In a way, the world−view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.

The Thought Police are those who suppress all dissenting opinion. He also often stayed at the homes of Ruth Pitter and Richard Rees where he could "change" for his sporadic tramping expeditions. He received electrotherapy treatment and was declared medically unfit for service.

In 2008 The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture Orwell wrote literary criticism poetry fiction and polemical journalism. Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture and the term Orwellian — descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms including Cold War doublethink thoughtcrime Big Brother and thought police.