One of the
striking aspects of Oceania is that there are no laws; so, officially, there is no censorship.
In our culture, while we have quite a few laws, we have a First Amendment which guarantees
freedom of speech. Nevertheless, most of us are fully aware that we must self-regulate and not
always say whatever we think and feel. For example, most of us are taught to be careful about
what we post on Facebook. There is no hard and fast set of laws, but one quickly learns that
certain types of speech are acceptable or unacceptable. It's best to keep our posts clean and
light. The same is true in the public sphere: in theory, we can each say what we want, but we
soon learn if we want a job or a reasonable place in our social world, certain topics are off
limits.
Both cultures are thus effective at enforcing self-censorship. In
Oceania, people self censor in order to avoid arrest, imprisonment, torture, and death. In our
society, we self censor to keep our jobs, our status, and our friends.
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