Thought Police

Not to be confused with the former Japanese police Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu. The Thought Police (Thinkpol) refers to a fictional police organization present in George Orwell's novel 1984. It is considered to be inspired by the Soviet Union of Stallin.

The Orwellian organization is characterized by arresting the "citizens" who "think" about things that go to the detriment of the Party's slogans. The crime of thought ("crimina" or "pensacrimen") is logically the most serious of all crimes sanctioned by the Party. The Thought Police uses machines called telepantallas similar to televisions with an integrated microphone, which allow agents of the Thought Police to listen to the conversations made between people who are in a certain proximity of the tele-screen.

The Party compels citizens (mainly those who had a constant active sex life or those who held positions within the Party, the greater the control the more they ascended the ladder) to own telepantallas in their homes and offices, to the point of eliminating all trace of privacy in the life of the individual. Apart from the tele-screens, they exercised control through the massive use of microphones in the streets and even in the field. The punishment for "bad thinking" is to be kidnapped and tortured to make confessions of the crimes of thought and, ultimately, if the subject resisted, be taken to Room 101, where he was definitely broken.

The proletarians (the term with which the proletariat is designated) were virtually free from the control exercised by the Thought Police. Delinquency was common and widespread among the proles, but since all this did not affect the Party, it was allowed: the control of the Police was reduced to a few telepantallas and the elimination of elements that were potentially dangerous to develop their intelligence . As it is affirmed in the novel, "the proles possessed intellectual freedom, because they were devoid of intellect". What was important was that the fervor of the Big Brother should remain in the Party, so that it would not lose confidence in itself and be overthrown. In the movie 1984, members of the Thought Police wear black, British model helmet, club and black belt, wearing Party insignia on their necks, just like army infantry, though without a backpack, with a rifle and a belt tied to the shoulders in the form of Y.

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