The Proles and Hope

Winston believes "if there is hope, it lies in the proles" — the working class who make up 85% of Oceania's population. The Party leaves them largely alone, judging them too ignorant to be a threat, and manages them through cheap entertainment, gambling, and pornography.

The idea speaks to modern debates about whether mass entertainment works as social control. Orwell suggests freedom needs both the desire for liberty and the tools to recognize its absence.