The soothing warmth that is Doublethink
“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….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.”
George Orwell wrote that in 1984, and yet again we can thank him for stating things so plainly, and giving name, in advance, to the nonsensical behavior one must exercise to be a “conservative” these days.
To wit:
…Scott is expected to soon sign a first-of-its-kind bill that does just that by forbidding doctors from asking their patients if they own guns. To prevent accidental injuries, pediatricians routinely ask new parents if they have guns at home and if they are stored safely. But the NRA and its allies in the Florida legislature see something more sinister at work – a radical agenda to curb the rights of gun owners.
Ok, hold that thought in your head while you read this:
Court Rules for Pharmacists on Morning-After Pill
Pharmacists with religious objections to “morning-after” emergency contraceptives cannot be compelled to sell the product, an Illinois Circuit Judge ruled Tuesday.
The Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act was passed in 1998 to shield health care workers from going against their own beliefs. In 2005, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued a ruling to force “pharmacies to fill prescriptions without making moral judgments.”</em>
So, let me get this straight. If you’re a conservative, you find it completely fine that the state prohibits the conduct of medical professionals in their duties for fear of offending the NRA and whackadoo gun owners, yet the pill filler at Walgreens, his morality trumps the medical needs of a pregnant woman? Sorry, my brain isn’t wired that way. I have guns, and while I can appreciate- to some extent- the actions of the NRA on behalf of gun owners, I really think you have to be some sort of, well, we’ll stick with whackadoo, to think that a doctor asking new parents if they have a gun in the house is a “radical agenda to curb the rights of gun owners”. Did the doctor refuse to treat the child until the gun was removed? No. Did he attempt to get the family to surrender the weapon? No. He simply stated, as any competent doctor would, the risks to be aware of when you have loaded guns around young children. Not exactly radical, I don’t think. Is it his business? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how you take it, but as a gun owner, I wouldn’t be offended or feel threatened if a doctor asked me the question, but then again, I don’t see legions of jackbooted thugs behind every tree attempting to make me surrender my manhood, I mean gun.
Now, is it any possible business of the guy at Walgreens who gets what medicine or why? Absolutely not, and if the guy who reads the script, opens the jar and pours a few tablets into a bottle thinks differently, then he should have thought of that before entering the profession. That profession being dispensing pills. Not morality. It’s simply none of his business- unless he believes that some adults aren’t allowed to have more of a say in their own lives than he does.
That’s the comforting warmth that is Doublethink. As long as your pet agenda gets stroked, rights be damned. The “state” is a over-bearing monster- that is, until a woman attempts to exert some measure of control over her own body, and then “the state” must put it’s weight behind your efforts to refuse her medical care, because of your “morality”. For those of us not infected with the curse of holding dueling and contradictory notions in our heads, as well as those who value the rights of each person, regardless of their gender, we say screw your morality. Do your job.
And let the doctor do his. It really is that simple.
