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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 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.
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
THE FALL INTO MATERIALISM IDEAS MUST BE EMBODIED IN SUBJECTS WHO ENACT THEM. THE SUBJECT IS NOTHING MORE THAN A CONSTRUCT – A LINGUISTIC CONSTRUCT
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 SUBJECT AS CONSTRUCT THE SUBJECT WAS AN INDIVIDUAL, BUT HAS NOW BECOME A PRODUCT OF IDEOLOGY AND IDEOLOGICAL PRECEPTS, WHICH ARE LINGUISTIC THE SUBJECT IS SUBJECTED
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 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 THE FALL INTO MATERIALITY IS A PROCESS THAT MUST REPEAT ITSELF IT MUST REPEAT ITSELF IT MUST JUSTIFY ITSELF
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.
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 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 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 IDEOLOGY IS CONCERNED WITH US ACCEPTING THE OLD VIEW OF REPRESENTATION, EVEN AS WE ARE FORMED BY THE NEW VIEW OF REPRESENTATION
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.
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.
