A Thought Bubble
I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.
- O'Brien to Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984.
After the dramatic events of the January 6 US Capitol siege by Trump supporters, I've been thinking a lot about the nature of belief and how much control we have over how we think and feel.
How do we determine what is true and what is not? Many who stormed the US Capitol building believed fervently that the election was stolen from them, leaving them no choice but to use force to rectify this grave injustice. Were they wrong? What makes you think you are right in thinking that they are wrong?
Is 2+2=4? Is that a fact? Or is that simply conventional belief? In George Orwell's novel 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth which is responsible for rewriting history to fit the governing party's ideology. The Party which rules the state determines what is the truth because truth only exists in the human mind. And if the state is able to control its citizens' minds then it defines what reality is.
How does the state control its people's thoughts? In Orwell's fictitious nation of Oceania, the Ministry of Truth achieves its aim by making it a crime to have any thoughts that are not in line with the Party's doctrine--a thoughtcrime. It is the responsibility of the Thought Police to put the people under constant surveillance to catch any violation of its official beliefs. Total control of the citizenry's mind requires a new language: Newspeak.
In Newspeak, the English language is reduced to its bare minimum, and trimmed of words that convey independent and creative thinking. Words like 'excellent' are no longer required because you can replace with doubleplusgood. He runned doubleplusspeedwise in Newspeak means he ran extremely fast.
Today we willingly subject ourselves to the control of our favourite social media channels by clicking and tapping on every link that it recommends based on what you've viewed, narrowing our views and concept of the truth further and further. It is a form of thought control. Like it or not, you are already being controlled by the social media company's AI. You end up only reading and viewing content that are in agreement with what you choose to belief. And over time, that becomes the overwhelmed truth, because those are the only 'facts' you carry in your head.
Are you on the Left or Right? In all likelihood, everything you read on the Internet will not be a healthy mixture of the two. You are slowly being led by the social media's seemingly helpful algorithms ("If you liked this, you might like these too") into smaller and smaller opinion bubbles.
Tweets are your thoughts. And finally today, Twitter decided that President Trump has commited Tweetcrime, banning him permanently from the platform. Well, who determines what is the truth? I'll leave that to you as food for thought.
