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Fragment, Dobbelttænk / Doublethink
Translation into English:
THE
PRESCRIBED AND THE OPERATIONAL RULES
The
prescribed rules may be ethical, moral, or deriving from different
kinds of law
(in an institutional sense: religious, ideological and
purely legal).
The
operational rules are those that in fact are acted upon.
Needless
to say, these two kinds of rules do not always converge, when
decisions
are made and actions taken.
If
one, without any personal scruples worth mentioning, in situations
where one's actions are decisive for the lives and well-being of
others, is able to use the operational rule and publically justify
for example controversial, violent actions with the help of the
prescribed rule, it is possible that one is without moral, does not
respect democratically based legislation, is a genuine opportunist,
or all of these things at the same time. But if one, in one's
self-conception, believes to be acting according to a moral, and in
spite of this does not se the gap between one's professed moral and
those of one's actions that go beyond it, then one has begun
practicising doublethink to an alarming degree, or, in other
words, in a doubleplusgood manner.
If
this kind of 'political culture' and behaviour does not cause any
critique worth mentioning from 'the public', it may be due to several
things, and more than are mentioned here: people let themselves
be cheated, people are easy targets of spin and newspeak,
because they would rather prefer not to know anything and therefore
in embarrassing compliance avoid each others eyes and stay silent.
Or: 'the public' is as corrupt as its rulers and has learned
doublethink long ago. Or – worst of all? - 'the public' is not
particularly interested.
LB
2007
PSYKOLOGISKE KENDSGERNINGER
Psykologiske
kendsgerninger i politik er også kendsgerninger. Var der tale
om spøgelser eller realiteter? I situationen var det for så
vidt ligegyldigt.
Sagde
Danmarks udenrigsminister til Berlingske Tidende i juni 2003, da
fraværet af masseødelæggelsesvåben stod
klart.
Translation:
PSYCHOLOGICAL
FACTS
Psychological
facts in politics are also facts. Was it a question of ghosts or
realities? In the situation this was actually unimportant.
-
The foreign minister of Denmark to the Danish newspaper Berlingske
Tidende
in June 2003 said - when the absence of weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq was evident.
BEVIDST
ACCEPT OG BEVIDST BENÆGTELSE
Det
er en regel for magthavere, når de udtrykker sig om planer og
handlinger, der er i strid med deres angivelige moral og erklærede
politiske hensigter, at de ikke må bruge et sprog der alt for
tydeligt lader 'offentligheden' se for sig hvad der tales om.
'Offentligheden' skal ydes den tjeneste at få mulighed for at
foretage en form for bevidst benægtelse, en laden-som-om, en
slags dobbelttænk. Man må høres sige ét,
mens man siger noget helt andet, og man må ses gøre ét,
mens man gør noget helt andet.
I
det tilfælde at man ønsker at overbevise
'offentligheden' om det moralsk rigtige og retfærdige i at
deltage i en krig, der mest handler om konsolidering af egen magt og
økonomi, så må man ikke fremkalde billeder af
hvordan de militære handlinger vil resultere i døde og
ødelagte byer og landskaber. Sproget om disse ting må
være abstrakt og eufemistisk. Man kan, med George Orwell, sige,
at 'sprogets forfald i sidste ende må have politiske og
økonomiske årssager'.* At
benytte sig af uklart og eufemistisk sprog er sikrere end at lyve
direkte, for bevidst accept af direkte løgnagtighed
forudsætter en grad af magtesløshed som kun findes i
diktaturstater.
LB,
2007
*'Politics
and the English Language', George Orwell, 1946.
Translation:
CONSCIOUS
DENIAL AND CONSCIOUS ACCEPTANCE
It is a
rule for those in power, when they talk about plans and actions, that
are at odds with their professed moral and professed political
intentions, that they must not use a language that all too clearly
let 'the public' call up mental images of what they are talking
about. 'The public' must be granted the service of being able to
exercise a kind of conscious denial, a kind of pretending, or a kind
of doublethink. One must be heard saying one thing, while one is
saying something completely different, and one must be seen doing one
thing, while one does something completely different.
