1984 and Philosophy by Ezio Di Nucci

Author:Ezio Di Nucci
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812699852
Publisher: Open Court
Published: 2018-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

The old fellow is put on his place with a roar of laughter. He is humiliated, and others enjoy this. They feel superior to the ridiculous senile runt, whose days are well past. There is vile pleasure in beating those who don’t belong to the same group in this never-ending social wrestling match called human life. Bursting out in laughter indicates that you’re the successor, and that the other has failed miserably. In this setting, humor is based on selfishness and hostility towards others, where there is no need to consider the poor bastard’s feelings.

This is very much in line with the political ideals of Oceania; the Party yearns for a perfect future society where the only emotions are fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. The latter term might sound odd at first sight, but this negativity towards the self is an essential individual characteristic in Oceania; the Party must always be greater than all the individuals together. The social wrestling match between individuals is also realized at a collective level. Individuals of Oceania must abase themselves so that they do not question the supremacy of the Party.

As O’Brien sees it, in the perfect Oceania the only laughter will be laughs of triumph over a defeated enemy. Humor, then, becomes very one-sided. In addition, the general logic of Orwell’s dystopia dictates that comedy’s counterpart, tragedy, does not exist in Oceania. It belongs to social systems where people value privacy, friendship, and love. In 1984, these values are replaced by fear, hatred, and pain. In this societal setting of emotions, there’s no need for complexity as every emotion is based on deep hostility towards enemies. Other kinds of feelings are unnecessary, and therefore basically non-existent and incomprehensible. This holds for humor, too. Things that don’t go in line with the general atmosphere of Oceania, are considered to be silly, and silliness is a sign of difference. In this light, it’s easy to understand why foreigners are perceived as strange, unsympathetic animals. There’s no reason to spare such beasts.

Judge Them and Yourself

So, what about the moral of the story? Even though the dystopian sense of humor in 1984 appears to be vulgar and loathsome, it’s a fully logical possibility. Orwell shows how twisted a shared sense of humor can be. His book highlights the fact that we can be blind to the uglier sides of how we have fun. In this respect, it would be too simple to merely criticize and judge the shared sense of humor in Oceania; instead, Orwell calls into question the hidden premises of our own sense of humor.

What is implicitly present in 1984 is that we should be ever more critical towards our own cultural forms of humor. Humor isn’t always innocent or positive, even though laughter feels deceptively pleasant. Nowadays, living in an era marked by fun and amusement, being a killjoy is one of the greatest sins. Orwell’s implied suggestion, however, is that despite the current ideological optimism around humor, we should always turn a critical

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