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http://www.liferesearchuniversal.com/1984-17.html#seventeen
George Orwell: "Doublethink means the power of holding two
contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both
of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories
must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with
reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself
that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it
would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to
be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and
hence of guilt. Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since
the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while
retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To
tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any
fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary
again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed,
to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take
account of the reality which one denies - all this is indispensably
necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to
exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is
tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this
knowledge ; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead
of the truth."

Initial destruction of students' rationality:

http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=AJPIAS0000690000S1000S24000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes
"Student understanding of time in special relativity: Simultaneity and
reference frames"
American Journal of Physics -- July 2001 -- Volume 69, Issue S1, pp.
S24-S35
"This article reports on an investigation of student understanding of
the concept of time in special relativity. A series of research tasks
are discussed that illustrate, step-by-step, how student reasoning of
fundamental concepts of relativity was probed. The results indicate
that after standard instruction students at all academic levels have
serious difficulties with the relativity of simultaneity and with the
role of observers in inertial reference frames. Evidence is presented
that suggests many students construct a conceptual framework in which
the ideas of absolute simultaneity and the relativity of simultaneity
harmoniously co-exist."

Lifelong exercise of doublethink (obligatory even for Einsteiniana's
highest priests):

http://www.geekitude.com/gl/public_html/article.php?story=20050422141509987
Brian Greene: "I certainly got very used to the idea of relativity,
and therefore I can go into that frame of mind without it seeming like
an effort. But I feel and think about the world as being organized
into past, present and future. I feel that the only moment in time
that's really real is this moment right now. And I feel [that what
happened a few moments ago] is gone, and the future is yet to be. It
still feels right to me. But I know in my mind intellectually that's
wrong. Relativity establishes that that picture of the universe is
wrong, and if I work hard, I can force myself to recognize the fallacy
in my view or thinking; but intuitively it's still what I feel. So
it's a daily struggle to keep in mind how the world works, and
juxtapose that with experience that [I get] a thousand, even million
times a day from ordinary comings and goings."

Pentcho Valev
pvalev@yahoo.com