In case
one wants to convince 'the public' of the moral righteousness and
justice in the participation in a war that most of all is concerned
with consolidating one's own power and economy, one must not call up
mental images of how the military actions will result in death and in ruined landscapes and cities. The language used when talking about
these things must be abstract and euphemistic. You can, with George
Orwell, say that the decline of language must ultimately have
political and economic causes *. Using unclear and euphemistic
language is much safer than outright lying, because conscious
acceptance of outright lying presupposes a degree of powerlessness
that is found only in dictatorships.
LB
2007
*
George Orwell, 'Politics and the English Language', 1946
More installation photos:
Dobbelttænk
I installationen Dobbelttænk undersøger Lars Buchardt hvordan sprogets betydningsskabende mekanismer producerer en helt særlig virkelighedskonstruktion i den politiske diskurs og mediernes retorik. Sprogets manipulerende egenskaber tydeliggøres, og dets funktion som redskab i kampen om at definere 'virkeligheden' understreges. Installationen udgøres af et komplekst system af koder og tegn. Tegninger, tekstfragmenter og citater fra nyhedsmedier, forskellige tænkere, forfattere og kunstneren selv udgør en betydningsfortættet struktur, der formmæssigt i typografi og farveholdning mimer visuelle udtryk, man kender fra avismediet og politisk propaganda. På trods af materialets forskelligartede karakter udgør det en form for analog hypertekst, det vil sige en mængde tekstinformation organiseret i et system, hvor de enkelte emner direkte henviser til andre emner i systemet. I hyperteksten opløses den lineære læseretning til fordel for en uendelig mangfoldighed af forbindelser og betydninger, som den enkelte læser selv vælger. I Dobbelttænk ændrer Buchardt præmisserne for kampen om sproget og muligheden for at definere den dominerende diskurs.
Katarina Stenbeck, 2008.
Dobbelttænk blev vist på Asking We Walk, Voices of Resistance, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning i København 2008, kurateret af Katarina Stenbeck og Kuratorisk Aktion.
In his installation Doublethink, Lars Buchardt examines how the mechanisms by which language creates meaning bring about a particular construction of reality in the political discourse and in the rhetoric of the media. The manipulating qualities of language are enhanced and its function as a tool in the struggle over the definition of 'reality' and 'the public' is emphasized. The installation consists of a complex system of linguistic codes and visual signs. Drawings, textual fragments and quotes from the news media, various thinkers and the artist himself constitute a structure that condenses meaning while mimicking the visual idiom, typography and colour scheme associated with the news media and political propaganda. In spite of the varied character of the material, it constitutes a kind of analogue hypertext; that is, an amount of textual information organized in a system in which individual items refer directly to other items within the system. In the hypertext, the linear reading is dissolved in favour of an infinite multitude of relations and meanings selected by each individual reader. In Doublethink, Buchardt changes the premises for the struggle over language and the possibilities of defining the prevailing discourse.
Katarina Stenbeck, 2008.
Doublethink
The
installation is a kind of analogue hypertext; linear reading is
dissolved in favour of an infinite multitude of relations and
meanings selected by each individual reader. The installation
consists of text fragments from writers like George Orwell, Hannah
Arendt, Michel Foucault, Thomas Pynchon and more, plus a few of my
own texts. Mixed into this are expressions used in military
terminology, from The Department of Defense (US) and other sources.
(All material is authentic and sources are cited).
The
fragments are all handmade, mimicking he visual idiom, typography and
colour scheme associated with the news media and political
propaganda.
The
work is about 'political language', the language and rhetorical
mechanisms of power, as it is constructed and filtered out via the
media. 'Political language' is infested with euphemisms and
vagueness, resulting in a blurring of reality. At times this 'playing
tricks' with reality is so efficient that reality is not only
'rewritten', but exhanged with an other.
Orwells´concept
doublethink is a
prerequisite for this strategy of language and information to work on
the public. It is also the prerequisite for newspeak.
The
concept of doublethink can be defined in various ways:
Recommended: Thomas Pynchons introduction (2003) to ´Nineteen-Eighty-Four´
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