Reflections on the Party in 1984 by George Orwell after Reading Chapter 9

            In 1984 by George Orwell, Winston gets a copy of the Book and begins to read it in his hideout in the upper room of Mr. Charrington’s shop. The Book mostly confirmed suspicions that I already had about the way Oceania and the rest of the world worked. For instance, the Party presumably does actually send rocket bombs onto its own civilians to help keep their patriotic vehemence fired up against the enemy among other reasons. I felt like Winston, that it was nice to have a book that agreed with you even though it held very little new information. Nevertheless, I found it interesting that the wars exist to destroy materials so that people do not become too wealthy in their industriousness because wealth leads to insurrection. I already thought that the war probably existed only for the purpose of keeping the Party in power, but I had not linked the wealth part. I had also pictured a slightly more personal Inner Party that kept the Outer Party and the Proles in check not just to keep themselves in power, but also for their own pleasure, freedom, and leisure. On the contrary, the Inner Party follows much of the same frugality and doublethink. The reason the Party exists, from their point of view, is simply to acquire pure power. They are willing to sacrifice anything and everything permanently to get it. In a sense, every good Party member, no matter what class abolishes their personality. I find it hard to believe this case for pure power. People always worship something, whether it is God, a person, or an object. Orwell confuses a self-worship leading to a hunger for power with a pure desire for power. The root is worship, not power, so a power centered society should not be possible. I am missing a piece, however, because this chapter strengthened the incredibility and impenetrability of the Party, so I need to figure out how this society should collapse or why it never could come to exist in the first place.