IDEOLOGY AND
DOUBLETHINK
DOUBLETHINK
 Winston sank his arms to his sides and slowly refilled his lungs with
air. His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of 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 the ultimate subtlety: consciously to
induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become
unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to
understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.
[ch. 3/35-36]
DOUBLETHINK
 To know and not to know, to be conscious of
complete truthfulness while telling carefully
constructed lies.
 For this process to work you must be conscious of the
process, so you can know truth and know there is not
truth.
 You need to know a lie and to forget it is a lie.
Doublethink is a process, not an end result
 Truth is merely one part
of a process
 hold simultaneously two
opinions which cancelled
out, knowing them to be
contradictory and
believing in both of
them, to use logic against
logic
 Truth one moment
 Truth the next moment.
 Firmly believe in one
opinion; firmly believe
the opposite to be true:
the first opinion
 Belive in one logic; then
believe in logic as such.
Logic is there in moment
and then it is not
acceptable the next.
Doublethink is a Process
DOUBLETHINK IS A PROCESS OF
ALTERNATE REMEMBERING AND
FORGETTING AND THEN
REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
 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 NOW HERE IS THE KICKER TO CEMENT
THE PROCESS: above all, to apply the same
process to the process itself.
above all, to apply the same process to the
process itself.
FOR THE PROCESS TO WORK, YOU
MUST BE ABLE TO APPLY IT TO THE
PERFROMATIVE ITSELF
 above all, to apply the same process to the process
itself.
 To forget this memory or that thought is crucial to
doublethink
 But to know the route of doublethink so you can
enact it crucial
 As is forgetting the process when you are called
upon to do so
Doublethink and Ideology
IDEOLOGY AND THE FALL INTO
MATERIALISM
THE FALL INTO
MATERIALISM
IDEAS MUST BE EMBODIED IN SUBJECTS
WHO ENACT THEM.
THE SUBJECT IS NOTHING MORE THAN A
CONSTRUCT – A LINGUISTIC CONSTRUCT
THE SUBJECT
AS
CONSTRUCT
1.
THE SUBJECT
WAS AN
INDIVIDUAL, BUT
HAS NOW
BECOME A
PRODUCT OF
IDEOLOGY AND
IDEOLOGICAL
PRECEPTS,
WHICH ARE
LINGUISTIC
2.
THE SUBJECT IS
SUBJECTED
 For this process to work, the
subject must become the first
object of ideology.
 To do this, the subject must be
interpellated: called and then
accepting of his or her response.
 A reversal occurs at some point in
this process, in which the original
position of subject/object is
reversed.
 There is a reversal of positions.
THE IDEOLOGICAL REVERSAL
 1. start at x and take in more and more of y.
Eventually you start at y, if y can give you a
worldview you accept and if you accept the frame of
reference that y gives you.
 Hereafter, you accept your truth as the truth of y.
 What was information that came from the other,
from the outside world, now becomes your
information, your belief structure, your values, and
you start from that position when you engage the
world and yourself.
THE REVERSAL IS A REVERSAL OF SUBJECT
POSITIONS: what was outside is now inside,
and thus inside and outside become secondary
concepts if not useless positions to help ground
yourself in “reality”
 THE FALL INTO MATERIALITY
THE FALL
INTO
MATERIALITY
IS A PROCESS
THAT MUST
REPEAT
ITSELF
IT MUST REPEAT
ITSELF
IT MUST JUSTIFY
ITSELF
EXISTS TO DO SEVERAL
THINGS AT ONCE:
 1. CREATE SUBJECTS
 CREATE A JUSTIFICATION TO
REPEAT THE PROCESS OVER
AND OVER AGAIN SO IT HAS
RELEVANCY IN THE FUTURE
AS WELL AS THE PRESENT.
 MUST DEMONSTRATE
REVERSALITY
IT MUST DEMONSTRATE REVERSALITY
WHY REVERSABILITY?
 1. We must accept the
process, but then accept the
truth it produces as separate
from the process.
 We must accept what I am
labeling the 3 births.
 1. Birth One: [birth into the
materiality of bodily
experience]: the body is born
 2. Birth Two: [birth into the
materiality of the field of
representation]: linguistically
Oriented Consciousness
organizes experience.
 3. Birth Three: [birth into the
materiality of the field of
ideology]: the body is there,
yes. Language is there, yes.
But now ideological
worldviews orient the subject
more than the body. This is
the new point of
identification.
The Third Birth Changes Everything
Turn and Face the Changes
 1. Old View of Language: the object exists with its
fixed meaning, and language (as a secondary
element) reads it to capture the truth or falsity of the
object, if we have been deceived.
 This is more a product-oriented process than a
process as process.
 In the end, ideology asks us to believe this process,
so we accept a fixed truth . . . but
BUT
BUT
PROCESS TWO MAKES
PROCESS ONE
 1. IDEOLOGY IS
MORE CONCERNED
WITH
PERPETUATING ITS
PROCESS.
 IDEOLOGY IS MORE
CONCERNED THAT
WE LEARN THAT
PROCESS
 IDEOLOGY IS
CONCERNED WITH
THE CREATION OF
THE SUBJECT AS AN
ENDPOINT OF THAT
PROCESS
 IDEOLOGY IS
CONCERNED WITH
OUR ACCEPTING OUR
SUBJECTIVITY
BUT
 IDEOLOGY IS
CONCERNED WITH
US ACCEPTING THE
OLD VIEW OF
REPRESENTATION,
EVEN AS WE ARE
FORMED BY THE
NEW VIEW OF
REPRESENTATION
 THAT THE GAME:
ALLOW THE FIELD OF
REPRESENTATION
CREATE THE SIGN
AND THE MEANING OF
THE SIGN
 HAVE US BELIEVE
THAT THERE IS ONE
FIXED TRUTH
THE NEW VIEW OF
REPRESENTATION
THE SIGNS OF IDEOLOGICAL PROCESS VIE
WITH OTHER SIGNS FROM OTHER
IDEOLOGICAL PROCESSES TO ESTABLISH A
SINGLE TRUTH, WHICH IS AT ODDS WITH
THE PROCESS OF MAKING IT.
DOUBLETHINK TO THE RESCUE
WE ARE TO BELIEVE
IN ONE FIXED
MEANING, EVEN AS
IDEOLOGY USES THE
FIELD OF
REPRESENTATION TO
DESTABALIZE THE
OBJECT FROM THE
SIGN THAT
REPRESENTS IT.
IN THE NEW VIEW, SIGNS
CREATE THE MEANING OF THE
OBJECT: SO MEANING IS PLURAL.
PLURALITY MUST BE ERASED
AS AN ALTERNATIVE
IDEOLOGY CANNOT HAVE US ACCEPTING THE
PROCESS IT USES TO CREATE ITSELF.
DOUBLETHINK ALLOWS US TO ENDURE THAT
PROCESS EVEN IF THE END PRODUCT IS
ANTITHETICAL TO THE PROCESS.
AND SOME POINT WE MUST FORGET TO
REMEMBER
WE MUST FORGET TO REMEMBER
WE MUST … TO REMEMBER
WE MUST
TO REMEMBER
WE MUST . . .
TO ?
WE . . .
TO