Nineteen Eighty Four.

We are all residents in Oceania, where the government rules most of society’s freedom. The Party elite is their means of doing this; they feed us on lies, hate, war and mind control. The goal of the Party is not only to subdue the occupants of Airstrip One into their deceit, but to achieve a love for Big Brother, the leader of the Party.

The upper class inner Party (2% of the population); the life of an inner Party citizen is much better than that of the outer Party and the proles. Inner Party members get to enjoy better food and drink, spacious living quarters, personal servants, and convenient transportation. These members also have the privilege of turning off their telescreens (two way television sets that are always monitoring Party members), although it is extremely suspicious for an inner Party member to have their screen off for more than thirty minutes. A member is inducted into the inner Party by a series of battery tests. These Party members are identified by their black jumpsuits.

The middle class outer Party (13%); bureaucrats who do most of the work in the government. They lack the relative personal freedom and simple pleasures of the proles, as they are under constant supervision by the Inner Party, and do not have the comforts of the Inner Party. Outer Party members have little freedom and pleasures, but are forced to think that their lives are better than any other period in history due to the modifications the Party has set on all history records. These members have Victory Gin, Victory Cigarettes, and saccharine tablets instead of sugar. It is possible to obtain small quantities of pleasant food, coffee, sugar, etc., through the black market that works by stealing from the inner Party. These members are identified by their blue jumpsuits.

Proles (proletariat) (85%); these citizens receive little education, work at tough physical labor jobs, and live in poverty (but qualitatively richer than the outer Party members with regard to certain freedoms). prole quarters are more or less free of telescreens, mostly because proles are not expected to understand that they are being exploited by the Party as a source of cheap labor and are unable or unwilling to organize resistance. They care little about anything but home and family, neighbor quarrels, films and football, beer and lottery tickets. They are not required to express support for the Party, except for a mild form of patriotism. Proles also have free sex lives, uninterrupted by the Party, and divorce is permitted. Despite the personal freedoms enjoyed by the Proles, the Thought Police moves among them, spreading false rumors and marking down and eliminating any individuals deemed capable of causing trouble. The Prole quarters consist of rundown apartment buildings, shops, and pubs. Though it is nominally illegal for Outer Party members to trade with proles, all do it because they are the only source for certain minor necessities.

Ministry & Thought Police.

It is the job of the Thought Police to uncover and punish thoughtcrime and thought-criminals. They use psychology and omnipresent surveillance (such as telescreens) to monitor, search, find and arrest members of society who could potentially challenge authority and status quo, even only by thought, hence the name ‘Thought Police.’ The government (controlled entirely by the Inner Party) attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects, labeling unapproved thoughts with the term thoughtcrime. Every Party member has a telescreen in his or her home, which the Thought Police uses to observe their actions and take note of anything that resembles an unorthodox opinion or an inner struggle. When a Party member talks in their sleep, the words are carefully analyzed. The Thought Police also target and eliminate highly intelligent people, since they may come to realize how the Party is exploiting them. When circumstance calls for someone to be arrested and killed, there completely erased from all records and the members forget about them after a couple of days into their disappearance.


The Four Ministries.

Ministry of Peace: The Ministry of Peace control Oceania’s armed forces. This Ministry is vital to Oceania, since the nation is supposedly at war continuously with either Eurasia or Eastasia and requires just the right force to not win the war, but keep it in a state of equipoise. If the citizens of Oceania have a well-defined enemy (Eastasia or Eurasia), then they know whom to hate, and constant homeland propaganda helps to convince them to vent all their unconscious rage for their own country against the opposing one. The Ministry of Peace is in charge of fighting this war, but making sure to never tip the scales, in case the war should become one-sided. This is where most of the proles will work, manufacturing weaponry.

Ministry of Plenty: This Ministry is in control of Oceania’s planned economy. It is in charge of public access to food, supplies, and goods. It is also in charge of rationing these goods. Telescreens often make reports on how Big Brother has been able to increase economic production, even when production has actually gone down.
Ministry of Love: The Ministry of Love enforces loyalty and love of Big Brother through fear, repressive apparatus, and brainwashing. The Ministry of Love has no windows and is surrounded by barbed wire entanglements, steel doors, hidden machine gun nests, and guards armed with truncheons. The interior lights of the building are never turned off. It contains Room 101, within which is the worst thing in the world. This Ministry is largely responsible for the practice and infliction of misery, fear, suffering and torture. The ultimate purpose is to instill love of Big Brother in the minds of thoughtcriminals. People who are charged with thoughtcrime are brought to the Ministry of Love in order to convert them to love the Party before killing them. We will all eventually end up here.

Ministry of Truth: Responsible for the falsification of historical events. The Ministry of Truth is involved with news media, entertainment, the fine arts and educational books. Its purpose is to rewrite history and change the facts to fit Party doctrine for propaganda effect. (Example: if Big Brother makes a prediction that turns out to be wrong, the employees of the Ministry of Truth go back and rewrite the prediction so that any prediction Big Brother previously made is accurate.) The existence of the Ministry of Truth is to maintain the illusion that the Party is absolute. If you choose to work here, you work as an editor in the Fiction Department, revising historical records.

The Party takes away all personal emotion and desires. Sex is looked at as a vulgar, disgusting activity that is solely for the purpose of reproduction. Anyone who genuinely believes in the Party looks at reproduction as an ‘appointment.’ There is a ‘Junior Anti Sex League’ whose members can be identified by wearing a red sash across their waist.

Children of Party members often work against their parents; they are brainwashed by the government to spy on their parents, peers and other Party members for any suspicion of thoughtcrime.

Party members live in Airstrip One, but are allowed the freedom of leaving to visit prole quarters, although frequency can lead to suspicion, and Thought Police can often be found in prole quarters.

There is a known and popular conspiracy against the Party. Emmanuel Goldstein heads a mysterious and possibly fictitious anti-Party organization called The Brotherhood. Goldstein’s persona as an enemy of the state serves to distract, unite and focus the anger of people in Oceania. Goldstein is always a subject of the “Two Minute Hate,” a daily two-minute period beginning at 11:00 AM at which a purported image of Goldstein is shown on the telescreen and Party members are expected to express their hatred towards him (screaming, throwing things, etc). The Two Minute Hate helps ensure that popular support for and devotion towards Big Brother is continuous.

There are two sides through this Roleplay; a loyal Party member seeking to punish any thoughtcriminals, or a conspirator working against the Party. You can be a prole looking to overthrow the government, a Party member seeking to escape Oceania, a Though Police working against the Brotherhood, be creative.

You are allowed to kill people if it is necessary and if you have their consent. Also, you can work at the Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Peace or Ministry of Love.

Please let me know if anything is unclear or if you have any questions.

Big Brother is watching.

He's looking through your bedroom curtains.