2+2=5

The lyrics of this song convey that the truth is unimportant and intangible when the people in authority control all of the information. The song talks about all of these things being 'true' just because we are told that it is so, its our fault for not paying attention. The music was upbeat and penetrating which made the message seem more dire. In 1984 they said that if The Party told you that 2+2=5 then it does. Because regardless of what is actually fact, the 'truth' becomes whatever is commonly accepted.

Cultural Conflict

1. The conflict over whether globalization help those influenced by it or not is an external conflict.
2. Because Westerners attempt to choke out what we see as lesser cultures in the world and make them conform to our "global" culture. Globalization could be described as a one way street because the global culture has only impressed upon others and not incorporated enough elements of the crushed cultures that it buries under it's immense weight.
3. It has given Muslim women powerful western female role models to show them what they can become and achieve.
4. The Constitution in the west is akin to the Qaran in the east.

1984 Response 1

In Oceania they have created equality in The Party by stressing the working for the whole. Through Monotonous work of the majority and the extermination of the dissenting opinions they have made the mindsets of everyone equal. They have created a world where individual rights are not a problem because it is an impossibility to have them; with privacy, even in thought, removed from people's lives, there is no room to step out of the status quo or to even think of having rights. Relationships have been broken down into something that is purely for procreation where not much love can be established, thus eliminating conflict in this aspect of peoples lives. There is no religion outside of the state, where people hold the Big Brother in almost divine status. All non-conformity is snuffed out by a secret police force, and conformity is otherwise achieved by making the world that you want people to accept the only option. One example of this would be how at his job the protagonist alters historical fact to fit what The Party wants the world to be like so there is no dissenting past. Based on the way that The Party suppresses anything that would reveal it in a negative light and takes away the people's freedom of choice in the world, and the state of disrepair that both society and infrastructure are in would make me say that Oceania is a dystopia.