberalism. There are regional protests against certain policies mostly.