It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.

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.