Our country would never turn into Oceania, right? Citizens from dozens of countries have been falsely led and ended wrapped up in a tyrannical government. Orwell writes a short novel, 1984, months before dying begging citizens to understand what is happening in their own government. Many people know of some of the biggest dictatorships around today like China, North Korea and Cuba but there are so many more that have existed that are almost identical to Oceania like the 1920s Fascist Party in Italy. Italy being overtaken and lead down a fascist path shows that a country can easily give in to a crazy dictator without even realizing. Orwell's novel will always be relevant to society because we see unbelievable, controlling societies that formed could have been which could have avoided had they read an eye opening book like 1984.
When a government gain strict control over the people's right to speak freely, citizens are entering an era of undemocratic government of their country. . In Italy in the 1920s and Oceania in the novel 1984 we see many the Parties in charge did keep the citizens from rebelling. In 1984 they had “telescreens” watching people who could potentially be a risk to conspiring against the Party. Winston comments about his experience with being watched, “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. … 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). People have to live like there are several people watching them at any given moment. When the Party is catching people who talk in their sleep or do other minor acts against the Party then vaporizing them, it sends a strong message to people that they have no privacy or control over their lives. The Party is also showing their citizens that they have no power to even think independently or about rebelling against the government. In 1920s Mussolini used similar tactics to maintain his power and control people. In Italy Mussolini had a group of people who were, “new right-wing organization advocated Italian nationalism, had black shirts for uniforms, and launched a program of terrorism and intimidation against its leftist opponents” ("1919: Mussolini"). These people would go around killing those who had different views than those in power. This is important to people today to learn about society's like Fascism in Italy and Oceania because it empowers people to fight for their rights; the more people that understand the importance of freedom of speech the smaller chance a dictator will be able to manipulate a country out of democracy. The importance of freedom of speech is so that citizens are allowed to openly express concerns and so the government can formulate policies that work best with the entire country. The Thought Police in 1984 and Blackshirts would severely punish those trying to revolt to show others never to think about rebellion.
Strong figure heads with lavish promises should be watched closely.. In Italy and Oceania there was a strong figure heads, Mussolini and Big Brother, who would make people to think they had a strong government who would provide great things for them. Never would Winston think to revolt against the Party since there are always entimnating posters, “the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall…so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. Big Brother is WATCHING YOU… there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere” (Orwell 1-2). The idea being introduced in the first page shows how important the intimidating figure is to a society in changing what people think about the government. In Italy they had similar posters with Mussolini depicted as a bulk guy, always in a military uniform with captions about how he would improve the country made the citizens think that he was a nationalist trying to improve the country ("Visual Propaganda"). The citizens felt like they were being helped by a strong man coming to save the country and never realized that he was taking advantage of everyone creating lots of propaganda. With so many of these posters people being to believe he really is this great guy who is serious about making Italy the best. Today even in democratic governments citizens need to be aware that people can lie and stretch the truth to gain support. In addition it shows how important peoples votes are in elections; many people today don't vote but people need to be aware of who the candidates are so they can elect someone who will be the most responsible and not abuse their power. The warnings in 1984 strengthens the idea that even if someone is promising to make our country the greatest and have no taxes that it would be an unrealistic and wrong notion to turn our country over into a dictatorship.
In both of these societies it is hard to know what is true since both governments are able manipulate media. In 1984 the government manipulates the media which Winston willingly helps with and they are able to change the “truth” Winston comments, "…every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct" (Orwell 21). The constant changing of the truth because the people are changing the past and eliminating space for people to have any of their own thoughts. This demonstrates one of Orwell's warnings that would have been useful for the people in Italy. Mussolini was able to select all newspaper editors and every person had to get the approval from the Party be before they could even practice journalism. “Through the means of newspapers, cinemas, radio, posters, rallies and sport, he was able to not only convince the people of his great success and merits, but was able to convince himself. Propaganda was used for everything from gaining personal support for Mussolini to weeding out opposition” ("Visual Propaganda"). Mussolini's tight control on media created so much propaganda that many people became confused and had nothing to believe except what was being displayed everywhere. From the problems with media this fiction and very real societies had we can take away the importance of being able aware of present things like fake news. Orwell's warnings can translate to fake news and 1984 readers know that they need to speculate every fact they hear since the truth can be so easily manipulated. Mussolini's ability to manipulate all information given to citizens lead to him being able to rule for as long as he did.
Italy and Oceania share many of the same ideas we can infer that the book was even directly as a warning against that specific society since they are so similar. Had all the people in Italy read the book with all these exaggerated warnings they would have never let in to a man who was making as big promises as Mussolini was. Because of the dozens of countries today that live under tryancal totalicazn societys the book 1984 is still relevant today since it provides warnings for countries who have not yet be overcome with dictatorship.