@SherlockHans I'd also note, upon reflection, that this question ignores my central point, and indeed what is pretty central to 1984 as well: those who would enact totalitarianism, the DeSantises of this world if you will, are NOT seeking to make everyone behave like them.

They are, in fact, hypocrites. They use the desire of people who do want to force people to behave in a certain way to obtain and hold power, but they themselves do not behave in that certain way.

And that is why these systems inevitably collapse. They're a bit like churches engaging in reigns of terror over a populace, led by people who do not exhibit the behavioural standards which they demand from everyone.

Those fail too. The institution may remain (the Catholic Church has endured for over a thousand years behaving like this), but their bouts of totalitarian terror are transient, because they lack, and always will lack, the strength and focus to practice what they preach.

And so they fight like rats in a sack, and that fighting brings about the end of their bullshit, for several generations, at least.

I think Orwell recognised this. I think he saw the cycle renewing, and despaired, but he knew it was a cycle and that the desire to build "thousand year reichs" was a fool's errand.

These things die in decades, or less, not centuries.