Examples Of Doublethink In 1984

George Orwell’s 1984 is a grim vision of the future where the high class has figured out a way to maintain complete control over the middle and lower classes by eliminating free thought. This is done by maintaining a constant state of war with other nations, thereby maintaining undiminishing devotion for Big Brother and his ability to protect Oceania. This is all built on a series of continuous lies about the war, history, and a constantly increasing standard of living which the people blindly believe due to being conditioned to do so for decades. The Party uses language as a way of altering history and psychologically manipulating people’s minds to gain absolute power.
One of the main ideas demonstrated in 1984 is that

language lies in the center of human thought. The process of thinking not only creates but also limits the ideas that individuals are capable of developing and expressing. In Oceania, the political agency-- “the Party”-- controls language and they completely change the very structure of language, making it impossible to even have a single rebellious thought. This idea is illustrated in the language of Newspeak, which the Party has constructed to replace English (Oldspeak). The Party constantly improves and perfects Newspeak, with the ultimate goal that no one will be capable of having an opinion that may threaten the Party in any way. Syme, a Newspeak engineer, tells Winston that the destruction of words is a beautiful thing and explains, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.” (Orwell 52). The Party is fully aware that if there are no words that can describe what one is feeling, then one will not be able to project that feeling out into society. Therefore, the government in 1984 aims to greatly reduce the Newspeak vocabulary, instead of expanding it. When all the shades of language have been eliminated and there are no abstractions and no emotions associated with words, thoughts are reduced to simplistic, shallow levels. By reducing the words that people can use to express themselves fully and accurately, the Party exterminates self awareness. A modern example of this is censorship on television. Any words considered “vulgar” or “offensive” is covered up in some way. The problem that lies here is that any word can be considered offensive depending on who, or what, it is directed at. As long as a word or phrase has a negative connotation attached to it, it will always be seen as inappropriate to use, thus can slowly be eliminated from the public.
The idea of “doublethink” is also an important consequence of the massive psychological manipulation by the Party.

Doublethink is the ability to retain two contradicting beliefs in one’s mind at the same time. Every citizen in Oceania has become disciplined to presume anything that the Party tells them is veritable, even while possessing information that counters to what they are being told. This is because the Party’s techniques of sophisticated mind control disintegrates an individual’s capacity for independent thought. We witness this happening at the Hate Week rally, when the Party shifts its diplomatic allegiance, from being allies with Eustasia to enemies. In a couple of seconds, the nation Oceania has been at war with has always been its ally, and its former ally has always been its enemy. With no hesitation, the Party speaker switches the ally nation he refers to as the enemy in the middle of his speech, but the crowd accepts his words instantly. Instead of being confused or being truly aware of what just happened, everyone is simply ashamed to see the wrong signs for the event. This illustrates how easily the people accept what they are told, with no denial whatsoever. Nowadays, with many social media outlets posting the news, more and more of the younger generation are starting to get involved in political debates with one another. However, it is difficult for anyone to know the actual truth due to “fake news media” and because it is incredibly easy to create elaborately photoshopped documents and images and claim they are real. For instance, one Google search of “Donald Trump fake stories” and you will get thousands of lies, conspiracy theories, and photos. It is almost impossible to determine which are false and which are not. The most shocking thing about this, however, is that like the citizens of Oceania, so many Americans simply accept everything they see and hear from propaganda as the

truth.
In order to better understand the concept of doublethink, it is necessary to give an example like “blackwhite”. Like many of the other Newspeak words, this word contains two separate but contradictory words. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of claiming that black is white, even as the facts prove this to be untrue. Applied to a Party member, and it means a loyal and unquestioning willingness to say that black is white when demanded by the Party. But more importantly, it means the ability to genuinely believe that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed that black was any color other than white. This is a prominent example of doublethink and how it is used by the Party to easily control the minds of people.