"But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies."
One of the main goals of revolutionaries is to spread awareness of how social relationships function to people of all social groups. Socialism in particular stresses the importance of class consciousness. Class consciousness can be described as the collective understanding of the working class, or proletariat, that they are being exploited and that the ruling classes survive as leeches off of the fruits of their labor. Winston constantly laments the fact that if the proles were to become
conscious they could destroy the Party immediately, and yet, they never
will.
In this passage Orwell (being the classic socialist as always) sees class consciousness as the most important aspect of social awareness. For 150 years this has been the anguish of socialists the world over.
For example: Zinn on class consciousness. As a Libertarian Socialist Howard Zinn shares the same exact class based views and mindset of Orwell more than 60 years after 1984 was written.
But if class consciousness could create a successful proletarian world revolution in practically no time at all, then why has it never happened? Even in so called "communist" revolutions the working class has flocked to the same old nationalistic cult personalities that have always run things sooner than realize their own potential for creating change and order.
I believe this is because the dull politics of class consciousness is only one facet of a greater social consciousness that includes not only class; but race, gender, sexuality, and countless other aspects. Socialists like Orwell insist that the proletariat can be seen as a unified body with the same interests. But their are countless other social divisions that must be addressed. For example, a poor indigenous community in Mexico has entirely different concerns and battles from a radical gay community facing heterosexism in Chicago. As groups that are in opposition to the dominant culture of Western hegemony, their enemy is one and the same. However, they are different in practically every other way.
The ignorance of these divisions, and sometimes even downright refusal to acknowledge them, is what is really hindering a revolutionary social consciousness. Paradoxically, when we do acknowledge them we create an environment in which disparate social groups can build connections and common struggles.
