Doublethink is a term coined by author George Orwell in his book 1984. In the book (written in the '40s) The world has been divided into 3 massive empires, EastAsia, WestAsia, and Oceana. Oceania is under the rule of The Party, led by the likely fictional "Big Brother", whos face is plastered on nearly every wall and street corner.
One of the great horrors presented in the dystopic society in the book is "doublethink". The ability of the population, trained from birth to do so, to accept the blatant hypocrisy that the party operates. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. This is the motto of the party, symbolic of everything it does. When an alliance is switched, all the newspapers and speeches are re-written to fit it. In one part of the book, Big Brother announces in increase in chocolate rations from 25%-30%, then the next day everything is re-written to announce an increase from 20%-25%.
Of course, the loyal population accepts this as truth. They KNOW that the chocolate rations havn't even changed, but they accept what they are told as truth and dismiss reality as fantasy. The Party, themselves believing their own delusions, have total control over reality because whatever they say is seen as truth by the population. Perception becomes reality, and reality is lost in the process as the whole shebang spirals into a nightmare of psychological manipulation, until you reach the point where the only logical assumption is everyone on the planet has gone FUCKING INSANE.
Now lets take a look at, say, Christianity. Hardliner Christians insist the Bible is the literal truth of the creation of the world, despite all the scientific evidence disputing the claim, despite the truth of science they use themselves to watch Fox News and Pat Robertson on tv. This, right here, is Orwell's doublethink.
Even more baffling are the casual Christians, the normal everyday people you see in this town. People who go to school and accept evolutionary theory and the big bang, then go to church and prey to God and, as far as they are concerned, fully believe he is listening, but at the same time never expect their prayer to be answered or for any divine activity at all. Again, doublethink. These people are raised from birth to believe in God, and educated from an early age to accept atheist beliefs, and hold the two without reconciliation but also without paradox. They simply accept both as true and move on with their lives.
Of course, doublethink extends beyond religion, or any singular belief system or idea. It always has.
The world we live in now is one of constant information flow. Everyday we are bombarded with information. Murder, rape, plane crashes, terrorism, lost dogs, and everyday we sit in front of the TV, go "Oh, thats sad, how awful" then push the thought out of our heads and go see "American Pie 8: At least Eugene Levy is still in it".
This is further doublethink. We watch, but we don't feel, we accept it's real while at the same time refusing to accept it. It wont happen to us, it wasn't someone we know, it was on TV in some far away place. We only react because somewhere in our heads we know we should be sad, angry, happy, and to not react is A) A sign of something wrong, and B) Marks us different from others, and C) Might indicate we are inhuman, and therefore possibly evil. So we put up the charade of giving a shit, like the news anchor in front of us, until the next story comes up. We all do this, every day, and as a society we are doing it more and more. Changing our reality with the power of perception, of the desire to live in a world that doesn't exist. We're all going fucking nuts.
My great belief is that much of the world's problems are the result of a lack of empathy. The inability to sympathize with others, to see their problems and understand their pain, to see others as human beings. Unfortunately, this lack of empathy is growing worse. As mentioned above, we don't want to feel sad, because we're about to see a comedy. Because we have school in an hour, work tomorrow, kids to feed and lives to live and no time to waste on strangers. We have no time for empathy, so we pretend we feel it just long enough to forget what we we're empathetic about and go about our days doublethinking that hypocrisy into the back of our minds. Until we die of a stress related disease...or snap.
If your wondering why violence is increasing, why people seem less caring and more brutual, this is the reason. Our lack of empathy is spreading, our desire to block out the world increasing, and our ability t see it declining. Combined with the mental effort of denying reality and all the chemicals in our food, it's really no wonder everyone is shooting each other. School shootings? It's not videogames, it's reality. It's a bunch of teenagers coming of age a bit too soon, dealing with some hard shit, and breaking their brains in half between the conflict of reality and fantasy, until everything loses it's meaning and it the only thing to do is kill people until you feel something...or just kill yourself.
