Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, popularized doublethink, doublespeak, newspeak ideas
in his book Nineteen Eighty-four. More recently, William Lutz has re-introduced the ideas
in Doublespeak and New Doublespeak. A casual observation of history and literature
will indicate to any person of modest linguistic competence that the ideas of political and religious
manipulation have relied heavily on doublethink and doublespeak for at least as long as any historical
records have been kept. The intention here is to call attention to mass acceptance of currently
popular doublespeak in news media, academia, and politics. This is what is meant here by doublethink
and doublespeak:
DOUBLETHINK
The ability to hold at least two contradictory ideas in the mind without experiencing cognitive
dissonance.
DOUBLESPEAK
The ability to speak or write two or more contradictory ideas without the speaker or writer being
consciously aware of the contradiction. Doublespeak may be, and probably is, consciously used to
deceive.
SENATORIAL DOUBLESPEAK
The following excerpt is from an interview by Cokie Roberts with Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat, West
Virginia, on ABC-TV This Week with Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson, February 7, 1999,
relative to the impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton:
Senator Robert Byrd: Well, lets..., let’s look at it this way. He has..., his actions hurt..., me,
you, all the institutions of government. Hurt the President, Presidency, the executive branch, the
House of Representatives, the Senate, and the judiciary to some extent. Nobody has gotten off scott-free.
The question is: Does this rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors? I say yes. No doubt about
it in my mind, but..., the issue is: Should the President be removed? Should this President be removed?
Uh..., that’s the issue. And the Constitution requires that if he is convicted, he is automatically removed.
Immediately. There’s no second chance. So it comes down to the question, comes down to the issue:
To remove, or not to remove? That is the question.
RB: All institutions have been injured. A bad..., precedent has been set. A nightmare. We’ve all
experienced a nightmare, here. But in the interest of the future, and he has been hurt. He will not
escape the judgment of history. He won’t be getting off scott-free. People a hundred years from today
will talk about this. I am not going to be at all light in my excoriation of William Jefferson Clinton.
What he did was deplorable. Inexcusable. A bad example. It undermined the system of justice when he
gave false testimony under oath. He lied under oath. But, I can close that chapter. I can work with
the President.
On February 12, 1999, Senator Robert Byrd voted to acquit on both articles of impeachment.
Further doublespeak from the same interview:
Cokie Roberts: And what in the end do you think it means for the Senate?
RB: (sigh)Oh..., that’s a tough question. I think that history when it looks back from the viewpoint
of twenty years, ten years, or thirty, or fifty, or a hundred years will say that the Senate, under
all these circumstances, did pretty well. And in the fi..., the final judgment..., the final judgment
will be, I believe, as history looks back on it, that the Senate in a very, very difficult situation,
the most..., the most heart wrenching of any vote that any Senator will ever be called on to make is
the vote to convict or to acquit. It will be very difficult to stand and say not guilty, very difficult.
Who’s kidding whom here? I have to live with myself. I have to live with my conscience. And I have to
live with the Constitution. And that Constitution is just like the Bible, you can’t write it over.
The Constitution has been amended 26 times, and the Bible has been written over many times.
Caveat: Some of the following definitions offered here may not seem like doublespeak to some readers.
New examples of doublethink and doublespeak may be e-mailed to DoubleSpeak[@]emcarthur.com.
Belief: Denial of reality.
Competition: Creation of losers.
Congressional investigation: Cover-up by partisan polarization.
Constitution, U. S: A quaint, outdated document defining U. S. Government. It is subject to alteration
by legislation, regulation, police mis-conduct and judicial
(in)discretion.
Constitutional right: Privilege granted by Constitution as interpreted by judicial
(in)discretion
and journalistic misinformation.
Creditor: One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the Financial Straits and dreaded for their
desolating incursions.
Crime: Any act or thought deemed by Statists to conflict with State interest. (See justice, State,
and Statist.)
Debtor: One captured by the desolating incursion of a Creditor.
Debt: Money.
Defense: Imperialistic aggression.
Democracy: American imperialism. Also, any form of government, preferably dictatorship established
by controlled elections, that operates in the interest of international finance. Parliamentary forms
of government composed of elected or appointed agents of finance are also included. Agents are commonly
controlled by election campaign finance. A primary characteristic of democracies is that they consist
of multitudinous, conflicting factions of powerless people who are impotent to challenge financial rulers.
Democrat Party: Left wing of political power monopoly in the U. S. A.
Economics: Financial mythology. Arguably the best evidence of academic corruption.
Economist: Pathological double thinker and double speaker.
Federal Reserve: Private, non-federal banking monopoly of the U. S. A.
Freedom: Voluntary compliance. Also, lack of restraint of international finance to exploit all
resources including people by any means including mass murder.
Free Trade: Coerced and restrained trade operated exclusively through debt medium of exchange in
the interest of international finance. (See freedom and trade.)
Gold standard: Financial trick that fools naive people into believing that gold actually backs
money in such a way as to make the two synonymous and convertible.
History: Blend of both myth and selected facts alterable for political purposes. History is
arguably second best to economics as evidence of academic corruption.
Journalist: Pathological double thinker and double speaker. Media prostitute of misinformation
and disinformation. (See news.)
Justice: Court verification of Statist beliefs expressed as law. Also, criminal or civil prosecution of
any act or idea deemed by Statists to conflict with State interest.
Justice system: Injustice system. Enforcement of Statist belief by police power.
Law: Statutes, written by Statist thieves and murderers, defining acts and ideas as crimes. (See politician.)
Military: Any group of organized mercenaries who carry out mass murder and plunder on a large scale in
the interest of international finance.
Money: Debt.
National interest: The interest of international finance which protects its self-interest by control
of governments through political parties and Presidential appointments; leveraged ownership of press,
entertainment, and industry; and military through government. (See democracy and freedom.)
News: Misinformation industry operated for the first purpose of commercial advertisement.
Advertisement requires audience for revenue purposes which leads to sensationalism, prurience,
and avoidance of truth. It often entertains as it misinforms. Secondary purposes include political
and financial propaganda that support the political establishment that protects media and industrial
owners who are financiers. The secondary purposes require complete subversion of journalistic
ideology for the purpose of assisting official cover-up, making of false history, and distortion of
truth by selectivity.
Politician: Pathological double thinker and double speaker. Also, any combination of liar,
thief, or murderer who uses doublethink and doublespeak to rationalize such activity as being
in the public interest.
Reality: Reified mental constructs of journalists, politicians, and academics.
(See reify, news, history, and economics.)
Reify: To believe that a belief is reality. Pathological ability of the human mind to substitute
mentally created illusions for reality.
Republican Party: Right wing of political power monopoly in the U. S. A.
Revenue enhancement: Tax. (See tax.)
Right: When not a direction, a term used to express a mental figment, sometimes modified by
other figments such as natural, legal, Constitutional, and civil, that implies a privilege of
acting or believing in prescribed ways.
Sports: Industrial exploitation of competitive athletics.
State: A mythical entity that usually includes a geographical area bounded by mythical,
arbitrary boundaries usually constructed and always protected by military force. States
are normally believed to be larger than their constituent parts and transcendent over all
else, including human life, within its territory.
Statist: One who believes The State is a real, transcendent thing. (See State.)
Sustainable development: Popular oxymoron.
Tax: Armed robbery by Statists.
Trade: Exchange of goods and services through exclusive medium of debt.
War: Mass murder and destruction performed by military organizations in the interest
of international financial control of natural and human resources. Wars are variously
reported by journalists as defense of national interest, defending or establishing democracy,
or criminal terrorism depending on who hires them. (See military and journalist)