From Political Church by Johnathon Leeman

The terror of Orwell’s novel roots in the irreconcilable conflict between its implicit doctrines of creation and redemption. The unspoken assumption that every reader brings to the book is that its characters exist or were created for something drastically different than the redemptive scheme required by Big Brother. Big Brother wants to change people into something they were not created to be—cogs in a machine, or slaves. The Party meant to exploit and use people for its own selfish purposes, which is the chronic fear that humans bear in a fallen world where authority is abused regularly. But God’s rule aims to restore fallen people to what they were created to be—kings!

That reminds of this

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, Heb2.14

The fear of death – which is the ultimate oppression leads to slavery. The fear of being misused by one with greater power leads to giving even more power to someone else.

And so the irony of fear.