rful explanation by OBrien:We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation. [] We make the brain perfect before we blow it out. (bolded text added for emphasis)Therefore, the despotism of Big Brother took it upon itself to ensure that there was a complete homogeny of thought. Any deviation from this, and the Thought Police were bound to capture and extinguish ones erroneous thoughts through torture and a gradual wearing down of your individualism. This only explains the doctrine, however; what of the reason behind it? OBrien later explains this in the following passage:'The real power, the power we have to fight for night and day, is not power over things, but over men.' He paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster questioning a promising pupil: 'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?'Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? (bolded text added for emphasis)Therefore, the Party seeks the ultimate power: the power o...
