29 December 2009

Doublethink




"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself - that was ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed."
~ Orwell, George. 1984. 1949. Page 35.

Now that's a sentence! 1984 is our third book in the Erudite Squadron of the Tundra Triangle aka book club. This book has long been on my "To Read" list, yet it hasn't substantiated until now. My immediate impression of "doublethink" and "doublespeak" is how I feel trying to make sense of news, politics, and current affairs, as well as history. But, maybe "doublethink" is more like Zen and the art of controlling the ever active minds to be still, in nothingness. The quote is from chapter III, so I'm just tickling my toes in the water right now.