Title: What is Hate Week in 1984? - eNotes.com
Headings: What is Hate Week in
1984
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1984
What is Hate Week in 1984?
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Content: One way of achieving this goal is the national festival known as Hate Week. During this period, which always takes place in late summer, the people of Oceania are encouraged to hate the regime's enemies, such as the rival powers Eastasia and Eurasia. But citizens are also incited to hate internal enemies, those deemed to display subversive, counter-revolutionary tendencies. The hatred generated by Hate Week is appropriately intense—so much so that if a captured enemy soldier happened to make an appearance, he would be torn limb from limb by an enraged populace. Readiness to commit violence is seen as a sign of loyalty to the regime, and so it pays to show the appropriate degree of enthusiasm in this regard. There is method to this apparent madness. The Party has clearly worked out that if people are focused on hating the regime's enemies, they're much less likely to direct their hate toward the Party instead. This is a classic diversionary tactic of authoritarian states, who find it much easier to control people if their anger, bitterness, and hatred are turned away from the state and instead toward objects of hate created by the regime. Further Reading
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Last Updated by eNotes Editorial on February 22, 2021
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