fascism is almost definitionally rule by the most ignorant, so going "wow their ignorance goes beyond fascism" is like saying it's bizarre for a fish to swim well. it's not, in fact it's in their very nature. if they weren't violently ignorant, they would have self-selected out of the party by now
Orwell portrays this quite well in _1984_. Indeed, one of the mottos of the Ingsoc government is "Ignorance is Strength". Party loyalty is measured by one's ability to enthusiastically embrace all the official lies and contradictions.
1984 is more broadly critical of authoritarianism, and largely draws from both the fascists in Spain as well as his experience working for Britain's ministry of war in ww2.
Hm, I think 1984 kinda gets it wrong, because it portrays the fascist government as self-awarely manipulating the people into the ignorance prerequisite to maintaining power and control, rather than the party leaders themselves being extremely stupid, petty, and vindictive.
True, but also Orwell is showing a mature fascist state, like Germany in 1940 or North Korea today. People have to embrace the stupid willingly at first. The typical evolution is for a charismatic yet stupid leader to sweep the first generation of popular yet stupid fascists into power. 1/2
Then opportunistic smarter psychopaths kill or discredit the first wave and ruthlessly enforce an evolving state ideology to maintain their power. Stalin's rise to power following Lenin's death in 1924 provides a good example, though in that case the predecessor died of natural causes. Probably. 2/2
No I'm pretty sure Orwell's dystopia is just kind of juvenile and naive and that anyone who goes to him for how to approach thinking about these topics is going to be ill-prepared for what it actually looks, and that these 2 posts you just wrote are maybe the best possible indication of that.
As you will. It should perhaps be noted that Orwell had first-hand experience with this process during his service with the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. His autobiographical account of this, _Homage to Catalonia_, is an amazing story and an examination of the dynamics of power. 1/2
If you're interested, my review is linked below. I highly recommend this book; it illuminates much of Orwell's later writing. 2/2 www.goodreads.com/review/show/...