Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [1020]

Winston made another convulsive movement. This time he did not say anything. O’Brien continued as though answering a spoken objection: … ‘For certain purposes, of course, that is not true. When we navigate the ocean, or when we predict an eclipse, we often find it convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometres away. But what of it? Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?’ — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 1020

Note

The admission that the Party maintains two contradictory astronomies and holds them simultaneously — a working illustration of doublethink as official policy, not just mental gymnastics. The casual ‘we often find it convenient’ bureaucratizes falsehood.