1984 is the definitive book of the 20th century



"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell

George Orwell's dystopian classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, has been voted as the book that best defines the 20th century. It is a fitting choice and, unfortunately, equally fitting for defining the 21st century to date. Doublethink is an essential concept in Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is a critical part of Newspeak, the official language of the imperial state Oceania. Designed to diminish the range of thought, Newspeak renders independent thinking and dissent next to impossible. Euphemism, circumlocution, and, above all, Doublethink, characterize Newspeak. Doublethink is the complete inversion of customary meanings. "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", "Ignorance is Strength", are the best known examples from novel.

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