The lunatic dislocation of mind

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh today and heard a caller talking about how furious he was that anyone from the Obama camp would denigrate McCain's war service given the fact that McCain was bravely serving his country at an age when Obama was doing drugs and trying to figure out his identity. Rush believed this was a blistering point.

Ok, nevermind that the charge is apparently false. Do these pair remember the 2004 election? Do they remember what John Kerry was doing while George W. Bush was doing drugs and trying to figure out his identity? And there actually was a large and ochestrated campaign to denigrate Kerry's decorated war service from Bush surrogates - and Limbaugh approved and even helped!

'It exists!' he cried.

'No,' said O'Brien.

He stepped across the room. There was a memory hole in the opposite wall. O'Brien lifted the grating. Unseen, the frail slip of paper was whirling away on the current of warm air; it was vanishing in a flash of flame. O'Brien turned away from the wall.

'Ashes,' he said. 'Not even identifiable ashes. Dust. It does not exist. It never existed.'

'But it did exist! It does exist! It exists in memory. I remember it. You remember it.'

'I do not remember it,' said O'Brien.

Winston's heart sank. That was doublethink. He had a feeling of deadly helplessness. If he could have been certain that O'Brien was lying, it would not have seemed to matter. But it was perfectly possible that O'Brien had really forgotten the photograph. And if so, then already he would have forgotten his denial of remembering it, and forgotten the act of forgetting. How could one be sure that it was simple trickery? Perhaps that lunatic dislocation in the mind could really happen: that was the thought that defeated him.

--George Orwell, 1984

Blogger's Note - Modified slightly for better clarity of point [7-01-08]