Friday, October 2, 2015

According to Goldstein, who are the new aristocracy?

According to Goldstein, the rise of totalitarian states
like Ingsoc brought with it the rise of a new kind of aristocracy.  This was an
aristocracy that was focused mainly on getting power for itself.  It was focused on
using the power of the state for (more than any other goal) crushing any
opposition.


According to Goldstein, this new aristocracy
was made up of people who could either run the government or influence it.  It was made
up of people like technicians (who could run stuff) or union organizers (who knew how to
influence government) or publicity experts (who knew how to put out propaganda).  All of
these were types of people who could build a new and totalitarian system of government
that would dominate the new states.


Here is a quote that
illustrates this idea:


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The new aristocracy was made up for the most
part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts,
sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians. These people, whose
origins lay in the salaried middle class and the upper grades of the working class, had
been shaped and brought together by the barren world of monopoly industry and
centralized government. As compared with their opposite numbers in past ages, they were
less avaricious, less tempted by luxury, hungrier for pure power, and, above all, more
conscious of what they were doing and more intent on crushing
opposition.


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