This is my great fear: This lack of empathy, this doublethink, this insanity, it's getting worse. People are getting worse, they are working harder and harder to make the world better as it gets worse. Both reality and fantasy fueling each other. I read a news report last month where a woman was stabbed in a shopping center. She lie there bleeding on the floor as customers stepped over and around her, for several minutes before someone called 9-1-1. Because of this delayed reaction, she died in hospital.
Tell me, when was the last time you really felt something? The last time you genuinely laughed, genuinely cried? Most of my laughter comes out sounding forced (because it is), or like a hiccup because I'm working to keep it in. Because I've got too much to do and too much to worry about to let control and really laugh. The last time I cried (a couple years ago) it sounded more like a donkey having an asthma attack. "What the fuck?" I asked myself, confused. Why couldn't I cry? What was this choking wheezing noise I was making? For many years I hadn't cried, I didn't want to feel genuinely sad, because that would be allowing the reality in. To put it simply: I had forgotten how to cry. I had forgotten how to let it out, how to vent my emotions and really put my issues away. I had gone just a little bit insane. I'd forgotten how to feel, what to feel. I've reached a point where I can't tell what is genuine feeling and what is fabricated, where my fantasy and reality begin and end. I've become lost in my own mind, and I need a way out.
We all are. I don't know who or what to blame, it's not TV at fault, or chemicals, or our education. Not really. It's all of these things, but none of them. It's society, but it's not society's fault. It's each and every one of us, but not all of us. We can't lay the blame on any one thing, but it is there, for their is no effect without cause. I don't have answers. All I do know is that something needs to be done, someone needs to wise up and clue in, before reality takes a permanent vacation.
George A. Romero is best known for writing and directing a quadrilogy of horror films. Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead. In each film, and especially in Dawn of the Dead, it is insuinated that the difference between the living humans and the mindless zombies is alot smaller then comfortable, almost invisible. If we keep going the way we're going, the line will disappear, and we might as well be the senseless, mindless shambling corpses from a 70's B movie.
It's September15th, 2007, 1:01 AM, Pacific Time, in [Location] . I am [Insert Name Here], born [Then]. This is all I can be certain is true.
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I posted this on my Facebook today. I don't know why I wrote it, but I felt compelled to. I figured you guys might dig it.
One of the great horrors presented in the dystopic society in the book is "doublethink". The ability of the population, trained from birth to do so, to accept the blatant hypocrisy that the party operates. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. This is the motto of the party, symbolic of everything it does. When an alliance is switched, all the newspapers and speeches are re-written to fit it. In one part of the book, Big Brother announces in increase in chocolate rations from 25%-30%, then the next day everything is re-written to announce an increase from 20%-25%.
Of course, the loyal population accepts this as truth. They KNOW that the chocolate rations havn't even changed, but they accept what they are told as truth and dismiss reality as fantasy. The Party, themselves believing their own delusions, have total control over reality because whatever they say is seen as truth by the population. Perception becomes reality, and reality is lost in the process as the whole shebang spirals into a nightmare of psychological manipulation, until you reach the point where the only logical assumption is everyone on the planet has gone FUCKING INSANE.
Now lets take a look at, say, Christianity. Hardliner Christians insist the Bible is the literal truth of the creation of the world, despite all the scientific evidence disputing the claim, despite the truth of science they use themselves to watch Fox News and Pat Robertson on tv. This, right here, is Orwell's doublethink.
Even more baffling are the casual Christians, the normal everyday people you see in this town. People who go to school and accept evolutionary theory and the big bang, then go to church and prey to God and, as far as they are concerned, fully believe he is listening, but at the same time never expect their prayer to be answered or for any divine activity at all. Again, doublethink. These people are raised from birth to believe in God, and educated from an early age to accept atheist beliefs, and hold the two without reconciliation but also without paradox. They simply accept both as true and move on with their lives.
Of course, doublethink extends beyond religion, or any singular belief system or idea. It always has.
The world we live in now is one of constant information flow. Everyday we are bombarded with information. Murder, rape, plane crashes, terrorism, lost dogs, and everyday we sit in front of the TV, go "Oh, thats sad, how awful" then push the thought out of our heads and go see "American Pie 8: At least Eugene Levy is still in it".
