Doublethink In George Orwell 1984

George Orwell discussed in his novel, 1984, about the idea of doublethink, and he stated, “DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” Doublethink is what many universities today are embracing. They believe that an educationally beneficial environment can exist simultaneously with the idea of oppressing freedom of speech. Not only is this an obvious blatant disregard for constitutional rights, it also serves to counteract what the universities are attempting to do. The purpose of universities is to promote education in an unbiased environment that allows students that pay money to attend a place to both learn and question what they learn. However, when a university …show more content…
This allows for other perspectives to be heard and opinions considered. One professor from Sam Houston State University, however, disagrees. The students there erected a “free speech wall” that could be written on freely to express their 1st amendment rights due to fact that the university held strict social media policies. One student wrote an anti-Obama statement on the wall. As a result, the professor, offended by the statement, physically cut that piece of out of the wall after the students refused to censor it which would be in violation of their rights. After the students’ rewriting of the message, the campus police department forced them to take down the wall and stated that free speech is okay until it offends someone. Offending an individual does not automatically take away someone’s freedom of speech. The possibility to offend someone is an element of freedom of speech. If we as Americans could not hold offensive viewpoints, freedom of speech would be pointless. The same goes for when people hold differing viewpoints. In example, Hayden Barnes, a student at Valdosta State University, had to face wrongful consequences for simply speaking his mind on a subject that was of interest to him. The university planned to construct a parking garage using student fees. Feeling this as an unnecessary use of the money, the student prepared flyers and wrote letters suggesting different uses for the forty million dollars that was going to be used. No harm was done. The student did not overstep his bounds; he simply displayed a different viewpoint. However, this did not please the university president, who was overseeing the project. He called the student’s actions “unforgivable” and “embarrassing”, and as a result, the student was expelled for speaking his mind. In both cases, the students were within their legal rights, and