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Totalitarian regime controls every aspect of citizens' lives from "summary" of 1984 [Nineteen Eighty-four] by George Orwell
A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone. His friendships, his relaxations, his behaviour towards his wife and children, the expression of his face when he is alone, the words he mutters in sleep, even the characteristic movements of his body, are all jealously scrutinized. Not only any actual misdemeanour, but any eccentricity, however small, any change of habits, any nervous mannerism that could possibly be the symptom of an inner struggle, is certain to be detected. He has no freedom of choice in any direction whatever. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He would have committed - would have thought, even before he could commit it. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me? The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them. Do you understand that in the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it? Every citizen, or at least every citizen important enough to be worth watching, could be kept for twenty-four hours a day under the eyes of the police and in the sound of official propaganda, with all other channels of communication closed. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness. And yet to do it in such a way that it was not a self-conscious act, but a natural instinct. The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it. All marriages between Party members had to be approved by a committee appointed for the purpose, and - though the principle was never clearly stated - permission was always refused if the couple concerned gave the impression of being physically attracted to one another.
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