1984

Having just read 1984, with one of its' catchphrases being, 'ignorance is strength,' it's amazing how pertinent all his writing is now.  Animal farm and 1984 both resonate, primarily because everyone you end up talking to always refers to others.  The chinese, old Stalin and communist Russia, Cuba; all ripe for comparison.  No one ever thinks it applies to us.

It does.

Take a trivial example in the BBC.  Japanese whalers have been foiled for a few days.  Victory for us against them.  A chinese magician performs this act by feeding a group of fish magnets.  Automatically, with no prompting and indeed contrary information, half of the people commenting on the video assume it's Japanese people.  Well they are cruel and westerners aren't you know.  (This example is imperfect, as it's chinese dubbed, with Wapanese speakers, despite a chinese 'magician,' being credited: the point still stands.)

This immediate and contradictory nonsense has a name in 1984, it's called 'doublethink,' and is the mode of thinking two contradictory things and knowing they're both right.  (More specifically in 1984, it's knowing that the party line is right - I feel it's more appropriate to maintain that both are correct.  Absolute denial of the truth will come some years down the line, when Coca-Cola completely dictates our thoughts)  In this example, humanity is needlessly cruel, epitomised by the Japanese.  The Japanese and us are human, yet we are either not cruel, or not as cruel as they are.  As logical fallacies go, this is a minor one; next time your king/president/prime minister preaches about equality for the masses while wielding absolute power (and make no mistakes, if the government want you gone, you will disappear - how many months can the police detain you without cause based on 'terror laws,' nowadays?) you might care to examine how many truths you hold in your head.

Right now, looking at this stupid magician and his fish, and the morose comments, I'm holding a dozen irreconcilable thoughts about the nature of people, and they're mingling quite harmlessly.