Doublethink: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"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."''|''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four (Literature)|Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''}}

[[Straw Hypocrite|Straw Hypocrites]]s often engage in doublethink. In cases where doublethink is combined with some version of [[The Masquerade]], it becomes an extremely potent tool of the [[Consummate Liar]]: No liar is as believable as the honest liar who truly believes in his own lies.

* In ''[[BlaBlå Tornet]]'', the protagonist survives through his youth by developing this mindset. He is truly a heretic, but he is also a priest in a society hellbent on sniffing out all heretics and burying them alive. His solution is to never lie, a lie would eventually be discovered. Instead, he actively chose to believe in two simultaneous realities... and he quite incorrectly assume that everyone else is smart enough to pull off the same kind of dual reality. In reality, almost everyone else in his world is actually exactly as narrow-minded as they come across.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* In one [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|unusually creepy episode]] of ''[[Star Trek: the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek theThe Next Generation]]'', {{spoiler|Picard}} gets captured as a spy and tortured by the enemy. One recurring question is how many lights are illuminating the room. It's really four, but the torturer [[Two Plus Torture Equals Five|insists that they are five]] - and he isn't satisfied with a lie about there being five lights, the hero is required to truly believe it. In the end, {{spoiler|the protagonist thinks he truly sees five lights for a moment, and he later confesses this to the ship's counselor. While the torture scene is directly inspired by ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', the ending offers a few new twists to the theme.}}

* In ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]'', the entire universe ran on this trope. The laws of nature are subjective, so you can bend them in any way you make yourself believe is true. ''However'', you have against you not only your own preconceptions of reality, but also everyone else's views of reality. If you abandon consensual reality in favor of your own, you become an insane Marauder. Thus, you need to live in two very different universes simultaneously, believe in your own reality as well as the reality imposed by mainstream civilization. One group of Mages, the "Void Engineers", are notoriously bad at this. Their style of Magic is like being a ''[[Star Wars]]'' Jedi as well as a ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' [[Techno Babble]] engineer who can solve any problem by [[Reverse Polarity]], and they keep forgetting that technology doesn't work like that in [[Real Life]]. To avoid going off the deep end, they have little computers constantly reminding them to treat the mainstream laws of nature with a minimum of politeness. No lightsabers in public places!

* Other games in the ''[[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Old World of Darkness]]'' also contained certain vampire diciplines and maybe wraith arcanoi that allowed people to manipulate themselves in this way, securing them against mind-reading et cetera. (''Most'' countermeasures against mindreading was merely mental shields or masks, however.)

* ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' has the Phenomenologists, a [[Mad Scientist]] Splat based on a [[I Reject Your Reality|rejection]] of [[Sarcasm Mode|silly outdated concepts]] like "[[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|truth]]" and "[[Insane Troll Logic|logic]]". Their special ability allows them to [[Consummate Liar|automatically succeed on Subterfuge checks]], since they always [[Believing Their Own Lies|Believe Their Own Lies]].

* In the video game adaptation of ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'', "intelligence" is defined as the ability to do this, and the only way to enter Marvin's room is to demonstrate that you have intelligence. {{spoiler|Appropriately enough, you ultimately accomplish this by physically removing your common sense, allowing you to carry "tea" and "no tea" at the same time.}}