Doublethink

This article is about the concept in Nineteen Eighty-Four. For the distortion of language inspired by this concept, see Doublespeak. For the Akala album, see DoubleThink. For the London production company, see Doublethink Theatre.

Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.[1] Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy.

George Orwell coined the term doublethink as part of the fictional language of Newspeak in his 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.[2] In the novel, its origins within the citizenry is unclear; while it could be partly a product of Big Brother's formal brainwashing programmes,[i] the novel explicitly shows people learning doublethink and Newspeak due to peer pressure and a desire to "fit in", or gain status within the Party—to be seen as a loyal Party Member. In the novel, for someone to even recognize—let alone mention—any contradiction within the context of the Party line is akin to blasphemy, and could subject that person to disciplinary action and the instant social disapproval of fellow Party Members.[2]

  1. ^ McArthur, Tom, ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press. p. 321. ISBN 0-19-214183-X. The paradox is expressed most succinctly in the novel in the three Party slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. The term is widely used to describe a capacity to engage in one line of thought in one situation (at work, in a certain group, in business, etc.) and another line in another situation (at home, in another group, in private life), without necessarily sensing any conflict between the two.
  2. ^ a b Orwell, George. 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd.


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