Dear Orwell Today:

At Orwell's Proles you make the mistake of confusing what Orwell called newspeak with what he called doublethink. To Orwell, they were not the same thing.

Newspeak was the redefining of the traditional definitions of words, usually by giving them meanings which were the exact opposite of their traditional meanings. For example, by calling a labor camp a joy camp. Or by calling a torture-brainwashing center the "Ministry of Love."

Doublethink, on the other hand, was the ability to hold in one's mind--and to simultaneously believe--two conflicting thoughts.

I found your website through a link at http://www.prisonplanet.com/

Regards,
James R. Calvert

Dear James,

Actually, I didn't mistakenly call "newspeak" doublethink because if you re-read ORWELL'S PROLES you will see that I used the word doublespeak, not doublethink. Actually, there's a DOUBLESPEAK link off the essay page which explains how I joined Orwell's words "doublethink" and "newspeak" to form the new word "doublespeak".

But otherwise your understanding of the difference between "newspeak" and "doublethink" is accurate and it's probably been helpful to other readers to have these terms defined because they are important Orwellian concepts.

Thanks for your interest,
Jackie Jura

Reader asks for doublethink examples: DUCKSPEAKING DOUBLETHINKERS

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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