History Main / DoubleThink

* In one [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29 unusually creepy episode]] of StarTrekTheNextGeneration, [[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 [[TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive 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 NineteenEightyFour, the ending offers a few new twists to the theme.]]

* The entire ''SuckerPunch'' story run on this, as the character(s) live simultaneously in two or sometimes even ''three'' different levels of realities, requiering quite a bit of multitasking from the audience if they are to have any real clue as to what's going on.

* In ''MageTheAscension'', 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 ''StarWars'' Jedi as well as a ''StarTrek'' TechnoBabble engineer who can solve any problem by ReversePolarity, and they keep forgetting that technology doesn't work like that in RealLife. 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!

** [[spoiler:At the end it is revealed that Baby Doll did manage to help Sweet Pea to escape in the real world. This mean that she must have been active in all three realities simultaneously, and actually accomplishing real deeds while trapped within a dream within a show within a hallucination. Wow.]]

* In order to use [[AppliedPhlebotinum sympathy]] in ''NameOfTheWind'', one must be able to hold two opposite beliefs at once. It sounds simple at first, but it's also one of the reasons most Arcanists go mad.

** The regime mainly uses doublethink to LogicBomb its citizens into submission.

->[-''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.''-]

** The novel's protagonist Winston Smith describes double think as: ''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.''

The art of honestly believing in something that you know to not be true: The art of simultaneously believing in at least two things that contradict each other, without cognitive dissonance.

* Dios and the other Djelibeybian priests from ''Discworld/Pyramids'' are noted for this ability, as religious dogma in that country obliges them to believe that several different gods all exclusively and simultaneously fill the same divine offices.

** [[spoiler:At the end it is revealed that Baby Doll did manage to help Sweet Pea to escape in the real world. This mean that she must have been active in all three realities simultaneously, and actually accomplishing real deeds while trapped withing a dream within a show within a hallucination. Wow.]]

* Played painfully straight, debated ''and'' subverted in the TropeNamer, George Orwell's NineteenEightyFour: The party leaders know perfectly well that the party line is bullshit, but they manage to believe in it anyway. And they are very proud of this ability, too.

* In NameOfTheWind, in order to use [[AppliedPhlebotinum sympathy]], one must be able to hold two opposite beliefs at once. It sounds simple at first, but it's also one of the reasons most Arcanists go mad.
* In BlaTornet, 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.

* In one [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29 unusually creepy episode]] of StarTrekTheNextGeneration, [[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 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 confess this to the ship's counselor. While the torture scene is directly inspired by NineteenEightyFour, the ending offers a few new twists to the theme.]]

* In MageTheAscension, 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 StarWars Jedi as well as a StarTrek TechnoBabble engineer who can solve any problem by ReversePolarity, and they keep forgetting that technology doesn't work like that in RealLife. 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 WorldOfDarkness 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.)

* In TheVerse of ChickTracts, fundamentalist christianity is not only true, but a very [[CaptainObvious obvious]] truth. Some characters who understand this at heart still chose to not believe in it, instead embracing whatever false teachings that will be good for their career and social life. In some cases this is merely playing along with the lies, but in others they appear to honestly believe in them.

* ZinniaJones, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcWdV0LYG4 The episode on Pascal's Wager]], briefly arguing the potential benefits of believing in different religions separately from each other but simultaneously.

* This is one of the scarier aspects of Clyntahn in ''{{Safehold}}''--he can simultaneously know that he ordered a murder, and firmly believe in the guilt of the person he's accusing of the murder.

* In one [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29 unusually creepy episode]] of StarTrekTheNextGeneration, [[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 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, the protagonist truly see five lights, simultaneously with seeing only four, and he later confess this to the ship's counselor. While the torture scene is directly inspired by NineteenEightyFour, the ending offers a few new twists to the theme.

* In one [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29 unusually creepy episode]] of StarTrekTNG, [[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 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, the protagonist truly see five lights, simultaneously with seeing only four, and he later confess this to the ship's counselor. While the torture scene is directly inspired by NineteenEightyFour, the ending offers a few new twists to the theme.

* In BlaTornet, the protagonist survive 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.

* Played painfully straight, debated ''and'' subverted in the TropeNamer, George Orwells NineteenEightyFour: The party leaders know perfectly well that the party line is bullshit, but they manage to believe in it anyway. And they are very proud of this ability, too.

There are two kinds of straight examples here: ''Verified'' examples, where a reliable narrator or similar gives the audience insight into the mind of the character, and ''apparent'' examples where a character appears to be engaging in doublethink but we don't know for sure what's really going on in his mind. The later kind is far stronger examples when suspicions of doublethink are invoked by another character.

Compare BelievingTheirOwnLies, where characters replace one hold on reality for a less sound one. Compare and contrast NoExceptYes and FromACertainPointOfView, where a character tries to glue opposing viewpoints together as being the same thing, giving it a resemblance of coherence by various esoteric distinctions. Contrast BecomingTheMask, where cognitive dissonance sets in and a character who has pretended to be loyal to a certain group starts gaining true loyalty towards it.

In cases where doublethink is combined with some version of TheMasquerade, it becomes am extremely potent sister of ConsummateLiar: No lier is as believable as the honest liar who truly believes in his own lies.

* Zinnia Jones, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcWdV0LYG4 The episode on Pascal's Wager]], briefly arguing the potential benefits of believing in different religions separately from each other but simultaneously.

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