This is further doublethink. We watch, but we don't feel, we accept it's real while at the same time refusing to accept it. It wont happen to us, it wasn't someone we know, it was on TV in some far away place. We only react because somewhere in our heads we know we should be sad, angry, happy, and to not react is A) A sign of something wrong, and B) Marks us different from others, and C) Might indicate we are inhuman, and therefore possibly evil. So we put up the charade of giving a shit, like the news anchor in front of us, until the next story comes up. We all do this, every day, and as a society we are doing it more and more. Changing our reality with the power of perception, of the desire to live in a world that doesn't exist. We're all going fucking nuts.
My great belief is that much of the world's problems are the result of a lack of empathy. The inability to sympathize with others, to see their problems and understand their pain, to see others as human beings. Unfortunately, this lack of empathy is growing worse. As mentioned above, we don't want to feel sad, because we're about to see a comedy. Because we have school in an hour, work tomorrow, kids to feed and lives to live and no time to waste on strangers. We have no time for empathy, so we pretend we feel it just long enough to forget what we we're empathetic about and go about our days doublethinking that hypocrisy into the back of our minds. Until we die of a stress related disease...or snap.
If your wondering why violence is increasing, why people seem less caring and more brutual, this is the reason. Our lack of empathy is spreading, our desire to block out the world increasing, and our ability t see it declining. Combined with the mental effort of denying reality and all the chemicals in our food, it's really no wonder everyone is shooting each other. School shootings? It's not videogames, it's reality. It's a bunch of teenagers coming of age a bit too soon, dealing with some hard shit, and breaking their brains in half between the conflict of reality and fantasy, until everything loses it's meaning and it the only thing to do is kill people until you feel something...or just kill yourself.
This is my great fear: This lack of empathy, this doublethink, this insanity, it's getting worse. People are getting worse, they are working harder and harder to make the world better as it gets worse. Both reality and fantasy fueling each other. I read a news report last month where a woman was stabbed in a shopping center. She lie there bleeding on the floor as customers stepped over and around her, for several minutes before someone called 9-1-1. Because of this delayed reaction, she died in hospital.
Tell me, when was the last time you really felt something? The last time you genuinely laughed, genuinely cried? Most of my laughter comes out sounding forced (because it is), or like a hiccup because I'm working to keep it in. Because I've got too much to do and too much to worry about to let control and really laugh. The last time I cried (a couple years ago) it sounded more like a donkey having an asthma attack. "What the fuck?" I asked myself, confused. Why couldn't I cry? What was this choking wheezing noise I was making? For many years I hadn't cried, I didn't want to feel genuinely sad, because that would be allowing the reality in. To put it simply: I had forgotten how to cry. I had forgotten how to let it out, how to vent my emotions and really put my issues away. I had gone just a little bit insane. I'd forgotten how to feel, what to feel. I've reached a point where I can't tell what is genuine feeling and what is fabricated, where my fantasy and reality begin and end. I've become lost in my own mind, and I need a way out.
We all are. I don't know who or what to blame, it's not TV at fault, or chemicals, or our education. Not really. It's all of these things, but none of them. It's society, but it's not society's fault. It's each and every one of us, but not all of us. We can't lay the blame on any one thing, but it is there, for their is no effect without cause. I don't have answers. All I do know is that something needs to be done, someone needs to wise up and clue in, before reality takes a permanent vacation.
George A. Romero is best known for writing and directing a quadrilogy of horror films. Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead. In each film, and especially in Dawn of the Dead, it is insuinated that the difference between the living humans and the mindless zombies is alot smaller then comfortable, almost invisible. If we keep going the way we're going, the line will disappear, and we might as well be the senseless, mindless shambling corpses from a 70's B movie.
It's September15th, 2007, 1:01 AM, Pacific Time, in [Location] . I am [Insert Name Here], born [Then]. This is all I can be certain is true.
--------------------
I posted this on my Facebook today. I don't know why I wrote it, but I felt compelled to. I figured you guys might dig it.
