Can a society based on hate survive? Thesis: A society based on hate can survive as long as its leader is able to alter history, manipulate language and physically control his voters. With history constantly being rewritten, memories become unreliable and citizens are forced to believe everything their ruler says. In the novel 1984, George Orwell describes a totalitarian society in which every bit of information released by the government is fabricated. The seemingly omnipotent Party rewrites the contents of all books, newspapers, articles and documents for its own purposes. There is even the Ministry of Truth, a department charged with changing recorded facts and making sure that "changes in political alignment, or erroneous prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times, are still found in the files containing the original data, and there was no other copy to contradict it” (Orwell 40). For example, the Party estimates that one hundred and forty-five million pairs of boots are produced in the quarter. Actual production, however, is only sixty-two million. To claim that the quota has been exceeded, the Party asks the Ministry of Truth to reduce the expected figure to fifty-seven million (Orwell 41). From this example you can see how easy it is for the government to hide its mistakes, erase or create history, and abuse the very existence of facts. While the Party modifies the data reported in the interest of presenting itself as infallible and omniscient, the citizens of Oceania are less interested in these numbers. The reason is that people can no longer distinguish truth from lies after so many boring years of doubting the validity of every information provided by the government. Even if they know... middle of paper... various groups and factions. They opposed Stalin and called for a de-emphasis on industrial production. In response to the dissidents, Stalin "eliminated" nearly a million people who opposed his ideas and were not unquestionably loyal to him (Stalin's purges par. 4-5). During the Great Terror, the purge was a functional form of physical control. By punishing the rebels, Stalin killed two birds with one stone. He swept away the obstacles that stood in his way and sent a message to the rest of his people, warning them that defying Stalin would be a suicidal act. Both examples above are similar in that they depict two totalitarian governments struggling to maintain their power. Although they have dissidents who oppose their views, the leaders manage to protect their thrones through several methods of physical control,.