1984 and the Radicalization Through Literature

Last week I read 1984 by George Orwell and planned on writing a book review. But instead, I will write this.

By the all-knowing algorithm of social media, an article was recommended to me just after finishing this novel. The article was about how the UK’s anti-terrorist organisation found certain works of literature to be a red flag for far-right extremism. Examples of these works were 1984 and The Lord of the Rings. I was intrigued, but the article was badly written. It did lead me, though, to a more detailed article called Right-Wing Radicalization May Begin by Reading J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. This article too did not provide me with enough information, so the search continued. Are you still with me? Good.

The final and most informative article was one by Douglas Murray, called Can you really be radicalised by Great British Railway Journeys? Now here is where the fun really starts.

In this article, Murray claims that the UK’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU), part of the Prevent program, have compiled a list of books that are thought to radicalise vulnerable individuals towards far-right extremism.

”In one RICU document a number of books are singled out, the possession or reading of which could point to severe wrongthink and therefore potential radicalisation” – Douglas Murray

Thus, reading certain critical classics and other books that inspire some form of thought and reflection could lead to ‘’wrongthink’’ or as Orwell would call it ‘’crimethink’’.

Murray claims to have found this specific book list and provides in his article some of the mentioned authors and book titles. These are:

• Douglas Murray; the author of the critical article himself. He proudly claims to have found one of his books on the list.
• George Orwell, the star of the article with his magnificent work 1984.
• Peter Hitchens & Melanie Phillips; both authors that I’m not familiar with.
• Thomas Hobbs’ Leviathan
• John Lock’s Two Treatises of Government
• Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Thomas Carlyle
• Adam Smith
• J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
• C.S. Lewis
• Aldous Huxley
• Joseph Conrad

For me, this list includes some amazing authors who I love, Tolkien & Orwell, some interesting authors who I want to read, Lewis, Huxley, Conrad, Lock and Hobbs, and of course also a couple of unknown authors to me or authors with whom I disagree. And that’s how it should be. Reading does not mean agreeing. It is a way of discovering new ideas and thinking for yourself. Red-flagging someone for reading The Lord of the Rings is a lunatic idea.

Unfortunately, after a long search, I could not find the original book list. The source material was missing. After reading the Prevent report I only found a paragraph on how contemporary or classic literature can be used to radicalise vulnerable people, but no examples were mentioned. There may be multiple things wrong with the Prevent project, there are articles written on this, but since the controversial booklist is missing, Murray’s article loses its weight. Too bad… it would have been a good story otherwise.

However, I decided to continue reading on the matter of book banning and censorship and went down the rabbit hole.

Even if Murray’s claims about the list are total lies, it is still evident that the mentioned authors have something in common. They are all critical of certain political measures, ideologies or the government in general. They teach the reader how ultimate power always corrupts and that knowledge is freedom. It is also widely known that 1984 has been banned by multiple countries over the years together with some other influential works.

”Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; ones makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship” – George Orwell, 1984

In European countries and the US, actual book banning seldom exists. You can easily buy the works of the above mentioned authors. The practice of book banning and censorship is difficult to conduct in ‘’democratic’’ countries. There are exceptions, as in the case of Roald Dahl’s books. They are not censored, but ‘’improved’’. Some schools choose to ban certain books from their libraries or even public libraries can make this choice. But this is different from the real banning of books. The act of purchasing, owning and reading certain works is not illegal in the first examples. You can still find many copies of original Dahl’s works. And you can read whatever you want.

