Fear Is the Greatest Mechanism for Control

When it comes to control, fear, in most cases, is the best mechanism. In order to avoid fear, someone will more willingly do what is asked of them, than do what is considered wrong. Fear is often used as a form of punishment in order to achieve outstanding control. It is used so diversely because it has such an effective outcome. Think about it, everyone is scared of something aren’t they. Individuals use this method as a way of reducing the masses into confined boundaries and strict regimes. A perfect example of this can be plucked from the novel ‘1984’ where a small torturous room named 101 was used to achieve conformity. The ministry of love affectively used room 101 to prevent people from committing treason against the government by bringing intense fear upon a subject to force there confession. This scheme worked as it induced fear amongst the citizens as stories circulated throughout society, stating peoples worst fears were realised in that room.

This tactic was very manipulative as it changed people’s minds over time, forcing them to succumb to conformity. Aaronson, Jones and Rutherford, who were counter INGSOC protagonists, were captured by the government and forced to face room 101. They were exposed to such concentrated fear through torture that eventually they surrender their minds and are brainwashed into accepting INGSOC’s way of life. After their release, society saw them reduced to nothing which then caused a larger spread of fear as they didn’t want to go through the same pain. So with the right technique, fear can be used to keep people inline and allow individuals to easily control large groups without using physical force. By Josh Mackinnon