In the

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

n novel ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...

'' (1949), by

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

, the Thought Police (''Thinkpol'') are the

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ...

of the superstate of

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

, who discover and punish ''

thoughtcrime Thoughtcrime is a word coined by George Orwell in his 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. It describes a person's politically unorthodox thoughts, such as beliefs and doubts that contradict the tenets of Ingsoc (English Social ...

'', personal and political thoughts unapproved by

Ingsoc In George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', the world is divided into three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, who are all fighting each other in a perpetual war in a disputed area called the Equatorial Front. Al ...

's regime. The Thinkpol use criminal psychology and omnipresent

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

via informers, telescreens, cameras, and microphones, to monitor the citizens of Oceania and arrest all those who have committed ''thoughtcrime'' in challenge to the ''

status quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. ...

'' authority of the Party and the regime of Big Brother. Orwell's concept of "policing thought" derived from the intellectual self-honesty shown by a person's "power of facing unpleasant facts"; thus, criticising the

dominant ideology In Marxist philosophy, the term dominant ideology denotes the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society. As a mechanism of social control, the dominant ideology frames how the majority of the ...

of British society often placed Orwell in conflict with ideologues, people advocating "smelly little orthodoxies".

In ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''

In the year 1984, the government of Oceania, dominated by the Inner Party, uses the

Newspeak Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate that is the setting of the 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', by George Orwell. In the novel, the Party created Newspeak to meet the ideological requirements ...

language to control the speech, actions, and

thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

of the population, by defining "unapproved thoughts" as ''

;'' for such actions, the ''Thinkpol'' arrest Winston Smith, the protagonist of the story, and Julia, his lover, as enemies of the state. In conversation with Winston, O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party and a covert Thinkpol officer, reveals that the Thinkpol conduct

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...

operations, such as by pretending to be members of the Brotherhood in order to lure out and arrest "thought criminals". As an ''

agent provocateur An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, th ...

'', O'Brien gives Winston a copy of the forbidden book, ''

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism ''The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism'' is a fictional book in George Orwell's dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949). The book was supposedly written by Emmanuel Goldstein, the principal enemy of the state of Ocean ...

'', by

Emmanuel Goldstein Emmanuel Goldstein is a fictional character in George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. He is the principal enemy of the state according to the Party of the totalitarian Oceania. He is depicted as the head of a mysterious ...

the enemy of the state of Oceania; yet the factual

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, re ...

of The Brotherhood in Oceania remains uncertain, because O'Brien refuses to tell Winston whether or not the Brotherhood exists. The book explains that “Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the Thought Police,” as the Thinkpol is the only apparatus that must function effectively for the Party to retain control. There is a

telescreen Telescreens are devices that operate simultaneously as televisions, security cameras, and microphones. They are featured in George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' as well as all film adaptations of the novel. In the novel a ...

in the quarters of every Inner-party and Outer-party citizen, by which the Thinkpol audio-visually police their behaviour for unorthodox opinions, and to spy visible indications of the

mental stress In psychology, stress is a feeling of emotional strain and pressure. Stress is a type of psychological pain. Small amounts of stress may be beneficial, as it can improve athletic performance, motivation and reaction to the environment. Excess ...

es manifested by a person struggling with ''ownlife'', such as words spoken whilst asleep. The Thinkpol also spy upon and eliminate intelligent people, such as the lexicographer Syme, who is rendered an ''unperson'' despite his fierce loyalty to the Party and to Big Brother. To eliminate possible martyrs, men and women of whom popular memory might provoke anti–Party resistance, thought-criminals are taken to the '' Miniluv'' (Ministry of Love), where the Thinkpol break them with conversation, degradation (moral and physical), and torture in

Room 101 The Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty are the four ministries of the government of Oceania in the 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', by George Orwell. The use of contradictory ...

. In breaking prisoners, the Thinkpol coerce their sincere acceptance of the Ingsoc

worldview A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...

and to love Big Brother without reservation. Afterward, the Thinkpol release the politically rehabilitated prisoners to the social mainstream of Oceania. If the released thought-criminals are found to have committed more ''thoughtcrimes'', the Thinkpol re-arrest them for further interrogation and torture, and eventual execution that concludes with

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...

into an ''unperson''. Moreover, every member of the Inner Party and of the Outer Party who ever knew, was acquainted with, or knew of any ''unperson'' must forget them, lest they commit the ''thoughtcrime'' of remembering an ''unperson''. Such ''

crimestop Thoughtcrime is a word coined by George Orwell in his 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. It describes a person's politically unorthodox thoughts, such as beliefs and doubts that contradict the tenets of Ingsoc (English Socialism) ...

'', ideological self-discipline, of not thinking independently, indicates the cultural success of the Newspeak language as a means of social control. Moreover, the Minitrue (Ministry of Truth) destroy all records of unpersons. The Thinkpol usually do not interfere with the lives of the Proles, the working classes of Oceania, but do deploy ''agents provocateurs'' to operate amongst them, by planting rumours to entrap and identify and eliminate any Prole who shows

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can ...

and the capacity for independent thought, which might lead to rebellion against the

cultural hegemony In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview o ...

of the Party.

In other usages

In the early twentieth century, before the publication of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

(1868–1947), in 1911, established the ''

Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu The , often abbreviated , was a Japanese policing organization, established within the Home Ministry in 1911, for the purpose of carrying out high policing, domestic criminal investigations, and control of political groups and ideologies deemed ...

'' ('Special Higher Police'), a political police force also known as ''Shisō Keisatsu'', the Thought Police, who investigated and controlled native political groups whose

ideologies An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...

were considered a threat to the

public order In criminology, public-order crime is defined by Siegel (2004) as "crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function efficiently", i.e., it is behaviour that has been labelled criminal ...

of the countries colonised by Japan.Hoyt, Edwin P., ''Japan's War'', p. 113 Beasley, W. G. ''The Rise of Modern Japan'', p. 184 In contemporary usage, the term ''Thought Police'' often refers to the actual or perceived enforcement of ideological

orthodoxy Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Church ...

in the political life of a society.

References

{{Nineteen Eighty-Four Fictional elements introduced in 1949 Fictional intelligence agencies Fictional law enforcement agencies Nineteen Eighty-Four characters

In ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''

In other usages

See also

References