The best way to address this question is to first establish the roles and characteristics of the Thought Police. George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel that explores psychological manipulation and physical control within a totalitarian society. Set in the super-state of Oceania, the novel chronicles the experiences of one man, Winston Smith, as he tries to evade the suppression of the omnipresent government, who employs surveillance and public manipulation to ensure all citizens abide by the Party’s rules. The Thought Police are the individuals hired by the government to monitor all of the telescreens and identify any citizens who are “committing crimes against the Party,” whether it be an actual action or a “thoughtcrime,” which is the thinking of anything illegal. And to this end, actions or thoughts are considered illegal if they promote individuality, for the Party wants all citizens to remain isolated and unable to ban together and rebel.
Thus, the Thought Police are not merely enforcers, they are invasive, as they not only monitor actions and speeches, but thoughts as well. However, there are key characteristics that define a member of the Thought Police. Those individuals often go undetected in society, which enable them to fully monitor everyone around them. For example, once Winston is brought in for questioning, the narrator states, “He knew now that for seven years the Thought Police had watched him like a beetle under a magnifying glass. There was no physical act, no word spoken aloud, that they had not noticed, no train of thought that they had not been able to infer. Even the speck of whitish dust on the cover of his diary they had carefully replaced” (Orwell 276). The simile of “like a beetle under a magnifying glass” epitomizes the invasive role of the Thought Police—they observe and monitor absolutely everything.
Further, the Thought Police physically and mentally torture any political prisoners in the Ministry of Love’s torture chamber, known as Room 101. The following two excerpts describe the horrors of Room 101:
"You asked me once," said O'Brien, "what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world” (Orwell 283).
“The cage was nearer; it was closing in. Winston heard a succession of shrill cries which appeared to be occurring in the air above his head. But he fought furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with a split second left – to think was the only hope. Suddenly the foul musty odor of the brutes struck his nostrils. There was a violent convulsion of nausea inside him, and he almost lost consciousness. Everything had gone black. For an instant he was insane, a screaming animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an idea. There was one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats” (Orwell 286).
These two excerpts, although they do not explicitly mention the Thought Police, illustrate the abuse that occurs in Room 101 by members of the Thought Police. To wear prisoners down, the Thought Police use abrasive methods, such as degradation, confusing conversation, and physical torture, in an effort to make the prisoners accept the ideology of the Party. The prisoners are then released back into society, but are promptly re-arrested for fabricated charges and executed. Therefore, the Thought Police serve as the main tool of oppression and destruction within the Party.
Given these roles and characteristics, there are some similarities between the Thought Police of 1984 and the Military Police that serve at Guantanamo Bay. First and foremost, both factions are tasked with providing surveillance and control. For example, the Military Police are used to maintain control over large amounts of high-security detainees during times of war. It is interesting to note that Orwell’s Oceania is also in a perpetual state of war. Further, the Military Police of Guantanamo Bay have been accused of using coercive management techniques that are hauntingly similar to those used by the Thought Police, including starvation, sleep deprivation, prolonged constraint, exposure, and psychological abuse. The Military Police had the task of not only controlling the subjects, but interrogating them to get information for the U.S. government about potential threats. Therefore, the Military Police and Thought Police served very similar roles and employed very similar tactics.
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