We all willingly let our selves be controlled by our government, unknowingly perhaps but we do. When you see a commercial on television that says "buy this item!"" using sex, drugs, or things that appeal to the proles ( or citizens of Canada) and you go and buy it, that's succumbing to your government to spend your money and be controlled. The nature of reality is what you are taught by your government and society. You're a tool of the society and the society is a tool of the government. Governments are made for security and economic stability of the country. The human mind is corrupt and will do what is best for itself. Therefore totalitarian dictators are formed. Such is the case in 1984 by George Orwell, A story about a totalitarian dictatorship where the government controls everything in the country, bending history and the memories of all it's people.
The author describes the world of 1984 through the eyes of a 39 year old man who seeks the truth about history and what really happened in the world. He finds evidence in what he does everyday, in his job, and with his illegal girlfriend. His name was Winston Smith, an outer party member who's job was to rewrite history as the party saw fit. This job hinted at Winston everyday that there was something more to life, then working everyday and then sleeping. Winston was different from the rest of society, he saw the brainwashing tactics that the government used but he couldn't do anything about it, nor did he want to. The only way he could get these "off his chest"" was to write in a diary, this was his way of rebelling. The repercussions the government would place on an individual who refused to did not give themselves completely by sacrificing their individuality were very severe.
The author uses the government of Oceania as a possible extreme as to how far our governments will go. Such example of this is the Communist rule of Stalin in the USSR, Stalin used many of the same tactics as Big Brother did.