Doublethink

“Doublethink” is a new concept to me, on that I have never heard or even thought would be an idea that society revolves around. “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold…two opinions…contradictory [to one another] and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic…to forget, whatever [is] necessary to forget, then to draw it back…at a moment when it [is] needed…” (Page 33), is a scary, horrifying notion to grasp. This was and still is my “aha” moment because I fell that today’s society could be controlled by the party by using doublethink and we would never know. Everything that we know and hold to be true could be just made up lies. I remember when I was in elementary and, I know that it’s not a huge complex act of doublethink, but, Pluto was planet. Now, it’s a moon! Which one is it a moon or a planet? It all depends on what the upper authority figure says it is. We say a moon now only because a researcher said that it is, but before him it was said to be a moon by all, even some researchers. All throughout my elementary school years I was told that Pluto is a planet and of course I believed it. Why though? It was because my teacher, or authority figure (the party), said it was. They are above me and should know more than me, so I believed everything they said. As I got older my authority figured changed as did my surrounding world. Pluto became a moon, but who’s to say that it won’t become a planet again once another authority figure, researcher, come in. I believe what my authority figures say to be true just like all the people in 1984 by George Orwell. If my Pre-Calculus book were to change tomorrow and say 2+2=FISH, I would agree. Yes, at first I would question it, but eventually I would accept it and that is what scares me the most about doublethink, you wouldn’t know if it was happening to you. I think I would like Winston and question things, but sooner or later, I will fall...