Power and Freedom 3 - Sanity (Similar to Para 4/Actual)

Question 1

Part 1

The power of these regimes does not only compromise…

Answer 1

The power of these regimes does not only compromise the tangible freedoms required for social cohesion, it also reduces one’s sanity to a level of unthinking compliance.

Winston is one citizen that remains his own self, who maintains the idea that his “inner heart… remained impregnable,” signifying the belief that the Party could not truly undermine his emotions.

He is aware however that to be wholly happy, and content with the life one leads in Oceania, one must “dislocate a sense of reality”.

Question 2

Part 2

Not only are people devoid of privacy, knowledge …

Answer 2

Not only are people devoid of privacy, knowledge and memory, but are also constrained from sustaining their own sanity.

For Winston, who knows that he will cling to the truth even “against the whole world,” ultimately means that he is being denied the freedom of sanity, and that the State’s prioritization over people’s freedoms has created a society of apathetic clones of acceptance.

Question 3

Part 3

Contrastingly, the GDR’s passage of Stasi propaganda did …

Answer 3

Contrastingly, the GDR’s passage of Stasi propaganda did not only unconsciously force people into compliance, but it coerced them into it.

Funder notes that it was a “condition of sanity” for people to accept GDR logic, denoting a similar compromise of stability in order to find gratification in oppression.

Whilst being interviewed, Herr Koch tells Funder that the GDR was “like a religion,” as it was the only place where people could place their faith into the meaning of their lives, as dissent could only offer alienation.

Question 4

Part 4

Rather than compelling indifferent minds..

Answer 4

Rather than compelling indifferent minds into submission as the Party does, the Stasi made monsters out of men, drawing “ deep human satisfaction” out of them when rewarded for betraying another.