Doublethink And Selective Insanity

I have recently finished reading George Orwell’s 1984, after starting and stopping over several months. One of the concepts in the novel is doublethink.

“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them . . . . To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary.”

This strikes me as an awful lot like the rabid right-wingers, those diehard Republicans who refuse reason. In order to still support Mr. Bush, one must create a alternate reality, where one is protected from the stark hypocrisy of the current administration. This makes for rather amusing conversations and quite frustrating debates.

This world where right-wingers live is a very different world where normal people live (called reality).

In this world, Mr. Bush is always right; Iraq had WMDs, but they were spirited off to Syria or Iran (which we must now invade); the “surge” is working (or conversely, the surge is failing because of liberals and Democrats); torture, wiretapping, detaining and rendition are necessary to nation security; that “the terrorists will follow us home” if we leave Iraq; tax cuts for the rich help the economy, in the face of crumbling infrastructure and debt; the poor are poor because they’re lazy; abortion is murder but killing people in war, as well as executions, is Godly.
This list is obviously not complete. A person could write a book on the subject.

There is no reasoning for right-wingers, as they live in this bubble. Accepting any ideas that are unorthodox, would cause their world to collapse. Rather, they need constant reassurance from Fox News and right-wing radio, who will tell them what they want (and need) to hear, as well as protecting them from the truth (this is another point made in 1984).

What is really scary, is that they honestly believe they’re right. They are completely incapable of compromise. Call it, selective insanity. And these people are in charge of the government; with their fingers on the nuclear trigger.

We are truly doomed.