# Censorship enables totalitarianism to control the minds of the people Physical coercion can make someone obey, but it feeds resentment and sows the seeds of rebellion. For a totalitarian state, it is therefore not a reliable method, since it bears significant risks. Nazi Germany illustrates this well; except for a few marginalised categories of people, most of German citizens adhered to the regime, or at least stayed put. Most authoritarian states rely heavily on censorship: preventing the people from accessing subversive ideas keeps them subservient. Indeed, ignorance leads to passivity. The more passive the people, the more powerful the state can make itself without fear of a backlash. In Orwell's *1984*, Ingsoc goes as far as to design a new language, Newspeak, which is a poorer version of English making thoughts opposed to the party's ideology more difficult to conceptualise and express. Newspeak also removes alternative meanings: *free* is only used as in the sentence *This seat is free*, and not anymore for political freedom. This in effect nips any revolutionary idea in the bud since even just thinking such ideas is an ordeal. Control a language, and you control their speakers (see [[Language is a view of the world]]). --- ## 📚 References - Le Précepteur. [ORWELL - La Novlangue 📏.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxuWO71hrkE) 2022. YouTube.