Theory Rebuttal: The Superstates do not exist
The recurring theory - "Do the superstates exist", is often refashioned into separate declarations such as, "Oceania is only Britain", and everything else pertaining to an unacceptance of the presented world view.
Of course this is due to the Party controlling information and reality. So we get, "Well dude if they faked X then maybe Eurasia doesn't exist, nothing can be believed."
People that make this claim think they have figured something out and reached some elucidation beyond other readers. Unfortunately this is not the case and ironically it is they who are falling at the first hurdle.
I will offer my rebuttal of these theories below.
THE SUPERSTATES DON’T EXIST
We know they exist because Orwell tells us so in the "book" within the book (The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism)
"But Bro, the Party wrote the book."
No, the Party did not write the book. Orwell did. And he wrote it for YOU to better understand his world. It was a gift shoehorned into the novel for the reader's understanding.
Now dealing with this from inside the novel let us examine it further:
"The best books tell us what we already know."- Winston, when reading the book, knows it is true.
Winston also says, "I understand the HOW; I do not understand the WHY"
You see, he knows what he is reading is true. He knows because most of it he can verify for himself because he lives it.
The "Book" is not only about the Superstates but Oceanic stratified society itself. Everything he reads completely checks out.
HE DOES NOT LEARN ANYTHING NEW FROM THE BOOK!
If the superstates don't exist, the entire economic engine driving Ingsoc collapses.
"But dude, maybe they lied about a certain bit."
Why? Everything makes perfect sense, for a totalitarian state, consuming surplus, stupefaction of the masses, sustaining Insog.
These confused theories mix up in-universe propaganda for narrative unreliability.
The "book" is the Party's manifesto.
The description of the Superstates makes sense and the world was heading inexorably reshaping itself toward this.” splitting up of the world into three great super-states was an event which could be and indeed was foreseen before the middle of the twentieth century."
There is no serious reason to doubt this. There is no serious reason to doubt anything in the "book".
Authorial Intent
If the book within a book was a pack-of-lies then the novel switches from totalitarian critique to a shallow, “It was all a dream” type mystery. This was NOT Orwell’s intention. Orwell was not writing a plot-twist thriller. He was writing about real world scenarios and these feeble theories only strip the book of its thematic weight.
If Oceania is just Britain, and the world was not in a perpetual stalemate state of war, then Oceania would soon be conquered or economically dwarfed by whatever real world power that actually exist.
O’Brien’s admission.
- He lets Winston ask him anything in Miniluv. He is vague only on the existence of the Brotherhood. He is upfront with the rest - affirming the nature of reality and power. O'Brien confirms that the description of power, the superstates, and the mechanism of control outlined in the book is accurate. The Party didn't invent a fake world order to trick Winston; they documented their own operational philosophy because power is its own justification.
Orwell also wrote about this superstate scenario in one of his non-fiction essays.
I trust this theory has now been put to bed. For five minutes until someone resurrects it.