1984 Loyalty Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

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 discrimination, or any marked domination of one province by another. Jews, Negroes, South Americans of pure Indian blood are to be found in the highest ranks of the Party […]. Its rulers are not held together by blood-ties but by adherence to a common doctrine… The Party is not a class in the old sense of the word. It does not aim at transmitting power to its own children, as such; and if there were no other way of keeping the ablest people at the top, it would be perfectly prepared to recruit an entire new generation from the ranks of the proletariat. In the crucial years, the fact that the Party was not a hereditary body did a great deal to neutralize opposition… The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living. A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors. The Party is not concerned with perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself. (2.9.58, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

The Party’s view about loyalty is that for totalitarianism to thrive, there must not be private loyalties at all. Rather, insofar as Inner Party members are concerned with the perpetuation of the Party’s rule, the only allowable loyalty is the loyalty to power itself.

Quote #11

A Party member is expected to have no private emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. He is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party. The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce a sceptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline. (2.9.61, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

A Party member’s duties include ensuring that he has no private loyalties or enthusiasms, in addition to ensuring that he learns ways to counter any temptations of rebellion.

Quote #12

"‘Down with Big Brother!’ Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, I'm glad they got me before it went any further […]."

"Who denounced you?" said Winston.

"It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. "She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway." (3.1.48-50)

The children of Party members such as Parsons are so overcome with love for and indoctrination by the Party that they survey and turn in their own parents for thoughtcrime.