A thought on thinking

In 1984 (the book, not the year), George Orwell gave us the idea of "doublethink", which I will define here as maintaining two different (and often opposing) beliefs at the same time. When I first read 1984, back in the seventies, I thought it was completely novel. Now, many years later, I am not so sure, because we do something similar all the time, in some cases voluntarily.

The lightest possible variant of this is maintaining several different viewpoints or perspectives of the same subject at the same time, such as when we try to see the forest and the trees at the same time, or when we define energy as waves and particles at the same time, or when we see a number (1984) and think of it as a date and a book simultaneously. And this can even be useful, even if it may be somewhat of a brainstrain. Somewhere in the same general area, I suspect, is when children try to "believe" in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, etc. in spite of very clear evidence to the contrary.

Next, in terms of mindstress, come things like trying to consider the possible impact of a specific individual action on both the group and the individual at the same time. This combination is a bit more difficult to grasp than the previous ones, because (unlike the previous examples) the individual and the group interact. A similar idea is that of the "light touch" which is achieving almost total control with only very little pressure.

Not dizzy yet? Then try this one on for size: last in the list is the "does not compute - robot brain overload" category is when you try to accept both a literal reading of Genesis and modern science, including evolution. And this is where you might get the sort of mental burn-out that Big Brother uses to exert total mind control.

But there is of course one big difference, namely the fact that in 1984, conflicting beliefs are imposed on the citizens, and cemented in place by the worst possible negative reinforcement possible. Which makes me very happy to be where I am today, with the freedom to think what I want, and even think out loud once in a while, such as in this blog.