Two minutes of hate

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Two Minutes Hate ( English two minutes hate ) from George Orwell's novel 1984 ( Nineteen Eighty-Four ) is a daily ritual in which members of the party of the society of Oceania must watch a film about the enemies of the party (mainly Emmanuel Goldstein and his Pendant). They have to actively express their hatred for two minutes.

The corresponding scene in the novel is also part of the 1984 film adaptation .

Text context

The feelings of the protagonist, the effect of the film and the inevitability of manipulation within a certain social situation are analyzed by Orwell in the following passage from a personal narrative perspective:

“In a lucid moment Winston found himself shouting and trampling with the others. The terrible thing about the two-minute hate show wasn't that you were forced to participate, but on the contrary, that it was impossible to evade its effects. A terrible ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, the desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces with a sledgehammer, seemed to flood the whole gathering like an electric current, so that one was turned into a grimacing, screaming madman against one's will . And yet the anger one felt was an abstract, aimless movement that could be directed from one object to the other like the glow of a dazzling lantern. "

The film, its audience and the background noise are a form of brainwashing of the party members, with the aim of conveying them hatred and disgust for Emmanuel Goldstein and the hostile country. According to the presentation of the novel, it is not uncommon for the hatred to lead to objects being thrown at the screen, as Julia does in the corresponding scene.

"The black-haired girl behind Winston had started," Pig! Pig! Pig! ”And suddenly grabbed a heavy newspeak dictionary and hurled it against the screen. It hit Goldstein's nose and bounced off him. "

The film takes surreal to trains when Goldstein's face into that of a sheep turns while enemy soldiers seem to arise, for spectators, until one of these soldiers invests up. In doing so , at the end of the two-minute show , he turns into Big Brother's face . As in a ritual, the audience then keeps singing "BB! ... BB!"

In the novel, the purpose of the hate show is to vent the subliminal pent-up feelings of fear and hatred that are triggered by the wretched life of constant surveillance. By these feelings by the government of Oceania distracted and external enemies, which probably do not exist, projected and transferred to the government reduces the likelihood of subversive thoughts and actions.

During the first broadcast, O'Brien is introduced, a member of the inner party circle and a key character in the novel. In the further course of the novel, a hate week is presented, which has developed from the two-minute hate ritual.

Background of the expression

The idea behind the hate ending can already be demonstrated during the First World War . British writers satirically portray the German hate campaign against the English, imagining a Prussian family at the kitchen table celebrating their “morning hatred”.

Short artillery missions on both sides during the First World War, which should disturb the enemy, were known as "hates":

“The evening of this same inspection was one of the few occasions on which Pommier was bombarded. A sudden two minutes' 'hate' of about 40 shells, 4.2 and 5.9, wounded three men and killed both the CO's horses, 'Silvertail' and 'Baby' ”

- A record of 1 / 5th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, TF, during the First World War, 1914-1918

reception

The attacks by Russian television broadcaster Rossiya 1 on the liberal opposition have been compared to the hate broadcast of the novel. During the war in Ukraine in 2014 , Ukrainian troops were sometimes portrayed as monsters on Russian television . One of the most striking examples was a (fictitious) report on Channel One TV about the alleged crucifixion of a three-year-old child by Ukrainian soldiers.

Comparisons were also drawn in the 2016 US presidential election campaign with speeches by Donald Trump , some of which were based on quotations from the novel.

American propaganda of CPI from the time of World War I was also compared to Orwell's example of hate propaganda.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Larcom Graves: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mr. Punch's History of the Great War, by Punch. Project Gutenberg, March 1, 2004, accessed December 30, 2016 .
  2. ^ 5th Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment: Monchy Au Bois. British Isle Genealogy, October 29, 1916, accessed November 12, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Stephen Ennis: BBC Monitoring - How Russian TV uses psychology over Ukraine. In: BBC Monitoring. February 4, 2015, accessed December 29, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Kate Abbey-Lambertz National Reporter, The Huffington Post: Gary Johnson's Running Mate Says Trump Is Straight Out Of '1984'. In: The Huffington Post. November 1, 2016, accessed December 30, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Rick Perlstein: Big Brother Is Wooing You. In: New Republic. July 20, 2016, accessed December 30, 2016 .
  6. ^ David M. Kennedy: Over Here: The First World War and American Society . OUP USA, 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-517399-4 , pp. 62 ( books.google.de [accessed December 30, 2016]).