Doublethink

I haven't read 1984 in a while, so I thought it was time.

You would think that it would be topical given all the talk about privacy disappearing with new technology, but that was not what struck me the most on this reading.

A few things did.

The first was doublethink. When you read the book, you think how hard it must be to have to convince yourself that you can hold two contradictory thoughts in your head at the same time. But then I thought, not really. In fact, it is harder to realise you are holding contradictory thoughts and do something about it. I haven't met a single person in my entire life whose thoughts have been entirely consistent. We are walking contradictions. The scary thing about 1984 is not so much what the world could become like, but what it is... and what it has always been. Well, not scary so much as real. In a way, it is heartening. When you realise you said something stupid in the past, you need not defend yourself to the death. You can just say you were wrong. When you realise that you are more likely wrong in your beliefs than you are right, it frees you to really attack things with a genuine energy to find out more.

Stuart, Dhruv and I are talking about immigration and its impact on diversity in posts on both Stu's blog and this one. I think there is also a tendency to cling to 'the current' as if it was the past. That English now has always been English. That "Indian Food" in America is not "Real Indian Food". The Past exists, but that is where it is. There is no need to defend it as if it has always been. Take the best of everything and make something better.

Another thing that struck me was that they really thought they had betrayed each other. It struck me as wrong. Although you could question the deepness of their love since they were just two souls that were thrust together in opposition to everything else, I don't think they betrayed each other. Even if they did what they did. Some love is unconditional. Even if maybe it is in the past. There are some things you can not take away. There are some things that are a part of who you are, and even if by some extreme stroke, you take that away... you can't remove the fact that it is a part of who you were.

Awesome Book.