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group that lies immediately
below it. The consciousness of the masses needs only to be influenced in a
negative way.
Given this background, one could infer, if one did not know it
already, the general structure of Oceanic society. At the apex of the
pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful.
Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific
discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held
to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration. Nobody has ever seen
Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen. We
may be reasonably sure that he will never die, and there is already
considerable uncertainty as to when he was born. Big Brother is the guise
in which the Party chooses to exhibit itself to the world. His function is
to act as a focusing point for love, fear, and reverence, emotions which
are more easily felt towards an individual than towards an organization.
Below Big Brother comes the Inner Party. Its numbers limited to six
millions, or something less than 2 per cent of the population of Oceania.
Below the Inner Party comes the Outer Party, which, if the Inner Party is
described as the brain of the State, may be justly likened to the hands.
Below that come the dumb masses whom we habitually refer to as 'the
proles', numbering perhaps 85 per cent of the population. In the terms of
our earlier classification, the proles are the Low: for the slave
population of the equatorial lands who pass constantly from conqueror to
conqueror, are not a permanent or necessary part of the structure.
In principle, membership of these three groups is not hereditary. The
child of Inner Party parents is in theory not born into the Inner Party.
Admission to either branch of the Party is by examination, taken at the age
of sixteen. Nor is there any racial discrim