Winston is handed a briefcase containing Goldstein’s book. However, several incidents contrive to prevent Winston from taking a look at it immediately. In the midst of a huge public rally against the Eurasian enemy, the country’s foreign policy is suddenly altered. Instead of Eurasia, it is Eastasia that has now become the Party’s enemy. The speaker at the rally is handed a note. Everything in the speech remains the same as before, except the enemy’s name. Everyone, however, seems to consider this normal and unalarming. It is as if there is nothing surprising about this sudden reversal.

However, there is a huge task now facing the workers at the Ministry of Truth. They must alter the “facts” of history to favor the Party’s current discourse. They must rewrite everything and square the past with recent developments. As it turns out, this takes five days of unrelenting work. Having worked for nearly ninety hours, Winston finally returns to his apartment. Though he is exhausted by the time he is back, he manages to go to the apartment above Mr. Charrington’s house to meet Julia and take a look at the book.

In his The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, Goldstein’s charts out a theoretical explanation of the practices and principles of the society in which Winston now lives. In a manner of speaking, there is nothing new here. Winston is already intuitively aware of all this. Goldstein’s book simply elaborates on a theory and the history of how the present came to be.

Essentially, Oceania operates on the core principle of “doublethink.” While inequality was unavoidable for most of human history, the technological advancements of the early twentieth century made equality a rather achievable goal. However, to maintain their hegemony, the new ruling class that emerged in the middle of the century developed a set of radical yet contradictory strategies. These ideas mimicked the egalitarian principles of socialism and communism. However, they had no real interest in eliminating inequality. As the “revolution” progressed, the control of the resources shifted from the capitalists to the new ruling class—the Party.

The Party was, however, faced with a new problem. There was enough wealth generated for everyone, but distributing the wealth would result in the hierarchy’s dissolution. The Party’s solution to this is captured in the phrase “War is Peace”: the Party, much like the ruling class of the nations it talks about, constantly invents wars. Permanent war ensures permanent enslavement of the population under its governance. The Party is merely pretending to be in war with its enemies. The truth, however, is that the Party is in war with its own people.