Nineteen Eighty-Four is a warning rather than a prediction.[12] Indeed, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a truthful record of the era of postwar austerity, severe rationing, unprepared bomb damage, shabbiness, weariness and shortages of such things as razor blades and cigarettes. It would not have horrified so many people if they had not inwardly agreed that the terrors described in it were possible. The unconventional popularity since its publication also reflects Orwell's profound insight into the postwar world. As a paperback it has sold over ten millions throughout the English-speaking world and exists in twenty-three other languages. All of these prove truth is power.
The bad taste of synthetic food and beverages all with a brand "Victory" described in the novel must have impressed the readers deeply. “He took down the shelf a bottle of colorless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese rice spirit. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock and gulped it down like a dose of medicine.… The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club.…He took a cigarette from a crumpled packet marked VICTORY CIGARETTES and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco fell out onto the floor."[13]
In fact, most the people have the experience of eating and drinking them: Some kinds of the dubious synthetic food are still on sale today. The pinkish-grey stew provided in the canteen of Ministry Truth, the working place of Winston, must have been very familiar to Orwell in the BBC canteen for he worked in BBC from 1941 to 1942. One of Orwell's friends Julian Symons remembered once he had shared five-shilling wartime food with Orwell in a pub. Orwell showed great enthusiasm for the most synthetic dish available and called it "Victory Pie". Symons unconsciously remembered at that time he had also imagined Victory Gin, Victory Cigarettes and Victory Coffee.[14]
The hero of the novel, Winston and his lover Julia work for the Ministry of Truth whose function is to falsify the past in accordance with the needs of present policy. Thus, when Oceania suddenly shifts alliances, becoming the ally of Eurasia and the enemy of Eastasia, with which it has been in alliance against Eurasia, the Ministry of Truth falsifies all past records to show that Oceania has never been an ally of Eastasia and never an enemy of Eurasia. It seems ridiculous, but to people who have suffered from this real kind of propaganda, it is real to them. In 1937, Japan's Fascist military troop invaded the capital of China and massacred over three hundred thousand Chinese civilians and soldiers. But today, Japanese government still refuses to admit the history. In Japanese school textbooks people cannot find the phrase “Nanjing Massacre". Once lies pass into history, the younger generation will easily accept the lies without any suspicion.
In the novel, Julia, more than ten years old younger than Winston, is ready to accept the official mythology, simply because the difference between truth and falsehood doesn't seem important to her. When Winston tells Julia that the Party is telling lies to people by saying the Party invents airplane, the fact strikes her as totally uninteresting. He argues with her about the switching of alliance of Oceania. But the issue strikes her as unimportant. "Who cares?" she says impatiently. [15]It seems that the .longer the lies exist and are repeatedly told to people, the more people will accept the lies. The case is true in Japan.
Orwell himself had a taste of political propaganda for he had worked for BBC for two years during the Second World War. He didn't like the job at all and resigned at las
