only a theoretical one. The masses never revolt
of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are
oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of
comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed. The
recurrent economic crises of past times were totally unnecessary and are
not now permitted to happen, but other and equally large dislocations can
and do happen without having political results, because there is no way in
which discontent can become articulate. As for the problem of over-
production, which has been latent in our society since the development of
machine technique, it is solved by the device of continuous warfare (see
Chapter III), which is also useful in keying up public morale to the
necessary pitch. From the point of view of our present rulers, therefore,
the only genuine dangers are the splitting-off of a new group of able,
under-employed, power-hungry people, and the growth of liberalism and
scepticism in their own ranks. The problem, that is to say, is educational.
It is a problem of continuously moulding the consciousness both of the
directing group and of the larger executive group that lies immediately
below it. The consciousness of the masses needs only to be influenced in a
negative way.
Given this background, one could infer, if one did not know it
already, the general structure of Oceanic society. At the apex of the
pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful.
Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific
discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held
to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration. Nobody has ever seen
Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen. We
may be reasonably sure that he