War is Peace refers to to the fact that while a
country is at
war, it can get away with
murder on the
home front, on the pretext of "rooting out
traitors." A good example of this is the
Espionage Act passed by
Congress and signed by
Woodrow Wilson in 1917, which had little to do with
spies, and a lot to do with allowing the
feds to round up anyone who
criticized the
Government's actions during a
war. (
Fun trivia fact: Since the United States has officially been in a
state of emergency since the
Korean War, the Act is still in force).
Freedom is Slavery means that you are supposed to treat your supposedly natural rights as privileges that you need to constantly earn. For instance, in the United States, convicted felons are not allowed to vote, even after they have been released from jail.
Ignorance is Power means that as long as you believe what you are told, the state has the power to justify whatever it wants. Example: in 1998, Clinton ordered tomahawk missles to be fired at a Sudanese Pharmaceutical plant. His rationale was that it was being used to construct bio-weapons. Six months later, the government quietly admitted that it had no conclusive evidence of this.