1984
The detail in the novel !984 by George Orwell in describing the totalitarian state of Oceania, in which the main character Winston lives, is so in depth that after reading the novel it is almost inevitable to think to yourself “Could a society like this actually exist in the real world?”. Most Americans would easily find such a society to be unimaginable and would believe that such a society could never exist. Now, if you were to ask someone living in North Korea (good luck trying to reach someone living there) the same thing, they would, without a doubt, find heavy similarities that exist between the totalitarian state depicted in 1984 and the state of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in which they live. The fact of the matter is the North Korea has strikingly similar totalitarian features to the ones in 1984, so in many ways a society like the one in 1984, can and does exist in the real world.
In the novel 1984 there exist three groups of society and two within the Party itself. These groups are the Inner Party, who are the higher members of society that enjoy certain material luxuries over other, the Outer Party, who are your basic members of society that are highly oppressed and enjoy no luxuries at all, and the “Proles”, who are not considered members of the state and are deeply impoverished and are not as heavily monitored. North Korea has a similar hierarchy. In North Korea, there exists an elite class that is heavily indoctrinated and monitored that every person is originally part of until proven to not be 100% committed to the leader. Disabled people are not allowed to be a part of this class. Then there exists a heavily controlled middle class that consists of the police, cadres, and soldiers. This group is not as well off as the elite class and they work as guards in camps that people are sent to or even tortured at if they commit any sort of crime. These camps can be compared to the Ministry of Love that exists in 1984 that is responsible for the torturing people suspected of committing thoughtcrime. Lastly, there apparently exists a lower class that is extremely deprived of basic human needs and is kept too weak to rebel. There are very rare accounts of this group but there is some video footage in the few documentations of North Korea that exist.
One of the largest similarities that exist between North Korea and the dystopia depicted in 1984 is this idea of changing history and lying to the people. One of the most famous for this act was the former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il, referred to by his people as the “supreme leader”. In his official bio he claims to be the best golfer in history and he was born under a double rainbow on a sacred mountain. It goes even further as there are accounts of him replacing actors in famous American films with himself and claiming he won awards. The problem is the people there have no way of knowing the truth. This is very similar to the actions of the Ministry of Truth in 1984. They are responsible for changing the history of the world so that every occurrence in history satisfies the will of the Party. They even go as far as lying to the people about how their current living conditions are better than they were in the past and that they live in great living conditions. Winston tries to uncover the truth behind this by visiting the Proles, in hopes of finding someone who was old enough to remember what life was like before the Party was in power. He was unsuccessful. This same problem is present in North Korea. From 1910-1945 North Korea was under the occupation of Japan. After North Korea gained independence, power was given to a totalitarian leader. So since 1910 the people have seemingly not been free. These people have been oppressed for over a hundred years so they don’t know any better than what their current state is. There are few, if any, people that can recall a time when they were free. So the people feel no need to rebel because their current awful living conditions seem normal to them.
In regards to the question of whether or not a society, like the one depicted in 1984, could exist in the real world, the answer could be that one already does: North Korea. The people of North Korea are heavily monitored and oppressed, their leader has supreme power and lets his people starve while enjoying seemingly infinite luxuries, and there is no stimulus for rebellion because these awful conditions have become the ‘norm’. These conditions highly emulate the society depicted in 1984. Some claim that it almost seems that the original totalitarian leader of North Korea based the structure of the country of off the novel.