If a country claims to have freedom of thought, opinion and writing, as many of the Western countries do, then it is difficult for their governments to participate in such forms of oppression. However, they can still make insinuations about these works and discredit their readers. Throughout our history, 1984 was not the only thorn in the side of the people in power. Wikipedia provides a list of books which are in their terms legally challenged as being subversive or ideologically corrupting:

• We – Yevgeny Zamyatin
• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
• Darkness at Noon -Arthur Koestler
• Kallocain -Karin Boye
• And my personal favourite, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I continued my search online and found multiple books that have faced in the past or are still struggling with these legal challenges. Book banning, book burning and censorship are forms of despotism and are a sign of totalitarianism. Some countries or regimes are notorious for banning books in the past or even today these are:

• Soviet Union and current Russia
• The United States
• England
• India
• China
• Singapore
• Chile’s Pinochet regime
• Australia
• Canada
• Germany during World War 2
• Ireland
• Malaysia
• Vietnam
• South Africa
• South & North Korea
• Spain
• Yugoslavia

The reasons for banning books can be various (and often ridiculous) or very specific for a certain country or regime. Most frequently used reasons are that books contain obscenity, violence or have anti-government sentiments. The latter reason leads to the fear of radicalisation.

After examining various lists and the specific Wikipedia page about banned books per country, I compiled my own list of the most frequently mentioned banned books (read at your own advisory and enjoy!):

• Lolita – Nabokov
• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
• The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence
• Animal Farm – George Orwell
• 1984 – George Orwell
• The Outline of History – H.G. Wells, some other works of Wells are also mentioned, so this author is definitely worth checking out.
• A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
• Ulysses – James Joyce
• Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller

Other found highlights during my little research included Jane Eyre, banned in China for corrupting the youth, and Alice in Wonderland, banned in multiple countries for very vague reasons. I was surprised to see that Freud’s work had also endured a lot of censorship in various countries in the past. And that in the Netherlands, the country that I’m living in, a book was banned in 2015 (only for one year until the judge ruled otherwise); The Cover-up General by Edwin Giltay. It contained classified military information.

Stephen King has a beautiful saying about this subject: When books are banned by your school, go to your local library or bookstore and find out what they don’t want you to read! I totally agree with this sentiment, but want to add one more detail: When books are banned and censored by your government, run to the local library or bookstore and devour them! Read, reread and take notes.

The banning and censoring of books is in my opinion ineffective; it only makes these books more desirable for people to read. I would highly recommend any of you to do just that! Read and find out for yourself what you think of these works. Furthermore, ideologies cannot be killed off by bans and censorship, they will continue to exist in the mind. Even in the Soviet Union, banned literature and poetry were read and recited by many citizens in secret.

A more effective way of silencing critical pieces of literature and non-fiction is by killing off the desire to read them. Something that Ray Bradbury discusses in Fahrenheit 451. Unfortunately, this is something that is becoming a reality. Fewer and fewer people read nowadays.

Now, back to 1984.

In this dystopian novel things are even worse than in Bradbury’s world. Not only are citizens unmotivated to read or think. They are incapable of doing so. The government is on the brink of total annihilation of any form of intellectual thought. The past is erased and rewritten; history ceases to exist or has no meaning. Relationships between family members cannot be trusted and friends are an illusion. The language loses its words every year. By dumbing down the language it is easier to remove any form of thought and to control the mind because people cannot express their discontent and criticism. Our protagonist, Winston, is one of the few remaining humans who is capable of thinking for himself. He works for the Ministry of Truth, which is concerned with lies, and his task is to rewrite history every day. But in comparison to his comrades, he remembers. For him, two plus two is not five and the Party is wrong. How long can he escape the Thought Police?

”For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must hide it from yourself” – George Orwell, 1984

Orwell’s dystopia is usually seen as a critique of the Soviet regime, but many of the book’s aspects are applicable to other governments as well. For this reason, it is one of the most banned books of all time. While reading the novel, I understood more and more why a totalitarian regime would not want its citizens to read it. Sadly, most people in democratic countries have not read it either. You need to know the signs of totalitarianism to recognise it in its early stages.

So in short, read 1984 and read all the books they don’t want you to read!

Disclaimer

I do not associate myself with either left or right-wing political ideologies. To be frank, I despise politics. If I had to choose, with a gun to my head, one political ideology, it would be Anarchism. Left and right are only created to divide people and make them weaker.

Instead of worrying about politics, I would much rather spend my time reading with my children and introducing them to the beautiful world of literature.

If you would like to purchase some of these books and expand your crimethink mind, you can do so by using my Amazon-affiliated links and I will receive a small commission.

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