George Orwell's 1984 examines the oppression of a totalitarian surveillance state. The tyrannical government is constantly watching its citizens with secret cameras and microphones, searching for any evidence of independent thought or potential resistance. Children are so indoctrinated in schools that they willingly report their family members for "thoughtcrime," there is a cult of personality around enigmatic leader Big Brother that is constantly promoted, and historical revisionism is so rampant that there is an entire government department dedicated to it. Within the Party's propaganda branch, called the Ministry of Truth, main character Winston Smith works as an "editor," changing documents and pictures to serve as "proof" that the Party is always consistent and correct in its policies. Other than constant surveillance and attempts to control perceptions of reality, the government of 1984 also engages in torture, extreme rationing of all resources, limitations on all forms of human interaction, and constant war against other states.
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